Remaining Focused

Abstract

For people who are not baseball fans, the game seems made up of tiny bursts of nearly meaningless activity separated by moments of inaction that range from lengthy to eternal. Baseball fans, on the other hand, believe that something is going on at all times. The reality is somewhere in between those two views. Sometimes what appears to be a high-level strategic meeting on the pitcher's mound is actually a discussion of dinner plans after the game. But more often, tactics that appear merely to delay the game have a single objective: they are intended to spoil the opponent's concentration. The batter does this by suddenly stepping out of the batter's box to rub pine tar on the bat.