Astros' Lowrie: 'Game plan' doesn't work in baseball like it does in football
The NFL season has officially begun. Its return to the TVs and mind sets of sports fans around the country may suggest inapplicable parallels between it and baseball, which is in its final month before the postseason begins.
As Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle explored over the weekend, baseball involves a decidedly different aesthetic. Namely, that it's harder for a baseball team's September fortunes to be impacted as heavily by the efforts of a specific player (whereas in football an elite quarterback or star player can sometimes be the difference-maker).
Astros infielder Jed Lowrie expanded upon that concept while speaking with Drellich. Simply put, Lowrie says, sticking to the 'game plan' doesn't necessarily work in baseball: “You have to be prepared, you have to be ready to go out there and have a good game plan and execute that game plan but … it’s so much different in baseball," he told Drellich. "In football, if you execute your game plan, it worked. In basketball, you take a shot, if you’ve executed your plan, your shot goes in."
The central concern with baseball, Lowrie says, is that your 'best' effort can still turn out in the other team's favor: “You can make a good pitch in baseball and it can get hit. You can take a good swing in baseball and it can be an out."
It's an interesting way to look at the many differences between football and baseball, especially with the pennant race heating up and the Astros looking to cling to their now-uncomfortably small lead in the AL West.
