Baseball’s Voldemort — throwing yips
As a recreational golfer I experienced putting ‘yips’ many years ago. The term was coined by Scottish American golfer Tommy Armour in 1927.
Like the word ‘Voldemort’ you cannot even utter the word ‘yips’ to another golfer. It is a verboten word! Fellow golfers would give me advice but mostly tried to not watch me putt for fear that they could get it in their heads too! I remember my ‘problem’ just getting worse until I switched to putting cross-handed which alleviated the problem. Eventually I went back to putting traditionally and have done so ever since. I was lucky I did not have to perform in front of a crowd. Baseball throwing yips are out in the open for everyone to see.
It might seem funny at first to watch a professional baseball player struggle with one of the most basic facets of the game — throwing the baseball. When it happens repeatedly, the humor quickly evaporates as you realize another human is having real issues. It is uncomfortable to watch and that should be how people feel. Yips are no joke. At the MLB level the yips happens rarely but my guess is there are many players who’ve experienced throwing yips that never made it far in the minors.
One definition:
· The yips in baseball are caused by physical and psychological factors, such as focal dystonia and performance anxiety.
When I categorize MLB players that experienced throwing issues, I break it down to pitchers and non-pitchers.
Pitchers who had throwing issues
Steve Blass Pittsburgh Pirates — the pitching star for the 1971 World Champions winning twice including game seven vs. the Orioles, Blass finished 2nd in the NL MVP voting that year to teammate Roberto Clemente. The next season he was an All-Star. But I 1973 Blass walked 84 hitters in 88.2 innings and was sent down to the minors. By 1974 Blass was out of baseball entirely at age 32 pitching in only one game. He became a venerated Pirates broadcaster for more than 30 years.
Rick Ankiel St. Louis Cardinals — Ankiel was a rising star starting game one of the NLDS in 2000 vs. the Braves. Five wild pitches and six walks was the beginning of Ankiel’s eventual undoing as a pitcher culminating in the NLCS vs. the Mets when he walked five of the 10 batters he faced. The next year he was sent to Rookie-level ball and suffered a series of injuries before remaking his career and life converting to an outfielder and playing a remarkable seven more seasons.
In both of those cases, Blass and Ankiel had yips in throwing the ball to the catcher. Other pitchers have had issues doing anything BUT throwing to the catcher.
Jon Lester Boston Red Sox, Oakland Athletics, Chicago Cubs, Washington Nationals, & St. Louis Cardinals
Lester had well-documented difficulties throwing to first base. The Royals in 2014 stole repeatedly taking advantage of Lester’s ‘problem’. Eventually Lester learned to vary his between pitch cadence and opposing teams gave up trying to steal. Lester even caught a few baserunners bouncing the throw to first base!
Matt Garza Minnesota Twins
Garza had difficulties throwing the ball to first base, on bunts or infield grounders. The issues stayed with him throughout his career, but it never resulted in having Garza return to the minors.
Mark Wohlers of the Braves and Daniel Bard of the Rockies are other pitchers who lost the plate during their careers but not to the degree of Blass and Ankiel.
Position players with throwing issues
Chuck Knoblauch Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees, & KC Royals
You don’t expect a second baseman to have difficulties throwing the baseball to first base. Yet before Knoblauch there was Steve Sax, and we will get to him in a moment. Knoblauch was an excellent player winning Rookie-of-the-Year in 1991 and playing in four All-Star games. He was part of the 1991 Twins World Championship team as well as the Yankees in 1998, 1999, and 2000. It took a while for the throwing yips to emerge and in 1999 Knoblauch had a whopping 26 errors one-time even hitting broadcaster Keith Olberman’s mom in the face as she watched the game from the stands. The odd thing is that Knoblauch was a gold glove winner in 1997! Knoblauch retired from baseball after the 2002 season after a 12-year career.
Steve Sax Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox, & Oakland A’s
While Sax, like Knoblauch won Rookie of the Year (1982), he was never a candidate for a Gold Glove. His throwing issues began in his sophomore season and were legendary. In 1983 Sax committed 30 errors and fans sitting along the first base line wore helmets for protection from Sax’s errant throws to first. Yet Sax cured his throwing issues and helped lead the Dodgers to another World Series championship in 1988 (they had also won in 1981 in Sax’s brief first year), and he led all AL second baseman in fielding percentage the following year after signing with the Yankees.
Mackey Sasser San Francisco Giants, Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Mets
In 1988 24 year-old Mackey Sasser came over to the Mets after short stints with the Giants and Pirates the year prior. He was the second backup to Gary Carter. Sasser could hit and was an overall average defensive catcher who developed a very strange problem. In 1989 Sasser began to have difficulty throwing the ball back to the pitcher. He never really got over his yips despite advice from fans to call-in radio shows. The descriptive term for a catcher who cannot throw the ball back to the pitcher was called ‘Sasseritis’. It was hard to watch for everyone including teammates. Sasser retired in 1995 and after his career was over worked with a therapist to help cure his affliction. Paying it forward, Sasser now is the go-to counsel for players having similar problems. He has given out his phone number and answers emails from those who need help with Sasseritis.
Despite the golf term being around since 1927, I could not find any instances of baseball yips reported before Steve Blass in the 1970s. That seems a little hard to believe although public reporting for such a condition might have been pushed aside. But I am still digging around. Let me know if you can find anything.
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About the Author: Mark Kolier along with his son Gordon co-hosts a baseball podcast called ‘Almost Cooperstown’. He also has written baseball-related articles that can be accessed on Medium.com and Substack.com.
