Carlos' Corner: Peaks and valleys
Peña expects highs and lows during long season
By Carlos Pena / MLB.com

Carlos Peña, a 23-year-old rookie heralded as one of the top
prospects in the game, was acquired by Oakland during the offseason
in a six-player trade with Texas. He's replacing Jason Giambi as the
A's first baseman and is providing for MLB.com an exclusive daily
diary for the 2002 season.

Peña, who hit .308 with four homers in the first week of the season,
entered Wednesday's game in an 0-for-14 slide. He snapped out of it
by going 3-for-4 with an RBI double, and before Thursday's game he
explained how he tries to deal with the highs and lows of the season.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Baseball is a game of peaks and valleys. It's a
failure-based game, after all. If you make two outs every three at-
bats, you're a Hall of Fame-type of hitter. If you make seven outs
every 10 at-bats, you're doing a great job. So the first thing you
have to do is learn to understand that you will make outs. A lot of
outs. You don't have to like it, but you have to accept it.

You also have to understand that sometimes the outs will come in
bunches. That's just the nature of the game. Say you have a bad night
at the plate, 0-for-4. But the next night you crush five balls, but
you're crushing balls right at people -- 0-for-5. Now you're 0-for-9.

And then there's the guys out in the field. These are big-league
ballplayers, and they're going to take some hits away from you. Say
you get robbed the first time up in your next game -- 0-for-10.

I'm not saying this is what I just went through, but it's an extreme
example of what can go into a what -- statistically -- looks like a
very bad slump. And it's not just in the big leagues. This can happen
to you at every level of the game, from Little League on up.

When these things happen -- either you crush it right at someone or
somebody robs you of a base hit -- the key is to not get frustrated.
If anything, that should give you confidence because you did all you
can do. You hit the ball hard. The rest is out of your hands.

At the same time, you can't get too high when you have a big night.
For instance, say you go 4-for-5. If all four or five of those balls
were crushed, great. Keep that with you. But sometimes two of those
hits came on balls that maybe you didn't hit so well. You flared one
over the third baseman off the end of you bat, you got on with a
swinging bunt, things like that. You can't fool yourself and go home
thinking, "Oh, I had a great night because I got four hits."

You have to know deep in your heart that two of those hits came on
bad swings.

The bottom line is that a baseball season is very long season. It's a
marathon. Everybody in the big leagues is very talented, and for the
most part everyone is going to have their share of success and their
share of failure.

So you can't live and die with the highs and lows. Focus on today and
what you can control. The rest takes care of itself somehow.

Carlos Peña's diary appears as told to Mychael Urban, who covers the
Oakland A's for MLB.com.