Jonathan Blitzer on Roger Angell's "Down the Drain"

"As a New York Yankees fan, I spent the summer of 2000 feeling my chest tighten anytime my team was on the field and the ball travelled in the vicinity of second base. Routine grounders caused the greatest stress. The more inconsequential the play should have been, the more likely it was to go wrong. Seemingly overnight, Chuck Knoblauch, the All-Star second baseman, had lost his ability to toss the ball to first, the shortest throw on the diamond."

"In the nineteen-eighties, a Mets catcher named Mackey Sasser couldn't throw the ball back to the pitcher. Years later, Rick Ankiel, a Cardinals pitcher, could no longer throw strikes-yet, when he was moved to the outfield, his accuracy rarely faltered from a greater distance. The list goes on. Only a small fraction of players are on it, but there are enough for fans to identify their struggles as the yips, a now familiar term."

"Pitchers may have supplied his best material. He called their showdowns with batters "a permanent private duel over their property rights to the plate." The men on the mound, Angell liked to point out, tended to have the upper hand. They knew what they were throwing, whereas batters could merely react. "A great number of surprising and unpleasant things can be done to the ball as it is delivered from the grasp""

A New York Yankees fan experienced chest-tightening throughout summer 2000 whenever the ball traveled near second base. Chuck Knoblauch, an All-Star second baseman, suddenly lost the simple ability to toss the ball to first, turning routine plays into errors. Similar, specific throwing failures appeared in other players: in the 1980s Mackey Sasser couldn't return the ball to the pitcher, and Rick Ankiel lost the ability to throw strikes as a pitcher but later threw accurately from the outfield. Fans label these struggles the yips; earlier usage called the condition Steve Blass disease after a 1973 case. Pitchers usually control their deliveries, while batters can only react, and many surprising things can happen to the ball during delivery.

Read at The New Yorker