As far as I am concerned, baseball is God’s game. There is no other game like it in the world. I have watched baseball my whole life. I have snapped green beans in the summer while my daddy and I watched the College World Series. I have listened to ball games on the radio while fishing. I have been in the stands when a heart-stopping 9th inning came to a close. I have sat in my great-aunt's living room while she tells the manager for St.Louis what he ought to do. Baseball has a magic all its own.
One of the best things about baseball to me is how unpredictable it can be. You can do everything right and get out. You can do everything wrong and still get on base. That’s baseball and that’s life. I have seen many batters step up to the plate and do it just right. They wait for the right pitch. They swing at the right time. They hustle to first when the ball connects to their bat with the sound players and fans alike wait for. Then for whatever reason, the ball makes it back to first before they do. I have also seen batters down in the count strike out and make it safely to first simply because the catcher literally dropped the ball. That happens in life sometimes, too. I have been in situations where I thought I had it sewn up and as it happened, I didn’t. I have also been in situations where I shouldn’t have been safe on first, but I was.
Most of all, my favorite thing about baseball is probably the reason many people don’t like it. Multiple innings can go by with seemingly no movement. Some of the best games look like the pitcher is simply playing catch with the guy behind the plate. Baseball as a sport is stagnant to most people. There are no impressive turnovers every so often like in football. Players are not constantly moving like basketball. In its best moments, it is simply a pitcher and a catcher throwing the ball back and forth.
In those quiet innings when it looks like two men are simply playing catch with each other, they are not just throwing the ball back and forth. Decisions are being made as to what pitch is about to be thrown based on what batter is about to go to the box. The catcher is thinking about where he needs to be behind the plate. The infield and the outfield are trying to determine where a ball might go if the batter does get a hit and where to position themselves based on that information. The presence of runners on base also factors into what pitch could be thrown and what other options are on the table for the rest of the team. There are multiple decisions being made on and off of that field. Every pitch requires a decision from every player.
I think life is like that too. Even in the quiet when it feels like nothing is happening, you still have to have your eye on the ball. Even when you feel like you are doing the same thing over and over again, you still have to know your goal and make choice that will get your close to it. It may take eight and a half innings for you to get that home run hit, but if you played the rest of the game right, one run will be all you need.
