.

CROSS-SPORT TRAINING, Dept.

If you like Euro football, or let's just say you like any sports that are incredible, like Secretariat at the 1973 Preakness or stuff like that, check out Mesut Ozil's goal in the Champions' League.  

LINK HERE.  You ought-er start at 3:45, but if you only want 10-15 seconds' worth of swoon, go to the LAST ten fifteen seconds.  Which is the eighth replay or something.

(1) Start with the understanding that Tae Kwon Do is absurd.  Against a dangerous enemy, you need your feet to ... move yourself around.  Trying to do anything with your feet, while you are moving around, is inherently preposterous.  Well, you can take out the side of the guy's knee with a sweep kick, provided you have practiced on bamboo trees and have nothing against maiming a fellow human being for life.  In which case you have posters of NFL offensive linemen on your bedroom wall and aren't reading baseball stuff in the first place.

(1a) We should edit to say that Tae Kwon Do isn't absurd if you have Chuck Norris-level talent.  Or if you're going up against three drunks.  Don't want to alienate any "fight with your legs six feet off the ground" Mariners fans out there.

(1b) Point was, it's amazing to accomplish any 2nd task with your feet while you are running.

(2) Where were we?  Oh yeah.  Start by noticing the feather-light first touch (3:50) by which Ozil adjusts the speed of the ball.

(3) Imagine how hard it would be to nip the ball over the keeper (4:29) without sending it into the second deck.

(4) Watch Ozil's center of gravity as he dances around a 200-lb goalie who is about to chop-block him like they did to Michael Bennett.  Ever been hit knee- or-thigh high in that kind of collision?

(5) Watch the gathering of Ozil's CG "cuddling" the ball (4:33) as he uses the outside of his boot to deftly cut inside and around a defender who will get there later.  That's the top photo, by the way.

(6) Watch Ozil pull his striking leg back (4:35) and half-swing it forward to juke the second oncoming defender - and then outside-foot the ball inside again.  On the same swing of the leg.  While running.

(7) The punch line:  consider that Mesut Ozil is not a goalscorer.  He's the best "key pass" through-ball assist man in Europe.  It's like Steph Curry grabbing 20 boards, or Russell Wilson running for 100 yards.  Oh, wait...

Just in case any English blokes get here through Google, we should specify that Ozil's a do-everything football genius, almost comparable to a baseball Micah Owings.  ...  It's not like Ozil never scores.  It's just not his primary skill.

*Have never been high-fived by a fellow Gunner on this website, but if you as a baseball / x-sport fan want to see more of Ozil, they have very good highlight montages on YouTube.

.....

Bill James once said that no NBA players, or almost no NBA players, are athletic enough to play major league baseball.  MLB players are orders of magnitude quicker, more explosive, says Bill. You could make a list of Mariners who are lightest on their feet ... come to think of it, that's probably why position players laugh about pitchers, because pitchers aren't necessarily twinkle-toed.

Playing major league shortstop, third base, second base, center field, it all requires men who are freakishly light on their feet, and in control of their center of gravities -- while also packing a lot more core power than Mesut Ozil has, correct?  Maybe that Zack Cozart guy is worth a flier.

SSI Life Lesson:  I wonder how you would measure "lightness on your feet" and how it would stack up against life expectancy?  Bet you it would correlate.  Anything we do to move ourselves around better has got to be a good thing.

Hypocritically,

Dr D