Adam Eaton's special grand-slam secret: Blow a bubble for extra focus
Delivering in clutch situations is one of the most impactful elements of baseball. With the game on the line, how will you perform?
Will you be able to cut out all the noise, all the distractions, all the extracurricular elements that can sometimes get to be too much? When it comes down to that pitch, that moment, will you be able to keep it all out of your consciousness and ... stay as committed to the hunk of bubblegum in your mouth as your offensive task at hand?
Well,
Let's look at that again, courtesy of MLB.com's Jordan Bastian:
Adam Eaton was blowing a bubble at the moment he hit the grand slam off Cody Allen. pic.twitter.com/LRPln76nGo
— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) August 18, 2016
That all went down in the White Sox-Indians game, turning a 7-6 White Sox deficit into a come-from-behind 10-7 win. That's some tremendous focus by Eaton, who timed a Cody Allen curveball perfectly while remaining fully involved with blowing a bubble.
As Eaton told MLB.com's Scott Merkin after the game, he wasn't exactly aware of his feat as it happened:
"I heard that. I didn't know that. I think I was so flustered about my swing before, I was just trying to make contact, not to look really stupid, and apparently I blew a bubble. I'm all right with that."
Still, he had to admit he was (perhaps subconsciously) focused on the bubble, too:
"Sometimes you do some things you're not thinking about, and mine must be blowing a bubble, so we'll take it."
We already know the humor gum can provide in the dugout, and
Take it away, Dean Martin ...