Baseball vs. Life

Life is hard. Baseball is easy. Some say, baseball is hard, and life is easy. Some would say they are equally difficult. I have yet to find a man who knows so little about either as to say they are both simple tasks.

When I play baseball, I want to play well. I want to play the game the right way and help my team win. In life…not so much. It just seems more complicated; no uniforms, signals, or dugouts, how am I expected to know what to do.

If life was like baseball, some one would ceremoniously wake us all each morning. We would put on our cleats, and have a coin flip for the bathroom. We would jog through the day casually commenting on details of success, and about half way through the afternoon we would have a good sense how the day was going to end; an exciting finish, a little nerves, some noise from the fans.

If baseball was lifelike sometimes the pitcher wouldn’t throw the ball, or first base would be missing. I would hustle down the first base line and find no base awaits my effort. I'll take an out call over that. It is not the game of baseball that is easy, it is the feeling it gives you. In baseball, I strike out sometimes, and when I strike out, I know I have struck out because it is the third strike; I am free to play in a game where the rules are always the same.

In baseball we have warning tracks/ in life, horns;

baseball, coaches/ life, bosses

baseball, clubhouse/ life, break room

baseball, batting practice/ life, alarm clocks and coffee.

My college baseball coach used to say to the team, “What is the worst thing you can do on the field, loose the game for the team? Do you think your mom won’t love you anymore, hell, most of these guys will still love you. Don't worry, just play”. And he was right; it’s off the field we would have to do the worrying.