By the slimmest of margins, a tiny percentage, barely there, but there nonetheless… 1st place. With slightly more than half-a-season behind them, the Orioles capture the top spot in the AL East.
Now.. how to stay there? The same way they got there: don’t stop, refuse to give in, never give up.
This season hasn’t been pretty, many times it’s been brutal, heartbreaking. Then, like this past week, simply exhilarating. Such is baseball, such is life. Battle through, bare down and focus on the positives, celebrate what you are doing right and correct what you are doing wrong. Enjoy the victories, and savor those you managed to produce from the jaws of defeat, when your back is up against the wall and you feel like there might be no hope: Walk-offs, great plays, incredible saves.
Most baseball games seem to go this way. Up and down, a see-saw, a fight to the finish. 26 outs won’t get you there, you need to play until #27, those are the rules, you can’t deny it, can’t hide from it, can’t cheat it, you have to accept it and you have to play them all, or risk losing so much. What a game, it can be your best friend and your worst enemy. Joy and heartbreak. All season long.
Lose some of your best players for short periods of time, some for the season, but march onward, pick up the slack, fill the holes and find a way. 25 men, (for the Orioles this week 24), forming the troop which goes into battle each and every day, with rarely a day off, to try and find a way to win yet another game. Just one more, becomes sometimes that’s all it takes. The slightest of margins, the slimmest of chances, one catch, one hit, one lucky break.
The Orioles, just like every major league team, have to play full-out for 162 games, that’s the season, you can’t deny it, can’t hide from it, can’t cheat it. Like O’s manager Buck Showalter says, no matter where, no matter what, when it’s time, “tee it up, we’re ready to play, that’s what we do for a living, we play baseball.”
Sounds good to me. Happy 4th… in 1st!
Until next time, thanks for taking the time.
Mark
Mark Brodinsky, Author, Huffington Post Blogger (http://www.huffingtonpost.
The #1 Amazon Best-Seller: It Takes 2. Surviving Breast Cancer: A Spouse’s Story
http://www.spouses-story.com/, http://www.amazon.com/Mark-Brodinsky/e/B00FI6R3U6
Connect: markbrodinsky@gmail.com
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