Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/11/21/watch-a-52-player-dominate.html
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I don’t give a damn about basketball, but I do generally enjoy watching talented people do their thing, whatever it is.
Those were fun clips and I’m happy for the dude that his family was there to cheer him on.
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I’m 6’ 5’’ and the short dudes I sometimes play with are dangerous. Sure, you can throw your arms up to block…but guess what? The guy you’re blocking has already went around you and laid up the shot.
Kudos to this skilled athlete.
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I wonder how much of his success has to do with being underestimated and with the opposition just having no idea how to defend against someone so small. Whatever it is he’s working it to great success.
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I wonder how much of his success has to do with being underestimated and with the opposition just having no idea how to defend against someone so small.
That sort of thing can indeed be a major factor. For example, there are a disproportionate number of elite fencers that are lefties because it can be difficult for righties to adjust to them.
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I would bet that there’s a part of it that is being underestimated, but more than that is this guy is just a good player. If you can get your defender off-balance or in the air, a good player can do whatever they want. In those clips, that’s what he’s doing. Maybe some defenders see a smaller guy and get a little too aggressive in their block-hunting, but most of it is just good ball-handling, quickness, and solid play.
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When will lefties become the majority in fencing and going against righties become more difficult?
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Especially when they deploy those harpoons and tow cables.
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I’ve never encountered that in basketball, but it happens to me when I’m swimming all the time.
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That’s hilarious.
Pitcher had two options.
- Drop the glove so batter doesn’t know which way he is pitching (dangerous, I guess).
- Bean the batter the next time he walked across home plate.
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There have only been two other ambidextrous pitchers in major league baseball ever. One of them had a special ambidextrous glove with two thumbs, and had only faced two batters left-handed in his entire 15 year career. Both batters were lefties. The other was back in the 19th century, and he didn’t use a glove. He put the ball in both hands and then picked a hand as he was about to throw 
After the switch pitcher vs switch hitter incident, there was a new rule: pick a throwing hand when facing a batter and stick with it.
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There’s actually now a Pat Venditte Rule:
Venditte’s rare ability to pitch with either arm required both Major and Minor League Baseball to create a rule for ambidextrous pitchers, known colloquially as the “Pat Venditte Rule”. This rule essentially requires any ambidextrous pitcher to declare which hand he will use to pitch to a batter before the at-bat starts, and to throw with that hand through the entire at-bat (unless he is injured during the at-bat).
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Thanks to you, I’ve read up more on ambidextrous pitching than I should have.
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Another factor (this was also part of the success of short hockey players like Cliff Ronning and Theoron Fleury) is the lower center of gravity lends itself to agility.
While a taller person is still trying to rebalance and change direction, the shorter one is long gone. Sure, the little guys couldn’t throw a hit like the big ones, but they were fast and could get out of the way.
Unfortunately, we have a bias to think of athletes as big. This bias exists through all stages of the recruiting and development process, from the kids leagues on up. The smaller athlete needs to be extra good to get past those mental barriers and get the attention of those scouting for “talent”.
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The last factor has been well documented, including the effect of how birth dates affect how youth coaches select, coach, and play kids as young as 5 years old. I’ve seen this directly with my son and soccer. He was a little kid for his age group and hardly saw any playing time with a coach who, for that age group, cared WAY too much about winning and losing. Then, the way the age cutoffs were determined changed from school grade to calendar year, and suddenly he was one of the older, bigger boys. He had to switch teams (and thus, coaches) and he became one of the dominant players on the team. Even now, when the age differences have diminished post-puberty growth spurt, he’s still a dominant player despite being surpassed by others for height. It was all about the opportunity to actually play and gain game-time experience.
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Yep, that’s the one
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His father, Shawnta Rogers, was just as amazing when he played for George Washington U. Atlantic 10 player of the year in 1999. He was listed as 5’4" but was thought to be much shorter.
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I could kill you now?
RIP Andre
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