"You know what the difference between hitting .250 and .300 is? It's 25 hits. 25 hits in 500 at-bats is 50 points, ok? There's six months in a season. That's about 25 weeks. That means if you can get just one extra flare a week, just one. A gork ... you get a ground ball ... you get a ground ball with eyes ... you get a dying quail ... just one more dying quail a week and you're in Yankees Stadium."
Crash Davis in the pool hall scene in Bull Durham after Nuke gets called up to the major leagues.
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In a sport with such incredibly fine margins that determine whether a season emerges as a smashing success or something far less optimal, it's easy in the aftermath to look for the areas where those small margins could have flipped the other way.
With a 9-3 regular season and no playoffs for Steve Sarkisian's program in 2025, we've all spent time in the last few weeks trying to figure out where the Longhorns could have snuck in a few more dying quails throughout a 12-game season in the name of creating the kind of small fine margins that would have changed the entirety of the Longhorns’ season.