Pete Crow-Armstrong Excelling by Shifting Obligation to Opportunity

Courage isn’t the absence of fear, or so goes an old saying that has been attributed to a number of different sources, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear. It’s all a matter of perspective, really. You or I might see the massive waves breaking at Pe’ahi or Waimea Bay and turn to puddles at the very thought of riding them, but Laird Hamilton and those of his ilk revel in the opportunity to test themselves against some of nature’s most awesome forces.

“It’s like being a dragon slayer when there are no dragons,” Hamilton once said about waiting for the next big swell.

Imagine actually wanting to face down a fire-breathing beast with a mouth full of daggers and razors for claws. Not that anyone has actually done so. But what about standing alone in the batter’s box with the game on the line and hearing an undulating crowd chant your nickname as you dig in to face a flame-throwing reliever staring daggers into you with his eyes? We see that all the time.

The difference in success and failure may come down to how you view the situation.

“Earlier in my career, I think I definitely let that be something other than it was,” Pete Crow-Armstrong shared with reporters after hitting for the cycle the other day. “I think it was [John Mallee] that had the conversation with me, but in those moments, every bit of good energy is behind you. So seeing it like that, where I think earlier that made me a little nervous.

“I felt like I had to instead of I get to go his in this really cool moment with this crowd of 40,000 pulling for me. And I think I’m just learning how to use that to my advantage instead of making me shake in my boots when I’m up there and wanting to get the job done so badly.”

The fatal flaw in my surfing analogy above is that the wave has no emotion. It is an inexorable event that will go along on its journey to the shore with no concerns for what or who might be in its way. Watch it, ride it, or be crushed beneath it; the wave cares not. Even the best surfer in the world is at the mercy of the ocean, and never the other way around.

“Anyone not humbled by the power of the ocean should take a good, long look at a fifty-foot wave,” Hamilton said. “If you don’t have respect for a wave, it’s only a matter of time before the ocean teaches you to get some. We’re all equal before the wave.”

In baseball, however, waves of emotion are generated by the humans on the field and in the stands. As such, learning how to use big moments to your advantage can grant you an edge over your opponent in a tense situation. Just think about Freddy Peralta crumbling like a sand castle when he heard the Wrigley faithful taunt him with his own name in last season’s NLDS.

“It’s also a regular thing at Wrigley,” PCA continued. “Like, that happens a lot. So after putting ourselves in situations where people are up on their feet and all that stuff, I think I’ve grown a different understanding and I’ve realized that the pitcher probably feels that more than I do if I channel that properly.”

That simple shift is a big part of why the magnetic outfielder’s offensive game has begun to rival his glove work of late. He’s been arguably the best player in baseball since the start of May, if not earlier, and it’s hard to imagine where the Cubs would be without his individual heroics over the last few weeks. Like in their 3-2 win against the Giants on June 6, in which PCA homered to tie the game in the 6th, then did it again with two outs in the bottom of the 9th.

Or how about when he hit for the cycle and also drove in a run with a sac fly in the 8th to keep the Cubs within striking distance in Monday’s walk-off win? He homered for the third straight game and fourth out of five on Wednesday, a shot that appeared to have merely grazed the pole on the foul side, and it came against a lefty. That gave him four dingers in 103 plate appearances against southpaws after hitting eight in his previous .284 PAs against them.

Crow-Armstrong is also slashing .286/.369/.451 against lefties this season, a massive improvement over his .208/.233/.358 line coming into the year. He is no longer just the guy you want the other team to hit it to late in the game, he’s who you want at the plate when the outcome is on the line. Once a little nervous about being thrust on stage and blinded by the spotlight, PCA has embraced the moment to become the Cubs’ most feared dragon-slayer.

Now, if only the rest of the team could wield swords other than those that come from bad swings on breaking balls.