Fetridge's Law

Fetridge’s Law outlines an idea that things that are supposed to happen, do not happen when people are looking, and things that aren't supposed to happen, will happen when people are looking. This law seems to impose itself into nearly every aspect of my life. One particularly comical incidence of this law in action was when I was thirteen and learning how to throw a curveball. At this time, most of the baseball players at my level were unable to throw curveballs, so my coach did not believe that I would be able to learn this skill. However, even though he did not have faith in me, he still taught me the arm mechanics and the intricacies of throwing the infamous pitch. Without delay I began to practice what he had shown me, but much to my dismay, I was unable to inflict any movement upon the ball. Therefore, my coach had confirmed his suspicions that I was too young to learn such a technical skill. After that discouraging night, I continued to work on my curveball whenever I had a chance. I watched videos and read articles about ways to improve my form, in hopes of finally being able to master one of baseball’s most difficult skills. Eventually, my curveball started to break a little bit, and then it started to break a little bit more. By the end of the summer, I had taught myself how to throw a brilliant curveball and was prepared to show it to my coach and my skeptical teammates. At our last practice of the season, my coach lined everybody up on the side of the fence to see if I could actually throw the pitch that I claimed I could, or if my ego was bigger than my abilities. Without delay, I stepped onto the hard white rubber and stared the catcher down, waiting for him to let me know that he was ready. Once he had given me the signal, I took a deep breath, eyeballed his glove, slowly began to raise my leg, and let the ball go just as I had practiced. However, when the ball left my hand, instead of slicing through the air in a beautiful curve as it had previously done, all it did was land in the dirt. Straightaway, my teammates began to laugh and my coach shook his head in disappointment. At first I was frustrated, but then I started to giggle. I was laughing, because ultimately, it didn’t matter how much I had practiced, because Fetridge’s Law had imposed itself upon me and decided that no matter what, what was supposed to happen would not happen when people were looking.

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