Antedating "the [baseball] yips"

[Laurence Horn]

At 4:32 PM -0400 10/2/10, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>At 10/2/2010 04:12 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>At 4:00 PM -0400 10/2/10, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>Larry, did you find it also applied to a pitcher mis-throwing to
>>>first (attempted pickoff, or on a bunt)?
>>>
>>>Joel
>>
>>Sounds plausible.  In the comment in my last paragraph above or the
>>one below I was relying on memory, not the g-hits, of which I just
>>glanced at the first page (which I where I was reminded of
>>Knoblauch's carrying on the tradition) and then scrolled through to
>>find the actual number of hits.  (I still don't understand where the
>>"about n pages" mis-estimates come from.)  But mishaps for ta pitcher
>>throwing to first would fit the criteria--what's crucial is that it
>>involve an easy toss, not a challenging throw, and this is exactly
>>the kind of toss that would be yip-prone.
>
>A mention of pitchers at http://www.baseballconfidence.com/cb_articles.html
>
>" I've also worked with several pitchers who are okay pitching, but
>can't throw to bases.  I recently asked one stand out pitcher what
>the most stressful part of the game was for him, and he said, "When
>the catcher puts the sign down for me to  throw to first base." "
>
>Another at
>http://keitholbermann.mlblogs.com/archives/2009/05/no_mike_pelfrey_disease.html
>
>" With Mike Pelfrey following his three-balk night of the "Yips" with
>nothing more worrisome than forgetting to get off the rubber at
>Fenway before asking umpire Joe West if he could blow on his fingers,
>it appears the list of Major League victims of "Steve Blass Disease"
>and its related maladies will remain at 17. "
>
>But is "Steve Blass Disease" really "the yips"?  And was he the first
>baseball player the term was applied to?  Wikipedia on Blass (major
>leagues 1964-1974):
>
>" Besides his [outstanding World] Series performance, Blass is best
>known for his sudden and inexplicable loss of control after the 1972
>season.[1] His ERA climbed to 9.81 in the 1973 season. He walked 84
>batters in 88 innings, and struck out only 27. Blass suffered through
>the 1973 season, then spent most of 1974 in the minor leagues. He
>retired from baseball in March 1975.
>
>" A condition referred to as "Steve Blass Disease" has become a part
>of baseball lexicon. The "diagnosis" is applied to talented players
>who seem to lose inexplicably and permanently their ability to
>accurately throw a baseball.[2][1][3][4] "
>
>Wikipedia does not include "yips" in this article.
>
I say no, Steve Blass Disease (which I remember well, having been a
Pirate fan at the time) is not the Yips; as noted, I believe the Yips
are related to easy tosses that ought to be automatic, which of
course applies to the golf cases as well, mutatis mutandis, not for
actual pitches, or throws from the outfield or the left (shortstop/3d
base) side of the infield, or from the catcher when intended to
retire a base runner rather than just return the ball to the pitcher.
I'm glad to see that the (equally inexplicable) loss of control
associated with Blass is not referred to as the Yips in the Wikipedia
piece on Blass, but I regret to acknowledge that my resistance is not
widely shared, to judge from the plethora of hits on "the yips" +
"Steve Blass".  As far as the provenance, I do recall that in the
mid-70's the reporters couldn't remember a real predecessor for the
Blass case, whence the eponym (sometimes abbreviated to SAD, not to
be confused with seasonal affective disorder, even if it does usually
strike in the summer).

LH

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org