Whoever said practice makes perfect wasn’t talking to a baseball player.

OK, I can’t speak for every ball player ever, but I do believe there is no such thing as perfection on a baseball field. Even a perfect game is just 27 outs, but doesn’t speak to the individual battles and challenges that take place every pitch.

My idea of perfection would be a 27-pitch, 27-out game; something that could easily be tainted by a batter just taking a pitch.

No batter is perfect at the plate. That’s why this game is so humanizing since even the best player in the game gets out at least half the time and you’re an all-star if you can get a hit three times out of 10.

So perfection is never the goal. I practice to ensure my repetition is correct. I practice so when I repeat a pitch, I have confidence it will do what I expect it to do.

I work on my inside fastball so when I decide to throw it, it crosses the inside part of the plate. While that sounds obvious, it’s not that easy. It’s like asking a golfer to his the exact same shot. Or tennis players. Or corn-hole throwers.

You practice so your repetition meets a standard that you, your catcher, your coaches and your teammates are happy with. So when that inside fastball is called for, you’ve painted that black so many times it comes easy.

But that doesn’t mean it’s always going to be that way.

And that’s why we practice.