The Slump and the Home Run

Even though I look at the numbers and they aren't very bad, I am in a slump at the plate. Aside from my big 4-for-4 game including my first career home run and being a double away from the cycle, I have not been hitting well for about a month. I'm getting on base by pure luck: misjudged fly balls, bad hops on the infield.

It generally happens sometime in the middle of the season every year for me. I start the season well, cool off, then finish the year okay. It's easy to forget and easy to shrug it off when the rest of the team is hitting well and we're winning games, but when it seems no one can hit anything and we lose are the times it's tough to deal with the slump.

To be quite frank, I feel responsible when we lose those kinds of games because I hold myself to such high standards. I know baseball is a team sport and I know it's pretty hard for one person to lose a baseball game, yet that feeling remains sometimes. And I hate it.

Whenever this happens, I' m never quite sure how to break out of it. One game it will just happen. A couple of solid hits and maybe a lucky one and before I know it, 3-for-4 or 4-for-5. Then another game like that, and the slump is over.


I'd feel remiss and I think my handful of readers would be somewhat disappointed if I didn't recount my first dinger, and quite frankly I'm surprised it's taken this long for me to do this.

The sun was starting to go down as we got ready for the 8:30 start. I stepped in to lead off as I often do, digging my right cleat into the dirt on the right side batter's box. The first pitch sailed in almost right down the middle and I took it for a strike. The second pitch looked outside but hit the back corner of the mat. Shit, 0-2. Not good.

"If it's anywhere close, just hit it hard and get it in play." I quickly thought to myself. The third pitch was right down the middle like the first, and I swung away. Off the bat I knew I got good wood on it, but not even for a split second did I think I had hit it out. I took off out of the batter's box as fast as I could, and as I went from first to second I could see the two outfielders both running towards center field, but I had no idea where the ball was.

As I rounded second, that's when I knew. I heard the guys from the third base dugout yelling "it's gone!" and noticed both fielders pull up. I was halfway to third by the time I was into the home run trot.

My immediate thought was "what a waste." Because of the home run rules in our league, it's much more advantageous to hit home runs with runners on base. For that reason I would never intentionally lead off a game with a home run. I actually felt bad, but everyone seemed to enjoy it, so I let it go.

I went on that game to hit a single followed by a triple down the right field line. As I stood on third after that one I got the inevitable jeers of "double for the cycle!" and I'm certain if our less than fleet afoot catcher wasn't on first ahead of me for my last at bat, I probably would have had it. But I didn't really care. Home runs. Cycles. I'm not about either of those things.

-matt