The Batter Box And The Game Of Life: Swing Away
Much can be gleaned by spending time with a baseball pitching machine. The best lessons taken from baseball or a softball pitching machine actually have very little to do with baseball. Standing in the batters box with balls flying by at 70 miles an hour lends itself to some serious life lessons. Everyday a hundred issues fly past every normal working stiff. Decisions are constantly being made every second. Should I wait for this car to pass, should I scratch my nose before putting down the donut, should I call Teddy back, take the stairs or elevator, use blue ink or black ink, wait until I’m in the bathroom to readjust the equipment, run to catch the cross light or wait? Facing pitches thrown by a machine is a great practice and perfect metaphor for life.
A professional baseball player knows that whenever he goes to the plate, the pitcher is trying to strike him out. That’s the game and the way it is played. The batter doesn’t waste time griping about why the pitcher is a slider, or why he’s making it hard to hit a homerun. The batter isn’t mad at the pitcher because he is throwing fast balls and change ups without telling him. The batter doesn’t think about why the pitcher doesn’t like him. It’s how you play the game, the objectives are clear and the positions well defined. The batter is out if you miss when swinging at three good pitches. Is the batter angry at the man on the mound? Heck darn no way admires the pitcher for doing his job so well and is mad at himself for not doing better. The man with the bat made his decisions, to swing hard, to bunt or to watch the ball go by. If he grounds out or goes down swinging, he goes back to the dugout, disappointed, but aware that he will step into the box again. He doesn’t point the finger at anyone else or make a bunch of excuses, or feel like the man on the mound was being unfair. He took his swings and he will live to play another day.
For a lot of folks life is not as black and white or as confrontational as baseball. It is much more like facing a batting machine. The pitching machine has no worries. It doesn’t care if the person with the bat is black, white, purple, tall, short, or shaped like a gourd. The machine just keeps throwing pitches. It doesn’t care if the batter zings it out of the park or swishes forty times.
That is the way life is for a lot of folks. Life comes at them quick as a major league fastball. Is it time to swing, pass or duck? If they get beaned by a ball do they run out to the mound and pick a fight with the mechanical arm? Nope, they do not. A mechanical bean ball is not a malicious action. Life is just throwing things at them. They can gripe and complain, cuss and kick. It does no good, but they can do that if it comforts them. The real energy needs to go into stepping back to the plate and facing the next ball, watch it come in and decide whether to swing or pass.
America’s past time has much to teach us all. Baseballs basic rules can become rules for living. Swing or pass, it’s nothing personal. In the game of life, we’re always at the plate and the pitches just keep coming. That is what is cool about life is; you can always take a swing.
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