Just a reminder that you can never forget about any aspect of teaching a skill.
Smead Jolley is a prime example of this. To refreh your memories he was an outfielder with the 1930-33 Chicago and Boston teams in the A.L.
He was traded to Boston and they were going to try him in left field. Fenway was a little different back then and they had a ten foot incline instead of a warning track. Out of frustration the coaches would fungoes in the mornings to Jolley to try and acclimate him to handling the incline.
Jolley got a start in left against the Senators and had a long drive hit towards him. He turned and ran up the incline easily but when he turned to find the ball he saw that he had over run it. He tried to adjust and ended up face first on the decline and the ball landed close to him. By the time he recovered the runner was at third.
After the inning was over Jolley went into the dugout and cussed his coaches saying; "Fine bunch, you guys," he complained. "For ten days you teach me how to go up the hill, but none of you has the brains to teach me how to come down!"
Whos' fault is this?
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