But what if we learned something from baseball?
Posted on July 11 2017
"You could be a kid for as long as you want when you play baseball." - Cal Ripken, Jr.
When you are a kid the world works in simple ways. Hot dogs come from concessionaires. Ketchup comes from the bottle. Baseball is for having fun… and then getting Slurpees on the way home. Your new shoes make you run faster. Your new glove makes you catch more balls.
Off the field, things are pretty simple too. You know who your family is. You know who your teacher is. You know who the President is. And that is it. It all seems to work together. It doesn’t mean you are without trials, they are just not as interconnected in your mind.
Baseball does this. It makes things simple. Catch the ball. Throw the ball. Hit the ball. Run fast. There is something pure about it. A way of thinking, really, that isn’t judgemental or complicated. It is in the present tense. You are present. Everyone around you is present. There aren’t emails waiting and deadlines looming. There is only the game.
In America today we are obsessed with so many things we can’t control. Heck, we don’t even know who does control them. We can easily spend our day focusing on how bad things are. How we are broken. How torn apart we are.
But what if we learned something from baseball. What can we learn from being present? That the most important relationships are those right around us. What if we decided to play respectfully… for the love of the game… for the love of the country.
We believe that America is stitched together. It is our common stories, shared experiences, daily decision to keep living here that serves as our binding thread. Baseballs are designed to take a beating. They are tough. They can handle the crushing force of a major league batter. And so can we. We can make it through today, this week, this month, this year. We can decide to come together.
If you believe that baseball is America’s game… If you believe that we need to come together, now, more than ever… If you believe we need to hold fast to our seams and remain stitched together as a country…
Then share this post. And leave a comment letting us know what you are going to do to bring people together.
And maybe there is something to learn from Cal. Maybe we need to celebrate the simple things. See our sameness. Be present.
2 comments
Great message Baseball Seams! My advice is – life will throw curve balls, keep a strong stance and stay focused. Stay balanced by touching all bases and the most important things happen at home.
Wow. Well said. Makes me think of my favorite quote from my favorite movie. “The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again.”