What is Gary Sanchez Thinking?
The Beauty of Baseball
It’s a slow game. Plenty of time to contemplate the good, the bad, and the ugly. And Thursday night’s Yankees 11-5 loss to the Los Angeles Angels featured a little of each, and in that sequential order.
From 4-0 ahead to a 4-4 tie, and then a burlesque of walks, fat pitches down the middle, and errors, all of which flowed together like a tragic saga guaranteed to put any Yankees fan to sleep by midnight. This game was not the beauty of baseball.
As the game unfolded, it seemed three-out-of-four games was acceptable. By the fourth or fifth inning of that game, the baseball devils must have been screaming at the Yankees: Relax, you’ve won six in a row. Take the rest of the night off. Kick the ball around. Have some fun. You’ll start a new winning streak in San Francisco. It’s just one of 162.
Huh?
What Did You Hear, Gary Sanchez?
Gary Sanchez had been simply awful his first two games back from injury. Maybe he thinks the voice pardoned him of the irresponsibility of swinging wildly, time after time, at pitches he should have at least put into play. A soft bloop. A ground ball to short. A seeing-eye base hit. A line drive off the left-center field wall. The beauty of baseball, rather than strikeout after strikeout.
Then again, Sanchez is today’s modern player. Small base hits are anathemas to him. Unexciting. Of course, he occasionally knocks the ball around for the deplorable single or double. Triples, on the other hand, require more ambition and imagination when he leaves the batter’s box if he is to ever reach third base on one of his hard hit balls. It’s one thing to lollop to first base on a grounder to short. But on a smash against the wall, decorum demands more than a lollop. Hustle out of the batter’s box comes to mind. Lolloping is frowned upon.
Instead, Sanchez swings with the abandon of desperation. As if-if he doesn’t give in to his deepest desires to hit a towering home run, he’s a failure. As if-if he only slaps the ball to the outfield he’s half a player. No machismo? Half a man. Because real men not only swing for the fences but must swing for the fences. Anything less is … what? The beauty of baseball?
So, what does Gary Sanchez think about when he swings wildly, misses and plods back to the dugout? Sometimes four or five times a night. Not the beauty of baseball. No sirree.
This Is Who Gary Sanchez Is
Is he a winning player? Or has he become a suspect after his breathtaking beginning as a Yankee in the summer of 2016.
The only game the Yankees won in the American League Division series last season against the Red Sox was the game Sanchez slammed two long home runs that drove in four runs, propelling the Yankees to a 6-2 triumph.
Problem is, home runs are not repeatable every game. No one, not even Babe Ruth, has ever averaged one, forget two home runs a game, every game of a season.
What is remarkable about Sanchez is what is repeatable. Wild, powerful swing-and-misses every at-bat. Endless strikeouts. Vain attempts to hit home run after home run.
So, Sanchez does not choke up on his bat and poke a single to right field when the game is on the line. Or adjust his thinking when runners are in scoring position. Nope. He swings even harder, and invariably strikes out. This is the essence of who Sanchez has become as an offensive player.
It’s also a recognition that his 20 home runs a year and .200 batting average is not nirvana. It’s not the statement of a winning player who sacrifices for a team. So who is Sanchez? A player who has so much talent yet produces so few results … maybe he needs angels whispering into his ear. No, don’t swing at that pitch. Choke up, punch the ball. Relax, don’t hit a home run, drive in the runner from third. And so forth.
Has Sanchez Watched Angels in the Outfield …
It was a wonderful baseball movie fantasy produced in 1951, starring Paul Douglas as Guffy McGovern, the older, venerable manager of an aging Pittsburgh Pirates team destined for last place until … a miracle occurred. Guffy was the only mortal to hear the voices admonishing him until he was told about a young orphan who attends Pirates games regularly with the church where she resides.
Old Guffy, proud curmudgeon that he was, must reconcile the young girl’s vision of angels on the field behind his Pirates with the voices he hears in his head every day. And he believes her. The truth revealed, Guffy tries to adjust, and as he does, his Pirates begin to change. For the better.
They begin playing winning baseball and finally on the last day of the magical season win the National League pennant. A nice Hollywood ending.
Hollywood endings are great in (some) movies, but sports are not movies. And while Gary Sanchez had a Hollywood game in the postseason of 2018 when he slammed two home runs, it was not enough to propel the Yankees to the next round or a World Series championship. Truth is, Sanchez was a major disappointment last season, and he’s started off the same way, again, this season.
Is this who Gary Sanchez has become? A supremely talented, frustrating player who should make a continual difference and instead makes barely any difference at all?
Does Sanchez need divine guidance? Someone to remind him key hits that win games are far more important than solo homers at the tail end of blowouts. That even soft ground balls against the shift that slither into the outfield for a single count the same in the box score as a 500-foot rope singed over the wall?
Sanchez and Thurman Munson—An Odd Couple?
Thurman Munson was never a home run hitter. What he was, was a winning player behind the plate. A great hitter and a solid defensive catcher. Had he not died prematurely in an airplane crash on his way home to Ohio in the summer of 1979 he might have been a Hall of Famer, he was that good. The beauty of baseball shone through his game. His infectious enthusiasm.
If Gary Sanchez played like Thurman Munson, he would not hit as many home runs but he would do all the little things right. Move runners over. Hit sacrifice flies. Block pitches. Call better games. In short, he would become an all-around player rather than the great home-run hitter he aspires to be. In short, he would honor the beauty of baseball.
Perhaps it’s fair to say winning is a mindset. Attention to detail. It’s about strike one, the first out, and scoring first. Quite simple, actually. And once ahead, scoring some more. It’s about piling on until the opposition no longer believes they can win. It requires talent, dedication and a sense of purpose, across the roster.
It’s fair to say Gary Sanchez is a talented player, but it’s also fair to say he has that five-cent head so ballyhooed in the movie Bull Durham. Maybe he needs a Crash Davis of his own to guide him. Clearly, he needs a jolt. Otherwise … when do the Yankees trade him? The day of reckoning may be coming sooner than he thinks.
So What is Sanchez Thinking?
That he will hit magnificent home runs a thousand feet from home plate that will spin forever. That he will drive in a million runs every game. That he will become the finest player in major league baseball. That he will be the highest-paid player in baseball. That he will be the first Latino Babe Ruth. An exceptional Yankee who will swing madly for the fences, forever. His way.
Now, if only the words Gary Sanchez thinks he has heard, come true. If only he began to understand the beauty of baseball.
