Baseball and Lessons for Life

Springtime always brings to life baseball, and it is a season that I enjoy. There is nothing like chewing on some sun flower seeds, eating hotdogs, listening to music from the speakers, and the sound of hearing the umpire in chief yell, “play ball”. Baseball is a season filled with great moments including the rain delays and even cancelled games for no apparent reason at all.
Over the years I have established some of the most cherished of friendships because of the game. As a sport official, working the baseball diamond at the college level has given me a several groups of friends that I just would not want to part with for anything. I would not want to part with the friends I have made from working the plate or the line either.
The lessons one can learn from baseball are many. I hope you can use some of these lessons I’ve learned if you find yourself walking back to the dugout of life thinking you’re a failure. Being grateful for the opportunities of life should be our standard disposition, but sometimes we accept the “lost attitude” when we should remember the simple truths of the game.
Baseball is a game of one thing at a time. Sure everyone wants to hit a homerun and be the hero, and while that is a single event that sometimes happens, it’s not the norm or the single focus approach that works and creates the continued success we strive for. For the pitcher in the game of baseball, it is one pitch at a time. Sure a pitcher wants three called strikes with a batter standing, just looking, afraid to take that bat off his shoulder and swing. A good pitcher understands and wants to whiz pitches by without the hitter making contact, but it doesn’t always work that way. The goal of a pitcher is to find that spot on the plate that the umpire likes and keep it there, but it doesn’t always work that way either.
For those stepping up to the plate, their simple goal for continued success is to simply get a hit. You accomplish that by hitting the baseball to a place on the field where the defense cannot get to it, allowing you to get on base without them being able to attempt to make a play. Now that’s a good hit! For the next batter, the goal is simple, get on base, and/or move that runner in front of you over. The goal for the next batter is to repeat steps one and two, and hopefully we can score that front runner. Now that’s the most basic teachings in coaching baseball, and from life we can see the basic as well that provide a foundation for those rainy delays or game day cancellations.
If coaches teach from a positive position, even the negative situations become learning curves for the future, and that’s a good thing. The flip side is, unfortunately we don’t always have such coaches in our dugouts. Sometimes we find that voice, the one from the side we hear yelling, not serving as an instrument of encouragement. It is then that it is easy to quit. It is easy to say or think, there has got to be something else I can be doing with my time. However, this coach says, “Hang in there! The game isn’t over yet! You’ve got another chance at bat. Get ready to go out in the field because this is a nine inning game today, and tomorrow we’ve got a double header before this series is over.”
Striking out at bat is never any fun, but it is a part of the game. Personally, I was never a good hitter, and maybe you find yourself in the same cleats I’ve worn. If that be the case, we need to find another way to contribute to the team’s effort. In their early years of playing baseball, young folks would rather just walk to base after four called balls. However, in the next levels of baseball one learns to get hit by the pitched ball instead of just talking a walk. Now, that’s not going to be a fun experience at all. Most folks don’t grow up to play the game to be that player who learns to take one for the team, but it’s a valuable position. Most coaches love those players, especially since they don’t have to be the one getting hit by the pitch.
I’m not sure where you are in your game, but remember it’s one pitch at a time. It’s one inning at a time, and every game has a 7th Inning stretch. You may be up to bat as I write, or you may be standing out on second base wondering if anyone is ever going to get hit the ball so you can attempt to score. It could be you are on the bench waiting to get into the game.
Wherever you are, this coach says, “Stay alert and be ready because things can change with one hit.”

Until then