I umpired youth baseball for a while (several decades ago) and there was this one kid that had a Wicked “breaker” at the age of about 13. The ball would come high and to the right looking like a “bean-ball” (for a right-handed batter) and about 5 yards in front of the plate it would break down and to the left (umpire’s view) so it went through the strike zone at the batter’s waist, and catcher would catch it Down to the left.
It wasn’t a fluke, the kid could throw it all day. He obviously didn’t throw it every pitch, or the batters would have worked it out, but when he did bring it, it was devastating!
Right-handed hitters would be bailing out, left-handers would let it go, and a lot of the umpires weren’t prepared for it. I never saw a batter make contact with it, much less get a good hit.
I don’t remember his name, or where he went from there, but if he still had that arm in high-school, I know the scouts had to be looking at him.
March 11, 2020 at 12:23 am
Too Tall
Sometimes genius involves the simple, the obvious, and letting go.
I call you “normals” (and, yes, I am quite aware of the converse of “normal”) for everyone within 1.5 standard deviations of the normal range. Unlike Javi I didn’t know I was “smart” until I was 25. Damned well knew I was different but I didn’t know I was smart because my non-verbal learning disability made it well nigh impossible to rote memorize (you can imagine how well that worked in 50s & 60s era public schools). I am nowhere near Javi’s level of smart but I can tell you that to function at a level 2 (or more) SDs out of the normal range a mind has to be organized vastly different from that of “normals”. Think of the difference between a piston engine and a turbine. They’re both basically air pumps and they can even both use the same fuel but there the likeness stops.
March 11, 2020 at 6:08 pm
WayneM
I call my son and his friends the Herd of Nerds. They’re all high IQ types and since I’m a parent who actually has rules in his house, they all gravitated toward my place. Kind of nice to be able to have a positive influence over a gaggle of young wizards.
If you’re familiar with the Big Bang Theory, my son would be Leonard who is the kind of hub of the group. Our “Sheldon” is a ginger. Quite a cast of characters.
March 11, 2020 at 12:41 am
Toxic Deplorable Racist SAH B Woodman
Throwing a baseball, any ball, ain’t rocket science or brain surgery.
Just throw it for fun, and the eye-hand-brain coordination will come on its own (with a little love and instruction from dear old dad)
This one sent me on a futile one hour internet search for an old sci fi story. A young sailor and his wife are traveling when a nuclear exchange occurs. During that time their child is born. Children born during this interval become super smart and have immensely superior physical capabilities. These children find each other. Their child finds his/her (can’t remember) soulmate and marry. They are assassinated on their honeymoon by the normals. The father, now an Admiral, writes up a book which is what we have been reading. He tries to dispose of it in the sea for fear that he and his wife will become targets. In an afterward written by one of these children, we find out that the mutant children had retrieved the manuscript and unbeknownst to the Admiral were quite organized against the normals. Parents of the children are being spared but all other normals are fair game.
I was led to this because of a meme in the book that because of their intellect and superior physical capabilities playing sports in a one-g gravitational field is not interesting. Baseball is explicitly named.
I can finally read again (detached retina) and what do I find? A fascinating plot synopsis, one which I’d actually want to read myself. You’ve got to update us if you ever find the title or author.
Ditto here. I’m a scifi buff and nerd, and would love to find and read that story. Let us know more when you find/remember it.
March 11, 2020 at 4:04 pm
Idahoser
@JLW III
“Take baseball,” Castor continued. “It’s not practical. How can you figure a one-g trajectory and place your hand at the point of contact in the free-flight time between bases? We’re not miracle men.”
Robert A. Heinlein, “The Rolling Stones”
As I recall they could also see in the ultraviolet when the kid tells his mom he can see the time on a sundial even thought it is full overcast. I remember the book, though not the title. The genetics were a litttle shaky, but the story was pretty good, especially the pink snow after the nukewar.
I wonder … like the majority of you, I suspect Javier will prove to be a top notch pitcher. (For some reason the geekier/intellectual players are more attracted to pitching than batting.) I could even see him obsessing to the point of devoting all his time to it, and maybe even constructing a couple nines so he has someone to play “real” games with.
Intellectual? Maybe, but some of the dumbest people I ever met were some of the most educated. And some of the smartest were some of the crudest. And some of both were pitchers and batters (how much math goes into a batter anticipating where a 3″ sphere will be after spinning 90 ft. at 100 mph?)
