SLUMP

[Carl Childress]

Originally posted by Huskerblue
Like most hitters go through, I have been in a slump that I cannot seem to get out of. I worked a game yesterday that jut may have been my worst game ever. I couldn't dial in the strike zone, I missed a fair\foul call, I swore at a couple of players who argued. I ejected a bench warmer in the bottom of the 7th inning after taking heat from everyone pretty much all day. It was a mess. I felt absolutley awful. Any advice for getting out of this slump? I need help. Conference tournament is next week and if I repeat the performance from yesterday, I may as well hang up the mask.

It's probably too late to fix the problem before the tournament, but I have just the ticket to use the next time it happens.

Turn back three or four assignments. Get sick, family business, work related absence: Think of some good excuse. Don't think about baseball, or see any games, or talk about a pennant race. Watch reruns of Sex and the City or Desperate Housewives.

When an umpire loses it to the depths you describe, it is always because of fatigue, generally mental fatigue.

It's not a lapse in mechanics or botched game control or failing eyesight or anything other than: I'm tired!

I have another piece of advice, which is: Have a close encounter with your signicant other. Then, do it all over again.

When you get back to the field, you will be a different man. When you get back to the field, don't change anything.

You see, it's not baseball that's messing up your life; it's vice versa.