The "yips" refers to a sports condition where you can't do simple things that you used to be able to do with ease. Steve Blass, Mackey Sasser, Chuck Knoblauch, and Rick Ankiel all were very good players who inexplicably lost the ability to throw a baseball 60 feet. They all tried "everything," and only Ankiel ever recovered his career with an improbable switch from pitching to the outfield.
It captures and magnifies what I love about baseball - there's a mental aspect, a constant struggle every player experiences whether or not they ever get the dreaded yips. It's why we see hot streaks and cold streaks. It's why Dallas Braden gives up six runs in four innings and ten days later throws a perfect game. It's why Albert Pujols strikes out six times in three games against the Dodgers and later in the year goes 27 straight games without any strikeouts (wow). It allows us to identify with players, to hang with them through difficult stretches, and to hold out hope that somebody like Oliver Perez will eventually get it together.
Nobody in the NFL gets the yips. A player is drafted, learns his position, and (save for injury) is that same player until age takes its toll. Not so in baseball. Each player is in part a soul-searcher on a meandering journey in search of perfection. One day you're an unstoppable force and the next you're in over your head.
Good luck, Salty. I know how you feel.
Limas Sweed's hands are a football example of the yips. Jake Delhomme inability to throw anything but an INT might be an example, too. As for Oliver P, I think losing 10 mph on his fastball is more a physical thing than a mental thing. Kevin Hart is well on his way to contracting the yips, as well.
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