Once I go jogging, I wrap a rubber band round my keys in order that they don’t jingle in my pocket. I put my cellphone in a special pocket, an additional one I sewed into the entrance of my shorts so it’s shut sufficient that it received’t tug on the headphone twine. I tuck the ends of my shoelaces in above the tongue in order that they don’t flop in all places. I’m going to all this hassle for 2 causes. First, I’m a delicate soul. Second, I don’t actually love working. I really like the sensation of having run, however each step is a struggle in opposition to the voice in my head telling me that I ought to simply cease as a result of working is for suckers. After a mile or so, any a kind of slight annoyances – jangling keys, slight tugging on my earbuds, shoelaces flapping in opposition to my sneakers – will begin to trouble me a lot that I’ll give in to that very apparent reality.
I’m sharing this preamble with you as a result of though I usually write about small, obscure topics, what I’m writing about at present is so small and so obscure that I really feel like I owe you a proof as to why I observed it in any respect. As I hope I’ve made clear, I observed it as a result of I’m bizarre.
I used to be watching the condensed model of the Sunday’s recreation between the Phillies and the Guardians. Kyle Schwarber homered within the prime of the second inning, and the condensed recreation really combined up the replays. They confirmed the house run, then three slow-motion replays, however the first replay wasn’t of the house run. It was a replay of a foul ball the opposite approach earlier within the depend. That wasn’t the bizarre factor (or at the least that was a special, much less bizarre factor). The second and third replays have been each of the house run. That’s after I observed it. The condensed recreation is embedded under, and I’ve cued it as much as that first house run, so watch the replays and search for one thing odd, then cease the video. Don’t peek on the clip after the following paragraph:
Did you see it? Once I noticed it, I wasn’t even certain what I’d seen. It was early within the morning. I used to be sleepy. I went again and watched it once more, however I nonetheless wasn’t certain that I used to be seeing what I believed I used to be seeing, so I went to MLB Movie Room to seek out the clip, then pulled it into iMovie so I might Zapruder it. Right here is the bizarre factor:
One thing loopy occurred to Kyle Schwarber’s helmet in the course of his swing. At first, I believed his bat knocked into it on its method to hitting the house run, however then I spotted that wasn’t it. As he started his swing, Schwarber’s shoulder (also referred to as the Schwoulder) rose up and lifted his face guard, and thus the whole proper facet of his helmet. That was a reasonably important second. It occurred as his palms have been firing. At that time, he wasn’t 100% dedicated to swinging. If he modified his thoughts proper then, he nonetheless might’ve held up. Whereas he was finalizing his swing determination, his helmet went all askew. And he hit a house run anyway. As somebody who’s incapable of jogging when his shoelaces can frolic too freely, I couldn’t imagine that Schwarber was in a position to do this.
Critically, carry out this experiment for your self. Placed on a baseball hat with the invoice at a traditional degree. You possibly can see the underside of it. Even if you’re wanting straight forward moderately than up, you possibly can really feel its presence on the periphery. It frames the highest of your visible area. Now seize the invoice by each palms and tilt it all of the sudden. I’m doing it as I write this paragraph. Even when you realize it’s coming, it’s distracting, proper? What about if you don’t understand it’s coming? When the factor that’s framing your visible area all of the sudden goes diagonal, wouldn’t it appear even for only a second — an especially necessary second — like the entire world is tilting? Even when doesn’t provide you with vertigo, it actually wouldn’t enhance your capacity to trace a fast-moving object. However right here’s the factor. Schwarber hit one other house run within the eighth inning, and earlier than he hit that house run, he did the helmet factor once more. He did it once more!
The replay isn’t pretty much as good, but it surely’s nonetheless loads clear. His helmet jumps off his head crookedly simply as he begins his swing. I began watching an increasing number of Schwarber house runs. All of them confirmed the leaping helmet, so I simply began watching random movies of Schwarber swinging. He toyed with sporting a face guard towards the top of 2023, then began sporting it usually in 2024. He bumped it in each single swing I discovered. Right here’s what I imagine to be the primary swing he took with a face guard:
It’s like he’s providing you with somewhat salute. So many issues separate skilled athletes from the remainder of us, however this can be a reminder that their capacity to focus is an awfully huge separator too. Once I realized that Schwarber did this each time he swung, I figured possibly he wasn’t the one one, so I began checking different gamers. I went wanting via clips of house runs, as a result of they normally have gradual movement replays that give an excellent view of the helmet and shoulder. I discovered quite a lot of different gamers who bump their face guards:
Nonetheless, none of them did as typically or as extraordinarily as Schwarber. His swing is an ideal storm for this explicit oddity. At 5-foot-11, he’s on the shorter facet for a ballplayer, with huge shoulders and a neck that’s possibly constructed extra latitudinally than longitudinally. In consequence, his face guard hangs decrease than that of most gamers. This by no means occurs to the 6-foot-6 Giancarlo Stanton as a result of there’s much more clearance between his face guard and his shoulder, however Jose Altuve does it quite a bit.
Second, Schwarber’s swing includes quite a lot of extremes. His load brings his entrance shoulder approach again, and when he begins his swing, he drops his again shoulder, elevating the Schwoulder into the face guard. Juan Soto doesn’t use a face guard, however his head is so nonetheless and his swing is so completely clean that he might mash dingers with out disturbing a hockey-style catcher’s masks. He might in all probability mash dingers with a guide balanced on his head like a appeal faculty valedictorian. That is simply how Schwarber’s swing works:
On practically each swing, Schwarber (together with a not insignificant portion of the league) tilts his helmet crazily on his head. I’m terribly interested in whether or not he even notices that it’s occurring. It’s very fast. I solely observed due to a gradual movement replay. It looks as if it’s on the worst potential second for the batter to be distracted, however that signifies that for the time being, Schwarber might be so intensely centered that he’s in a position to tune it out.
Nonetheless, if you watch it occur again and again, you surprise how this doesn’t have an effect on Schwarber’s equilibrium. Even when it doesn’t have an effect on his imaginative and prescient, the steadiness of the burden on his head is shifting towards one facet. How does that not throw something off? Consider how typically you hear {that a} batter must maintain their head nonetheless with a view to hit effectively. Having a helmet joggling in all places doesn’t appear to be it could assist towards that finish. Furthermore, gamers aren’t normally sporting helmets throughout batting observe and cage work. So it’s not like Schwarber is used to it as a result of it occurs on a regular basis throughout observe. It’s a phenomenon that actually solely occurs throughout video games.
My guess is that Schwarber and all of his helmet-bumping brethren don’t discover it in any respect. If it bothered them in any approach, they’d cease sporting the face guards or discover some method to modify them. Nonetheless, I wager the helmets would trouble them fairly a bit in the event that they tried jogging with them.