Life Lessons Learned from Baseball (Part 2)

“Baseball, it is said, is only a game.? True.? And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona.” – George Will

I am a baseball junkie.? I love the game, always have, always will.?

I know that is not a popular opinion or interest in the modern era.? Football is king.? Basketball both moves faster and is thought to be by many as much more glamorous.?

As I mentioned in my Part 1 pondering, I played baseball since I was eight years old, though high school and college, and even played in an ‘old man’ league after I was 50 years old, for a little while.?

Like any extracurricular or sporting activity, there are many life lessons to be learned from competition.? It often brings out either the best or worst in all of us.

Here’s what I noticed in respect to the game of baseball - and life;

• Not everything that shows up in the box score matters, and/or, it doesn’t mean that the box score always shows how the game was won or lost.? Luis Gonsalez’s broken bat, bloop single won a world series.? It showed up as a single on the scorecard, but it almost didn’t happen.? Conversely, there are 7 occasions in Major League history where a team has been no-hit, and still managed to win the game.? The box score didn’t look pretty, but a win was recorded none the less.?? “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.”?? - Albert Einstein
• Baseball and life include a lot of failures.? The best Hall of Fame hitters who ever lived batted .300.? That means they failed to record a hit 7 out of 10 times when they went to bat.? The great Cy Young, the winningest pitcher ever with 511 career victories is also the MLB’s all-time leader in losses with 316.? And for a very long time Babe Ruth was the all-time leader in home runs with 714, and the all-time leader in strikeouts with 1330.? So don’t worry about the times that you don’t win or succeed, they are simply lessons to help inform you how to do better and win the next time.? “Baseball is more than a game.? It’s like life played out on a field.”? - Juliana Hatfield
• Baseball helps you become a better decision maker.? The pitcher throws the ball, and you are the batter – in a split second you think, do I swing, or do I not swing.? You’re given the sign to steal a base.? You start to go and think to yourself did I get a good enough jump to make it, or do I have to go back.? A ball is hit in the gap with a runner on base.? If you are the outfielder running it down, you’re deciding the whole time do I go for it and dive or do I play it safe and keep it in front of me.?? All the same go for it or not, stop or go, be the hero or play it safe decisions that happen to us all in life every day.? “When you get to a fork in the road, take it.”? - Yogi Berra

As Yogi also famously said, “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.”?

I hope you enjoyed these thoughts, because for now, they’re over.?

Play Ball!

Brian Butler is the SVP Sales & Marketing for Garage Headquarters, Specified Building Products and DoorWall Systems, and the author of two sales books; Find ‘Em, Get ‘Em, Keep ‘Em, and In Search of…. Customers!