Baseball is an unforgiving sport. Perseverance is not just a good quality for a hitter ¡ª it is essential. There is no other way to deal with the constant failure that goes hand-in-hand with trying to hit a baseball. It is hard enough to just make contact with the ball. When it comes to actually converting an at-bat into a hit, a batter can expect to fail at least 70% of the time throughout a season.
¡°And that¡¯s for the good players,¡± Seibu Lions first baseman David MacKinnon joked before a game at Tokyo Dome earlier in the week.
MacKinnon is in his first season in Japan with the Seibu Lions, and it has been a grind. MacKinnon, though, is thinking positive thoughts and, on the outside at least, keeping his head up and spirits high. The infielder¡¯s .237 batting average is far lower than he wants it to be, though he also has seven home runs and 23 RBIs, second-most among Lions players in both categories.
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