Baseball needs chemistry?

[Don]

This article explains that Red Sox failed due to chemistry:

http://espn.go.com/boston/mlb/story/_/i ... -chemistry

Now I'm not going to say baseball has no chemistry, but compared to the major sports, it seems to be one where you least need to work like a team. It's not like two guys need to work together to catch a flyball or otherwise they ran smack into each other. Did the Red Sox catcher give the pitcher the wrong signals because he doesn't like him? Does his defense drop the ball on purpose? Are people grounding into double plays to prevent their team from winning? I can buy the argument that if you're in a bad mood you might play slightly worse, but I'm sure plenty of people have had long stretches of suck while being happy. I'm sure at some level you need to at least be cooperative in baseball, but baseball is still mostly a 1 versus 1 sports. If you give up 7 runs you probably pitched poorly as opposed to the rest of the team conspiring against you. If you can't hit the ball, it's probably your problem, not because someone on your team has a hexed doll on you.

[Zeus]

Although the "working together" aspect of the team is minimized (save for the pitcher-catcher dynamic), what Francona was referring to is the lack of cohesion really more than chemistry. You still need a sense of a "team", of owning up to each other, of that extra drive on behalf of your teammates in order to have everyone play up to their abilities. Tampa had it, the Yankees have it even though they're a bunch of extremely well-paid guys.

[Don]

I'm sure there are some intangibles but baseball is the closest thing to a 1 on 1 sports in a team setting I can think of. Just because you're channeling the spirit of humanity doesn't mean you're any more likely to hit the ball further. I can see being in a bad mood might make you hit worse, though. At any rate, you can have a complete lack of cohesion but if you win something big people will say "Yeah we managed to come through when it counts". Not like anyone's going to say "No I still hate this guy's guts" if you win the World Series. Kobe and Shaq's problems didn't start on the year they failed to win 4 years in a row, but during the 3-peat it didn't seem like a problem since the Lakers were steamrolling everyone.

[Zeus]

I'm sure there are some intangibles but baseball is the closest thing to a 1 on 1 sports in a team setting I can think of. Just because you're channeling the spirit of humanity doesn't mean you're any more likely to hit the ball further. I can see being in a bad mood might make you hit worse, though. At any rate, you can have a complete lack of cohesion but if you win something big people will say "Yeah we managed to come through when it counts". Not like anyone's going to say "No I still hate this guy's guts" if you win the World Series. Kobe and Shaq's problems didn't start on the year they failed to win 4 years in a row, but during the 3-peat it didn't seem like a problem since the Lakers were steamrolling everyone.

Not when you're fielding, that relies on your teammates

[Don]

I'm sure there are some intangibles but baseball is the closest thing to a 1 on 1 sports in a team setting I can think of. Just because you're channeling the spirit of humanity doesn't mean you're any more likely to hit the ball further. I can see being in a bad mood might make you hit worse, though. At any rate, you can have a complete lack of cohesion but if you win something big people will say "Yeah we managed to come through when it counts". Not like anyone's going to say "No I still hate this guy's guts" if you win the World Series. Kobe and Shaq's problems didn't start on the year they failed to win 4 years in a row, but during the 3-peat it didn't seem like a problem since the Lakers were steamrolling everyone.

Not when you're fielding, that relies on your teammates

Sure but is someone going to purposely stand in a bad spot so the opponent can get a hit? The general fielding position is determined by the coach no? I guess if someone doesn't like you they might not dive for a loose ball though it seems to me the action would happen too fast to actually think about that. I know there are people who don't bother running very fast when it looks like they're going to be out, but the vast majority of the time those guys are running slow because there's no possible way they could've made it on time even at full speed.

[Imakeholesinu]

GO CARDINALS!

[Zeus]

GO CARDINALS!

If they can beat Doc tonight, they deserve it. He generally thrives in situations like that (pitched a no-hitter in his first-ever playoff game last year). They do have Carpenter going, that helps. He should be revved up to go against his buddy

[Flip]

GO CARDINALS!

If they can beat Doc tonight, they deserve it. He generally thrives in situations like that (pitched a no-hitter in his first-ever playoff game last year). They do have Carpenter going, that helps. He should be revved up to go against his buddy

Its tomorrow, yanks/tigers on tonight!