HAILSTATEBEAT: Walk-Off Part II: Return Of The Mac
June 09, 2018 | HailStateBEAT
HailStateBEAT
Easton. Easton. Easton.
Â
Repeat the word in your head.
Â
Easton. Easton. Easton.
Â
Stare at the name on the bat, take a deep breath, and repeat the word in your head until your heart rate falls to a steady pace.
Â
This is not a commercial for Easton bats. Nor is it an exercise at some kind of strange baseball-themed yoga retreat.
Â
Deep breath.
Â
Easton. Easton. Easton.
Â
Read the word, repeat the word, breathe, step back to the plate, then absolutely crush an off-speed pitch over the left field wall and go on to sprint and jump and dance and yell around the bases before plunging into a pile of your screaming teammates at home plate because sweet mother you just won the game on a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth.
Â
Easton. Easton. Easton…
Â
Boom.
Â
I've written this story before. You've read this story before. Heck, it was only six days ago; half of us are still watching the replay of the last one every few hours because we can't still can't get over it. And now we're watching basically the same replay again, with just a few minor changes. The teams are different. Last week it was Florida State in a Regional. This time it's Vanderbilt in a Super Regional. Saturday was a three-run bomb to come from behind and take the lead. Friday was a two-run shot to break a tie.
Â
And they were both hit by Elijah MacNamee, two-strike dingers in the bottom of the ninth to win the game. Upon reaching strike two in each situation, the junior-outfielder-turned-bomb-factory held his right hand up to the ump at home plate, asking for a timeout. He then stepped away from the box, leaned back a little and let his weight roll to his heels. On each occasion, he looked from the plate down the foul line and up to the top of the foul pole, then he spun his bat so that he could clearly see and read the name of the bat manufacturer – Easton.
Â
Makes sense, especially in high pressure situations like those. Add in the fact that MacNamee is an excitable dude – his animated celebrations aren't limited to walk-offs, even if those tend be the best ones – and it's easy to see how the heart rate of a 21-year-old SEC baseball player in the prime of his life could get a little high.
Â
The calming trick seems to be working, though, and not just because it helps give him a smooth follow-through or anything like that. It's helping him focus and think. In both situations, MacNamee's eyes were intensely focused on the pitcher's hands, observations quickly being analyzed as synapses fire and in the split second allowed for thinking before the ball comes a realization is made and a conclusion determined, a course of action settled upon that will ultimately decide the outcome of the game.
Â
The slight calm is enough to bring the storm.
Â
So the pitch came, and we all watched the moment we witnessed last week unfold again. A low breaking ball, a changeup MacNamee saw coming as he waited as long as he could before turning his hands, throwing his arms forward and twisting his body as he sent the ball back where it came from, out of the park and out of his way as he first pointed to his teammates in the dugout as he approached first, pointed to the MSU fans in the stadium as he rounded the base, danced with his arms wide as he ran through the second, and the moment he turned at third and saw his teammates waiting on him at home he started stamping his cleated feet, threw his helmet into the air with no regard for where it landed and elatedly took those final steps back to the plate where the home run first began.
Â
Bulldogs win – Mississippi State in a walk-off.
Â
I've written this story before. You've read this story before. But in the best stories, you find something new the second time around you didn't notice at first.
Â
Deep breath.
Â
Easton. Easton. Easton…
Â
Boom.
Â
Â
Repeat the word in your head.
Â
Easton. Easton. Easton.
Â
Stare at the name on the bat, take a deep breath, and repeat the word in your head until your heart rate falls to a steady pace.
Â
This is not a commercial for Easton bats. Nor is it an exercise at some kind of strange baseball-themed yoga retreat.
Â
Deep breath.
Â
Easton. Easton. Easton.
Â
Read the word, repeat the word, breathe, step back to the plate, then absolutely crush an off-speed pitch over the left field wall and go on to sprint and jump and dance and yell around the bases before plunging into a pile of your screaming teammates at home plate because sweet mother you just won the game on a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth.
Â
Easton. Easton. Easton…
Â
Boom.
Â
I've written this story before. You've read this story before. Heck, it was only six days ago; half of us are still watching the replay of the last one every few hours because we can't still can't get over it. And now we're watching basically the same replay again, with just a few minor changes. The teams are different. Last week it was Florida State in a Regional. This time it's Vanderbilt in a Super Regional. Saturday was a three-run bomb to come from behind and take the lead. Friday was a two-run shot to break a tie.
Â
And they were both hit by Elijah MacNamee, two-strike dingers in the bottom of the ninth to win the game. Upon reaching strike two in each situation, the junior-outfielder-turned-bomb-factory held his right hand up to the ump at home plate, asking for a timeout. He then stepped away from the box, leaned back a little and let his weight roll to his heels. On each occasion, he looked from the plate down the foul line and up to the top of the foul pole, then he spun his bat so that he could clearly see and read the name of the bat manufacturer – Easton.
Â
Â"I stepped out and just slowed everything down," MacNamee explained just minutes after his second walk-off in a week. "When I look at my bat, I honestly read the emblem that says Easton. I read it over and over until my mind is just thinking that and I get my mind off of everything else so I can regroup and get back in and focus and not be so sped up. It's just a slowing my heart rate down kind of thing."
Makes sense, especially in high pressure situations like those. Add in the fact that MacNamee is an excitable dude – his animated celebrations aren't limited to walk-offs, even if those tend be the best ones – and it's easy to see how the heart rate of a 21-year-old SEC baseball player in the prime of his life could get a little high.
Â
The calming trick seems to be working, though, and not just because it helps give him a smooth follow-through or anything like that. It's helping him focus and think. In both situations, MacNamee's eyes were intensely focused on the pitcher's hands, observations quickly being analyzed as synapses fire and in the split second allowed for thinking before the ball comes a realization is made and a conclusion determined, a course of action settled upon that will ultimately decide the outcome of the game.
Â
The slight calm is enough to bring the storm.
Â
Â"I saw the pitcher wiggle his glove. It was the first time he'd wiggled his glove in three at-bats," MacNamee said. "I knew he wasn't coming with the fastball so I just kept my hands back as long as I could and got a pitch I could handle."
So the pitch came, and we all watched the moment we witnessed last week unfold again. A low breaking ball, a changeup MacNamee saw coming as he waited as long as he could before turning his hands, throwing his arms forward and twisting his body as he sent the ball back where it came from, out of the park and out of his way as he first pointed to his teammates in the dugout as he approached first, pointed to the MSU fans in the stadium as he rounded the base, danced with his arms wide as he ran through the second, and the moment he turned at third and saw his teammates waiting on him at home he started stamping his cleated feet, threw his helmet into the air with no regard for where it landed and elatedly took those final steps back to the plate where the home run first began.
Â
Bulldogs win – Mississippi State in a walk-off.
Â
I've written this story before. You've read this story before. But in the best stories, you find something new the second time around you didn't notice at first.
Â
Deep breath.
Â
Easton. Easton. Easton…
Â
Boom.
Â
Players Mentioned
OF/1B
/ BaseballWednesday, June 03
Wednesday, June 03
Monday, June 01
Monday, June 01