5 Worst Cases of the Yips in Baseball

In 1971, pitcher Steve Blass helped the Pittsburgh Pirates win the World Series and he also finished right behind Roberto Clemente in voting for the World Series MVP [source: CBS]. The next year he made the Major League Baseball all-star team. One year after that he was completely out of the game of baseball. What happened?

There was no injury, no retirement due to his age and no problem that made him lose focus. There was just one small change to Steve Blass: He lost the ability to pitch. In 1973 Blass had tripled his earned run average (ERA) and walked 84 batters in only 88 innings [source: Plautz].

He dropped down to the minors for a season but just couldn't recover his skill. Steve Blass' professional baseball career was over before the 1975 season even began.

In the baseball world, his problem is now referred to as "Steve Blass Disease." It's used to describe any baseball player who's completely lost his ability to do his job on the field. It's the disease every player prays they'll never catch and the one that no one thinks they ever will [source: O'Neill].

St. Louis Cardinals pitcher, Rick Ankiel, was named High School Player of the Year and Minor League Player of the Year by USA Today and was called, "the most promising young left-handed pitcher in a generation," by The New York Times Magazine. When he signed with the Cardinals, he received a $2.5 million bonus, the 5th largest ever given to an amateur at the time. Coach Tony La Russa picked him to play in the first game of the National League division series against the Atlanta Braves and he played his first playoff game when he was only 21 [source: Jordan].

But in that National League division series, Ankiel threw 9 wild pitches and walked 11 batters in just 4 innings [source: Jordan]. His wild pitches broke a record that had held steady since all the way back in 1890. Not quite MVP status. Ankiel had lost his pitching skills.

The year after pitching in the National League division series he was sent down to the minors. And even though it doesn't seem like it could, things got even worse from there. He walked over 30 batters in just 25 innings and had more than 20 wild pitches [source: Star]. After trying unsuccessfully to resurrect his pitching, Ankiel re-started his baseball career as an outfielder.

The baseball yips aren't reserved for pitchers alone. New York Yankees second baseman Chuck Knoblauch was a Rookie of the Year, won several World Series rings and went to four all-star games [source: Rayno]. But after all those achievements, Knoblauch started having problems throwing the ball to first base, a routine and relatively simple task for any second baseman.

In 1999 he had a total of 26 errors. And, apparently, one of his wild throws from second base hit Keith Olberman's mom in the face as she watched the game from the stands [source: Plautz]. The yips know no bounds. Like other cases of the yips, there was no real explanation for Knoblauch's loss of throwing ability. After changing positions a few times, Knoblauch eventually retired from baseball in 2003. During his 12 seasons as a professional baseball player he earned a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger, among his other achievements.

Steve Sax is another well-known baseball player who caught a bad case of the yips. Steve Sax Syndrome has been used to describe second basemen who can't throw the ball to first base [source: Star]. Unlike some other cases of the yips, the start of Sax's yips can be pinpointed.

In the 9th inning of the Los Angeles Dodger's home opener Sax threw the ball to home plate after Andre Dawson, from the Montreal Expos, hit a triple. The only problem was that Dawson was standing at third when Sax threw the ball. The ball bounced and got away from the catcher and Dawson scored. Sax says it was an average error, but he did start to think about it and question his own timing and throwing after that [source: Demak].

Luckily for Sax, the yips didn't stick around. After accumulating 30 errors in the 1983 season, he went on to be one of the best second basemen in 1989, and played for 13 years [source: Star].

Mackey Sasser was a catcher for the New York Mets when his yips started showing up. In 1989, just two years into his professional career, Sasser started having problems throwing the ball back to the pitcher. As you can imagine, a catcher who can't throw the ball back to the pitcher isn't much of a catcher at all.

Sasser fans weighed in on the problem by calling radio stations suggesting ways to cure Sasser's problems [source: Baumbach]. Unfortunately, none of them helped. Sasser played for several other teams before leaving baseball, uncured of the yips, in 1995 [source: McCarron]. As with other players, a new term was coined to describe a catcher who can't throw the ball back to the pitcher: Sasseritis. Pretty original, huh?

After leaving the major leagues, Sasser worked with a therapist to help cure his case of the yips and went on to be a baseball coach at Wallace Junior College [source: Inside the Zone]. Sasser not only beat his yips after he stopped playing professionally, but he also tries to help other players who are having similar problems. Sasser has been known to give out his phone number and he answers e-mails every week from players with the yips [source: Baumbach].