• The first occurred during a game against the White Sox in Chicago. While waiting on deck, Piersall got into an argument with home-plate umpire Frank Umont over a strike Umont called on Johnny Temple. When he stepped to the plate, Jim renewed the argument, then stopped and got ready to hit. He cracked Billy Pierce's first delivery over the LF fence.
• The next day, Jim smashed a long drive to CF with two outs. Jim Landis got his glove on the ball but, when he hit the fence, fell back. From his vantage point, Piersall didn't see the ball fall over the fence. So he stopped at 1B, threw his batting helmet toward the dugout, and waited for someone to bring his glove. When he found out what happened, he raced around the bases bareheaded at top speed (which is how he ran out every HR).

• 1897: By Hurst's seventh season as a National League umpire, he has gained a reputation as a colorful but cantankerous umpire who keeps players n line by hitting them over the head with his mask or pinching them hard. When an irate fan tosses a beer stein at him, Hurst throws it back but hits the wrong fan. Tim is fined $100 and dismissed by the league.
• 1898: In his only year as a ML manager, Hurst is called on to umpire when Bob Emslie is too ill to continue following the first game of a doubleheader between Hurst's St. Louis Browns and Baltimore. Orioles manager Ned Hanlon recommends Hurst since he had already served a stint as an NL arbiter. When the contest ends in a 6-2 Baltimore victory, the crowd cheers "Tiny Tim." At the end of the dismal last-place season, the Browns fire Hurst.
• Hurst referees boxing matches, including the 1899 bout in which Tom Sharkey knocks out Kid McCoy in 10 rounds at the Lenox Athletic Club in New York.
• 1900: The National League rehires Hurst. However, he is barred from working in cities whose club owners "object to having a man of that type associated with their grounds, where ladies and gentlemen watch the games." This specifically means Cincinnati and New York. After the season, Hurst is not rehired by the NL until 1903 when the new American League hires away some NL umps.

Ban Johnson

• 1903: During the first game of a morning-afternoon doubleheader between the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Superbas, Jimmy Sheckard sticks his bat in front of a throw to second by Giants C Frank Bowerman. Hurst refuses to call interference, causing the Giants to ignore the deflected ball and the runner circling the bases and argue heatedly. Hurst does eject Schekard from the game.
• 1906: In his second year as an AL umpire, Hurst strikes New York Highlanders manager Clark Griffith in the mouth after Griffith accidentally steps on Tim's shoe during a 10-minute argument following a close play. Griffith is ejected, but the league suspends Hurst for five days.
• 1907: The National Police Gazette lists "Honest John" Kelly and Tim Hurst among the greatest boxing referees. Both have umpired in the majors, with Kelly also playing and managing.
• August 3, 1909: After being called out at second by Hurst, Eddie Collins of the homestanding Philadelphia A's argues vehemently, using words like "yellow," "crook," and "blind bat." Hurst turns and spits in Collins' face before teammates pull the two apart. After the game, police battle fans for 20 minutes as Hurst is hit by cushions and bottles. AL president Ban Johnson suspends Hurst indefinitely.
• August 12, 1909: Johnson fires Hurst after investigating the spitting incident. Hurst continues to referee boxing matches.
• June 4, 1915: Hurst dies at age 49.

Dale Murphy

Rick Ankiel

Chuck Knoblauch

One of the "One Great Year" features on this site discusses Von McDaniel, whose sensational rookie year excited Cardinal fans in 1957 only to see him forgot how to pitch during the next off-season. Here are some other instances of players who developed a mental block that affected their play.

• Dale Murphy was a promising C with the Atlanta Braves in 1977. During a spring training game, he made several bad throws to second. The next day, when a base runner took off for second, he threw the ball to the OF fence on one hop. Later that season, he twice hit his own P in the back with throws to second. Finally, when he couldn't even return the ball to the P, he moved to the OF where he became an All-Star.
• Steve Gasser was a 19-year-old phenom in the New York Mets farm system. In 1988, pitching at the Class A level, he walked eleven and uncorked seven wild pitches in one inning. Altogether, he walked 21 and threw 13 wild pitches in six innings. He never pitched again.
• Rick Ankiel now patrols the OF for the St. Louis Cardinals. However, he began his professional career as a highly promising P who could also hit quite well. He was the 1999 Minor League Player of the Year. With the Cardinals in 2000 at age 21, he went 11-7 and compiled a 4-0 record with a 1.97 ERA in the last month of the season. As a result, he started the first game of the Division Series against Atlanta. In that game and in two others in the playoffs, he walked eleven in four innings, flipped nine wild pitches, most of which were high over the batter's head. Against the Mets, he fired five of his first 20 pitches off the screen behind home plate.
• In 1992, Mets C Mackey Sasser had to pat the ball into his glove several times before lobbing the ball weakly back to the P. Not only did this hangup drive the Mets pitchers crazy, but opposing baserunners took the opportunity to make delayed steals. During one game, Montreal Expos players counted Sasser's false starts with the ball, then cheered sarcastically when he threw the ball to the mound.
• Chuck Knoblauch made only eight errors during the entire 1996 season at 2B for Minnesota. He won a Golden Glove in 1997. Then, with the Yankees in 1999, he committed 26 errors. 14 were throwing errors, most of which were on routine tosses to first.
• Knoblauch followed in the footsteps of another 2B who developed the yips throwing to first. In fact, the problem was labeled Steve Sax Disease in "honor" of the Dodger who had thirty errors by mid-August in 1983.
• RHP Steve Blass won 15 games for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1971 with a 2.85 ERA. He added victories in games 3 and 7 of the World Series. Then in 1972 he went 19-8 with a 2.48 ERA. His career average was less than three walks per nine innings. During spring training in 1973, Blass walked 25 men in 14 innings. That season he won only three while losing nine and saw his ERA balloon to 9.85. He walked 84 in 88+ innings. That ended his baseball career.

Reference: "Bring the Pain," David Shields, Elysian Fields Quarterly, Winter 2004