When Manny Ramirez visited George Washington High School, his former baseball coach, Steve Mandl, asked hm to say something to his players about the art of hittiing. Ramirez, one of the most spectacular batters of all time (555 home runs, .585 slugging, .313 batting average), thought for a few moments and then pronounced "see the ball, hit the ball." From which we can derive that he is not looking at a post-retirement career as a hitting coach. He may be the idiot savant of hitting.
Good thing the coach didn't ask him about fielding. "See the ball, fumble the ball."
"See the ball, hit the ball" is universal wisdom that transcends its baseball context -- like Wayne Gretzky's famous "skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it is."
I've heard the masterful sentence ascribed also to Pete Rose. But it's more far more appropriate to Manny.
"See steroids, take steroids."
Posted by: Leo Lipschitz | April 29, 2011 at 02:47 AM