When we moved to our neighborhood in ’92, son struck up a friendship with the grandson of Gaylord Perry, whose daughter married a local doctor. Perry visited several times and son had a little interaction with him…loud, funny, crude, and crooked as hell, in person just as on the mound.
One of the greatest Hall of Famers of all time; not many records he doesn’t hold or titles he hasn’t won multiples of. But you’d really think the dude was a little dense in a casual conversation, until you consider that his famed history of accusations but no convictions on a cheat that would require quantum physics to plan and deliver, with a flip side of just how perceptive a psychology buff has to be to get inside the head of every batter, catcher, and manager you ever oppose.
The opposite of the educated ignoramus is the ignernt genius in everyday life.
How many of great intellect have been irrevocably lost to the black hole that is baseball?
All George Will could do is struggle to occasionally comment on politics.
Amen. I’ve always maintained that football is best(?) watched in the idiot box; baseball, to really appreciate the three-d chess match, must be watched at the ball park – if at all possible.
Back in antediluvian days, I fondly remember By Saam broadcasting from Connie Mack Stadium while the one TV camera watched from high above Home Plate – in the Press Box. Then came the Cub Scout trip to the aforementioned ball park and a seat in the upper deck behind the left field foul pole. Revalation!! The moves, counter-moves, the rhythm of the game. Sun Tzu would understand and approve of baseball.
Still watch TeeVee when the Phils are televised (at or against Atlanta, St. Louis or Cincinnatti [all we get here in Clarksville, TN]) if I can.
NFL is dead to me since Kaepernick; whistleball and soccer are so much more than boring; ice hockey is incomprehensible.
34 Comments
Hmm… A nine-year-old understanding the aerodynamic anomalies of a baseball… if he has any “arm” at all, imagine what he could do!
Probably wouldn’t want him throwing breaking balls at nine, but if his eyesight is as good as Ted Williams’ he could be a really tough out.
I umpired youth baseball for a while (several decades ago) and there was this one kid that had a Wicked “breaker” at the age of about 13. The ball would come high and to the right looking like a “bean-ball” (for a right-handed batter) and about 5 yards in front of the plate it would break down and to the left (umpire’s view) so it went through the strike zone at the batter’s waist, and catcher would catch it Down to the left.
It wasn’t a fluke, the kid could throw it all day. He obviously didn’t throw it every pitch, or the batters would have worked it out, but when he did bring it, it was devastating!
Right-handed hitters would be bailing out, left-handers would let it go, and a lot of the umpires weren’t prepared for it. I never saw a batter make contact with it, much less get a good hit.
I don’t remember his name, or where he went from there, but if he still had that arm in high-school, I know the scouts had to be looking at him.
Sometimes genius involves the simple, the obvious, and letting go.
Hmm, Damon once Javier can throw decently at a stationary target, get a moving target for pitching practice. Should be interesting.
Genius-nerds aren’t generally all that interested in physical sports. E-sports, however… they know every player’s name & stats.
“Nerd?” You mean normal intellect? The rest are just knuckle dragging morons.
I call you “normals” (and, yes, I am quite aware of the converse of “normal”) for everyone within 1.5 standard deviations of the normal range. Unlike Javi I didn’t know I was “smart” until I was 25. Damned well knew I was different but I didn’t know I was smart because my non-verbal learning disability made it well nigh impossible to rote memorize (you can imagine how well that worked in 50s & 60s era public schools). I am nowhere near Javi’s level of smart but I can tell you that to function at a level 2 (or more) SDs out of the normal range a mind has to be organized vastly different from that of “normals”. Think of the difference between a piston engine and a turbine. They’re both basically air pumps and they can even both use the same fuel but there the likeness stops.
I call my son and his friends the Herd of Nerds. They’re all high IQ types and since I’m a parent who actually has rules in his house, they all gravitated toward my place. Kind of nice to be able to have a positive influence over a gaggle of young wizards.
If you’re familiar with the Big Bang Theory, my son would be Leonard who is the kind of hub of the group. Our “Sheldon” is a ginger. Quite a cast of characters.
Throwing a baseball, any ball, ain’t rocket science or brain surgery.
Just throw it for fun, and the eye-hand-brain coordination will come on its own (with a little love and instruction from dear old dad)
“ain’t rocket science or brain surgery.”
…No, but it does involve multivariate calculus… done in real time. And you don’t even think about it.
And the wild bit? Canines and Felids also have this capability. Even avians.
At 12 I threw a hard curve that blew past the glove of a Little League coach who wasn’t wearing a cup. Never played again until High School.
Bet ya he never made that mistake again.
Anything can be overthought; the KISS principle is often applicable.
