The Fear of Bunting

No – not the patriotic red-white-&-blue flag-like bunting that you see on the sides of buildings around certain holidays. I’m talking about that terrifying moment when the batter squares off to face the pitcher, bat held horizontal, ready to intentionally bump into the ball, making it drop to the ground a few feet in front of home plate (which is, by the way, about as far as some girls hit it with a full swing).

We have been practicing bunting almost every practice session. For some reason the girls hate the idea and are scared to death of the whole prospect. So last Friday, before the game started and before I had to leave to Tiverton to play in the band, I told the whole team that in Tuesdays game EVERY batter would be given the bunt sign (note picture: this is my bunt sign! it seemed appropriate, hard to miss, and hard to mistake), at least once during EVERY time they got to bat. Apparently they all spent a very sleepless weekend! The night of the dreaded game came, and I reminded them all that they would ALL indeed have to try to bunt. I even went and told the opposing coach of my plan so he wouldn’t think I was pulling some cheap ploy against his team, but that it was simply a cheap psychological ploy against my own players. He loved the idea, though it was great. I let the umpire in on the plan, and he happily advised various ones along the way about not stepping out of the batters box, and pulling the bat back if they are NOT going to try for that particular pitch. I was going to be happy if about half of the girls actually squared up into the proper bunting pose even once, and if anyone had set an over/under gamble at 3 total balls actually bunted I would have probably bet on the ‘under’. I figure the first step in overcoming their fear was to simply have them mentally prep for the attempt – get used to looking for the sign, and hopefully, eventually, as the season progressed, to get more at ease with the actual physical technique and maybe even have occasional success. The end result? About half of the at-bats, no spectator/opposing player/opposing coach would have been able to tell you which pitch was the one they were supposed to be bunting on. Many of the attempts were half-hearted at best. They squared up (if you could call it that) much too late – when the pitch was half way to the plate instead of before the pitcher let go of the ball. After the first time through the whole lineup, I told them that if they simply made a good attempt, they wouldn’t have to do it any more that day (anything to boost their motivation level). In the end, three successful bunts were put down (successful in the fact that they WERE put down, not that they reached base safely – which none did). Hopefully we will do better next game, and eventually it will be no big deal.
Oh yeah – by the way – we won the game 11-10, not by executing a perfect suicide squeeze bunt, but because we were fortunate enough to go into our at bat in the bottom of the last inning tied, with our best three hitters scheduled to bat, and the coach being wise enough to let them swing away – which they were thrilled to do, getting three straight hits to push the winning run across the plate. Now they are feeling pretty good and think they are off the hook. Wait until they find out about my “getting in a run-down” plan for next week!