Daniel Murphy Has Been Working On His Hitting

But his use of rhetorical devices still needs sharpening, specifically when formulating an antimetabole .

Here is Daniel Murphy, Mets first baseman, as quoted by the New York Times and in turn by Metsblog. They refer to his words as "chicken and the egg" and "Catch 22" respectively. But his words aren't that at all, and the New York Times somehow misses that. Here is what Murphy had to say:

“You have to have confidence to hit, but to get hits, you have to be confident.”

Murphy's quote is not a catch 22 or chicken and the egg question at all but simply a repitition that looks deep because the clauses are inversted in the sentence's second half. If placed in the same order, here are both parts of Daniel Murphy's sentence:

1. You have to have Confidence to hit.
2. You have to be confident to get hits.

Unquoted, though I am sure mentioned by Murphy, is that you also have to swing confidently to hit the ball. And be a confidant to a hit.

I love the Mets, and I like Daniel Murphy, but this is just another example of a player lacking fundamentals. When the Mets aren't running out balls, they are screwing up antimetabole usage. It's always something with this team.


post script-
What Murphy meant to say say was probably:

“You have to have confidence to hit, but you have to have hits to be confident.”

And that's quite the Catch 22.