Which means “keep it short and simple”. It has nothing to do with stupid. Forest Gump’s mother had a good saying about stupid.
‘You can fix ignorance,
You can’t fix stupid….’
https://www.facebook.com/GringoZurdo/videos/10219370966296958/
…and that was just Monday…
“Should I try to be a straight A student?…..If you are then you think too much”…..Just throw the ball…
“Let go.”
The kid of the ball or dad of the kid?
Both can be learned but the former is so much easier than the latter. Don’t wait too long.
2 seam or 4 seam
Jeez, just throw the fucking ball!!
Maybe watch the movie “Sandlot”.
This one sent me on a futile one hour internet search for an old sci fi story. A young sailor and his wife are traveling when a nuclear exchange occurs. During that time their child is born. Children born during this interval become super smart and have immensely superior physical capabilities. These children find each other. Their child finds his/her (can’t remember) soulmate and marry. They are assassinated on their honeymoon by the normals. The father, now an Admiral, writes up a book which is what we have been reading. He tries to dispose of it in the sea for fear that he and his wife will become targets. In an afterward written by one of these children, we find out that the mutant children had retrieved the manuscript and unbeknownst to the Admiral were quite organized against the normals. Parents of the children are being spared but all other normals are fair game.
I was led to this because of a meme in the book that because of their intellect and superior physical capabilities playing sports in a one-g gravitational field is not interesting. Baseball is explicitly named.
I can finally read again (detached retina) and what do I find? A fascinating plot synopsis, one which I’d actually want to read myself. You’ve got to update us if you ever find the title or author.
Ditto here. I’m a scifi buff and nerd, and would love to find and read that story. Let us know more when you find/remember it.
@JLW III
“Take baseball,” Castor continued. “It’s not practical. How can you figure a one-g trajectory and place your hand at the point of contact in the free-flight time between bases? We’re not miracle men.”
Robert A. Heinlein, “The Rolling Stones”
As I recall they could also see in the ultraviolet when the kid tells his mom he can see the time on a sundial even thought it is full overcast. I remember the book, though not the title. The genetics were a litttle shaky, but the story was pretty good, especially the pink snow after the nukewar.
Zar Belk!
Like he wouldn’t already have a finite element analysis of the release modes and flight paths already in hand.
I wonder … like the majority of you, I suspect Javier will prove to be a top notch pitcher. (For some reason the geekier/intellectual players are more attracted to pitching than batting.) I could even see him obsessing to the point of devoting all his time to it, and maybe even constructing a couple nines so he has someone to play “real” games with.
Intellectual? Maybe, but some of the dumbest people I ever met were some of the most educated. And some of the smartest were some of the crudest. And some of both were pitchers and batters (how much math goes into a batter anticipating where a 3″ sphere will be after spinning 90 ft. at 100 mph?)
When we moved to our neighborhood in ’92, son struck up a friendship with the grandson of Gaylord Perry, whose daughter married a local doctor. Perry visited several times and son had a little interaction with him…loud, funny, crude, and crooked as hell, in person just as on the mound.
One of the greatest Hall of Famers of all time; not many records he doesn’t hold or titles he hasn’t won multiples of. But you’d really think the dude was a little dense in a casual conversation, until you consider that his famed history of accusations but no convictions on a cheat that would require quantum physics to plan and deliver, with a flip side of just how perceptive a psychology buff has to be to get inside the head of every batter, catcher, and manager you ever oppose.
The opposite of the educated ignoramus is the ignernt genius in everyday life.
How many of great intellect have been irrevocably lost to the black hole that is baseball?
All George Will could do is struggle to occasionally comment on politics.
Amen. I’ve always maintained that football is best(?) watched in the idiot box; baseball, to really appreciate the three-d chess match, must be watched at the ball park – if at all possible.
Back in antediluvian days, I fondly remember By Saam broadcasting from Connie Mack Stadium while the one TV camera watched from high above Home Plate – in the Press Box. Then came the Cub Scout trip to the aforementioned ball park and a seat in the upper deck behind the left field foul pole. Revalation!! The moves, counter-moves, the rhythm of the game. Sun Tzu would understand and approve of baseball.
Still watch TeeVee when the Phils are televised (at or against Atlanta, St. Louis or Cincinnatti [all we get here in Clarksville, TN]) if I can.
NFL is dead to me since Kaepernick; whistleball and soccer are so much more than boring; ice hockey is incomprehensible.
Let the flaming begin!
The intellect is scary. There are so many comments regarding same.