Writing Wednesdays: Get Your Cap On

Welcome back to the world’s greatest game, the game of life disguised as baseball. Get your cap on, it’s time to play.

There is no other game quite like it, no other game that mirrors every day life in such unique fashion.

Consider the numbers, the stats, the nuances, the challenges, the reality that is baseball… and life:

Baseball: 162 games – over a six-month time frame – day after day, with few days off (resting days).
Life: Last time I checked our lives are a marathon, not a sprint – day after day with few days off. (vacations).

Baseball: 3 hits out of 10. Do that over a long career and you’ve got a good shot at ending up in the Hall of Fame.
Life: 3 out of 10? If for every risk or chance you took in life you nailed 3-out-of-10, you’re a champ. In sales, close 3 out of 10 you’re at the top of the heap.

Baseball: No clock on any inning, you can’t stop and hold time.
Life: There’s a clock, but it only tells you the time. You have no control. Since you have no idea how much time you have left in this life, it’s almost meaningless. You can’t stop and hold time.

Baseball: Win a game or lose a game, take time to feel either… then sleep fast. There’s a new game coming tomorrow.
Life: You get 24 hours to get it right, or have it go wrong every single day. Some days you win this game of life, some days you lose. Then the sun rises on a new day. You keep going.

Baseball: Played on a diamond, the entire park referred to as a field of dreams.
Life: If you don’t think your life is a rare gem – a diamond – then you have failed to recognize the miracle that you even exist. And your dream? Well if you’ve got one, and you most certainly do, then hold fast to it baby, cause if you build it they will come.

Baseball: The pitcher, the leader on the field, the general who controls the game stands on a mound, just a bit higher than everyone else. Yet he can’t exist without the team behind him to save him when the ball is put in play.
Life: The leaders we need and respect stand just a bit taller than those who follow. But any leader needs a team, to defend and to support when the ball is put in play, when danger threatens, when life happens.

Baseball: Three strikes and you’re out.
Life: Three strikes against you will cause you trouble in almost any endeavour. It doesn’t mean you give up however, because hopefully you get the chance to get another at-bat.

Baseball: Failure. Massive failure in order to achieve even a modicum of success. If you’re good – even 7 times out of 10 you won’t get a hit. If you’re a pitcher, even if you’re good you will still throw nearly as many balls as you do strikes, you will lose several games, maybe more. A team that makes the playoffs will lose 40% of their games.
Life: That’s right, accept it, suck it up, embrace it, love it – it’s called failure – massive failure. Yet it’s the only path to unbelievable success. Be too careful, too cautious and you will probably bat below the Mendoza line (.200), in life. Failure to work on yourself and improve your skills means you will be sent down to the Triple-A team of your existence on this earth – that team’s called Mediocrity. The minor leagues suck.

Baseball: Slow, methodical, beautiful, brilliant, plays and moments that defy the odds, stand the test of time and remain embedded in our memories for a lifetime.
Life: Ditto.

It’s time to play ball! Welcome back baseball and welcome to the first day of the rest of your life, which is every day. If you’re ready to play… get your cap on.