Curve Balls

Doug Glavnville's latest column is up at the NYT. As always, it's good reading and, as always, it's not just about baseball.

There is a constant debate among baseball hitters who deal with the question, “If you could know what pitch was coming, would you want to know?” Since there are all kinds of tricks to figuring that out, it is a very real possibility that you can, at times, know what is coming . . .

. . . But do you still want to know? Many players don’t. Because as the hitter, you might try to hit the ball to the moon from the excitement of knowing what’s coming, and end up destroying your mechanically sound swing in the process. I guess some people would go to psychics to find out their fate; I’d rather let fate be just that — fate.

I would love to hang out and talk with Glanville about stuff -- any stuff, really -- for like three days.