Word: batterer
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Koppel stepped to the plate in the bottom of the eighth inning in the first game with the stage set for good theater. By tiebreaker rules, each extra inning begins with the last batter who was put out in the previous inning on second base, so the eighth began with Watanabe in scoring position...
...sort of thing a prudent citizen did in preparing for his eventual demise. So I was surprised to learn last week that Joe DiMaggio--a man who raised preparation to an art form, a man who planted himself in center field so perfectly for each batter that he was customarily able to catch fly-balls at chest level--died without stating publicly that he did not want his name associated with the West Side Highway...
...Granted, some lucky few do manage to find their lifemates in the pressure cooker of these hallowed halls. But, for the most part, the conditions of college life conspire not to bring people together in congenial bliss, but rather to tear them apart and batter their spirits beyond recognition. For starters, these are years of rapid maturation and personal change. Trajectories of personal growth do not often coincide. Moreover, many are unwilling to settle down and work through the inevitable tribulations of a relationship. We're young, they think, and why should we tolerate anything less than total contentment? Things...
...sport is this more visible than it is in baseball. The other team sports, so dependent on the careful knitting of disparate talents for every act, never isolate the hero quite the way baseball does--especially when it places him alone in the batter's box and challenges him to perform the most difficult feat in all of sports. Even off the field, the baseball star has always seemed to have a more sharply defined persona than other athletes do. Decades pass, and still we feel we know them. Babe Ruth, the profane if lovable libertine; Mickey Mantle, the gifted...
Before the season started, I made a commitment to take my game to a higher level. I have always been a power hitter, but I felt I could become a more selective batter. Sometimes I tried too hard to do too much. I would go to home plate and swing hard at almost everything instead of having the calm to wait for the right pitch. My new goal was to be a greater offensive threat. With patience, an improved swing and a sharper eye, I felt I could bring more to the batter's box and be an even steadier...