We would like to pretend it is, because we like to medicalize our social problems. Medicalizing offers the illusion of understanding of a problem, and ultimately curing it. John Rocker is a jerk. But jerk is not a medical diagnosis. A closer is a pitcher who pitches only when the game is on the line, when a fractional deviation of the angle of the wrist means failure, not only for him but for the 24 other guys on his team.
Some ballplayers talk to the ball.
Some talk to themselves. Some perform rituals even the Aztecs might find elaborate every time they step up to the plate. Star fullback Mark Van Eeghen used to leap off a television set onto his bed before every game. Batting champ Wade Boggs once decided that chicken was the key to his success, and ate little more than chicken morning, noon and night for 18 years. No one sent Van Eeghen or Boggs to the Menninger Clinic.