Yips: What Happened?

Baseball

100

Steve Blass was an All Star pitcher in 1972. The next year, he walked 84 batters and was sent down to the minors. What did he do?

Blass never made a comeback and eventually retired and became a sales representative at a ring company.

200

John Lester was a pitcher on the Cubs who notoriously struggled with throwing the ball to first base. This most impacted him when Royals baserunners kept stealing and closed a four run deficit in one inning. How did he overcome this?

Lester did everything but throw the baseball normally. He bounced the ball to first, and even threw his glove with the ball inside.

300

Jarrod Saltalamacchia was a catcher for the Rangers. In 2010, he struggled to throw the ball back to the pitcher after receiving it. What did he do?

Saltalamacchia was traded to the Red Sox, visited a sports psychologist, and eventually worked his way back up to the big leagues and was on the 2013 world series team.

Golf

100

Kevin Na, in the 2012 Players Championship, developed an issue with starting his swing due to a change in his stance a year earlier. What did he do?

Na used breathing techniques and a different trigger on his swing to get his golf game back up to where it needed to be and won his second PGA event in 2018.

200

Mark O'Meara began to see issues with his putting after winning the Masters and British Open in 1998. What did he do?

O'Meara changed his grip, to a less common "saw" style putting grip.

300

Ben Hogan won 4 major championships in the mid 1900s, and after years of military service and a car accident, developed a case of the yips. What happened next?

He overcame the damage that happened to his legs, and still managed to win three majors in 1953. He soon later got bested by the yips and stepped away from golf.

Gymnastics/Misc

100

This Gymnast suffered from the "twisties" during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics which resulted in them scratching from competition and end up winning a bronze medal in Balance Beam

Simone Biles

200

This Gymnast spoke out about the twisties in 2020, saying, "I cannot imagine the fear of having it happen to you during competition. You have absolutely no control over your body and what it does."

Aleah Finnegan

300

In the show Ted Lasso, a soccer player Danny Rojas comes down with a case of the yips. How did the yips come around, and what did he do to get over them?

Danny kicked a free kick and killed a dog, and he overcame his yips by going to a sports therapist and figuring out that "Football is Life, but Football is also Death".