Baseball

Since I was 8 years old, people have constantly questioned me as to why I love baseball, and why I let it play such a significant role in my life. And for years, I've searched for the answer to that question. It isn't because I am a particularly good player. I don't have a family history of baseball. It has taken me a long time to realize why I let this great game be such a significant part of the life I live. And I have finally figured it out.

Baseball is my best friend. I know. It sounds crazy, but it's true. I mean, I have loads of great friends who are real people and everything, but there is no one I trust more than baseball. It never lies, it never leaves, it always stands beside me. At the age of 8 I moved to a lacrosse dominated society in Denver. I was new, and didn't exactly fit in, but baseball was there. When I was bored I always had my mitt, a ball, and a brick wall to throw at. My whole life, I've done my best thinking with a baseball in my hand. I can stand and just throw my hardest at a wall for hours at a time. With every throw I let some anger escape. With every thud I can forget about the world around me. I can get lost in a simple game of throw and catch with the wall. Baseball never runs out of stories, something is always happening, all year round there is always something unfolding before us, revealing more and more about the sport. From spring training to the season to the all star game to the pennant races to the playoffs to the awards to the Hot Stove to the Hall of Fame voting to the draft, baseball never stops. There is no such thing as perfection in baseball, there is always more to be done, more to be pondered, more to be examined.

To me, baseball, while it is it's own world, is truly a smaller model of the world which we inhabit. For as long as I can remember, every meaningful life talk or explanation I have received has used baseball as a comparison. There are the rich, the poor, and the greedy. The hopeful, the doubtful, and the proven. There is always a need to measure risk versus reward. Every big decision you make, what high school to go to, what college to attend, who to marry, they are like big free agent contracts that will lock you into one gameplan for multiple years. Every life is full of coaches, mentors, teammates, agents, etc. trying to help you do what they think is best, but just like in baseball, what you do, what you say, what you decide is what will have the most effect on your life.

So that's my thought for today. Is your life really just a big baseball game?