It’s easy to watch pro sports on TV and sometimes think the only difference between them and us is phenomenal physical gifts - height, strength, reflexes, speed, eye-hand coordination, etc. Wrong. It’s as much mental as physical, maybe moreso. Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling on one of the favorite teammates he’s ever played with:

Lenny Dykstra (Phillies) Dude, contrary to public opinion, most people have no idea that he was probably the smartest hitter in baseball for a long period of time. Lenny could tell you EXACTLY what the pitch sequence of his next AB was going to be, and what he was going to do. Called his HR off Mark Wohlers in the 1993 NLCS, along with the exact sequence of how he’d get the count to 3-2.

If you’ve played baseball you know how amazing this is. Calling a HR isn’t nearly as tough as calling a pitch sequence, and to do it consistently is amazing. Then to know the upcoming pitch sequence in an AB and know exactly what to do and how to do it to get to a point in the count where you know the right pitch is coming in the right location for you to drive the ball, that’s just staggering.