Everything I Need To Know I Learned Playing Baseball
I was born a baseball fan. I really had no choice in the matter. My Father was a baseball player and maniacal fan, so I really had no choice. 66 years later, I’m still a fan. It’s done well by me.
Some of my earliest memories involve baseball. I remember sitting in the stands watching my Dad play. In the days before the Dodgers moved west my Dad had a ‘dual crystal’ radio that he could tune to KOA Denver after the sun went down, and we could listen to Cincinnati Reds games. Once the Dodgers moved west in 1957 we had a new favorite. The Spokane Indians became the Dodgers AAA affiliate and we could hear every game. I fell asleep listening to Spokane Indians baseball games until I got married.
What I Learned
Fundamental Skills
I wasn’t very old when I got my first glove and my Dad and I started playing catch. He’d stand there with me until I couldn’t stand anymore.
It’s the same in life, really. You need certain skills to get along. You learn to read, you learn to write by writing and reading. No matter what your path in life, certain skills are absolutely imperative to getting by in life.
The funny part is that it is never too late to learn fundamentals. I’m a terminal right hander and I learned to bat left handed in High School. It was a long, tedious process but I learned.
I’m learning fundamental trading crypto right now. Just the same way I learned to field a grounder. With lots of practice and mistakes. Shake off the mistake and take another. And another, and one more after that. Once in a while you get a bad hop and take one in the face. Take another, the mark will go away. Lost your stake in a currency? Try another.
Faith
You gotta believe. I think the legendary manager Casey Stengel first uttered those words in public. I decided when I was about 10 years old that I wanted to play first base. Pretty laughable because I was the smallest kid around and first basemen are historically the biggest guy on the team.
I believed that I could play first base and I threw myself into learning the position long before I was allowed to play there.
You gotta believe that you can do what you set out to do. Is lack of coding holding you back online? Anybody that desires to learn can do so. Online. For free. To be a proficient coder you will have a steep learning curve and will make mistakes. Lots of mistakes. But if you know you can you will. You gotta believe.
Mentors and Coaches
When I first started playing Little League ball a seriously important part of playing was learning to listen to your coach. Still a lot of fundamentals at that point in time, and paying attention and doing as instructed were absolutely necessary. I’d have crawled into my first coaches pocket if he’d have let me. I wanted everything he had.
For me, it’s the same thing today. I have mentors that are teaching me lots every day. I listen and try to implement every suggestion that I get from those people. I ask questions. I get answers.
I read. I’m making my way as a writer and I have mentors and heroes that are real writers. I read every word they publish, and try to incorporate what they do into my work. Some of them have no idea that I even exist, but still they teach me. Coach me.
Hard Work
I was a sophomore in High School when I came back to the bench bitching about the pitcher making a ‘lucky pitch’ after I had struck out. My coach stood up and took me aside right then to explain to me that it was a perfect pitch and the pitcher had worked harder learning to throw that pitch than I had learning to hit it. I vowed then and there to never, ever be out worked. I may get beat, but not because I didn’t do the work.
It’s the same now. I’m not the best at anything. Not one thing. But I work at least as hard as anyone to become the best. Every single day.
Refine Yourself
I’ve taken millions of swings in my life. At least half of them were with a thought in mind that I wanted to incorporate into my swing. Weight shift, elbows up, bend my knees, head on the ball and much more.
Today I never write without an improvement in mind. I always have something that I can tweak to make my writing better and work to incorporate it into my habitual style. If you aren’t getting better the competition is. You lose ground.
Practice
All the good advice and knowledge is useless you practice it every day. Every single day. Excellence demands practice every day. The best natural ballplayer I had the opportunity to see was Ken Griffey Jr. He practiced every skill every day. Every day.
It’s the least I can do for myself. Practice may not make perfect, but it can certainly move the needle. The more I write, the better I write. The more I trade, the better I get. It just is.
Waste Not, Want Not
Just putting in an appearance at practice gains nothing. The baseball world is littered with really good players that just never evolved to the next level. Most of them got satisfied with their performance and quit putting in the time during practice and consequently didn’t improve in games either.
Don’t waste an opportunity. If you are going to make a post, make the best post you can make. Don’t rely on past performance to make you better, challenge yourself to be better. Every day.
Teamwork
Baseball is the ultimate team game that is based on individual performance. The best pitcher on earth can’t do it alone. He needs the other 8 guys to do their jobs so he can do his. The best hitter ever needs guys to get on base in front of him or the team is going to lose. It’s just that easy.
Working with others requires me to depend utterly on them. If I can’t depend on my teammates I can only go so far and it’s not going to be very far at all.
I have to be dependable. If my teammates can’t depend on me to do my part the team is not going to go far.
It’s about cooperation. Individuals can be competitive and should be, but it takes cooperation with the entire team to make the magic happen. By learning to cooperate we learn to be better than the sum of the parts. Cooperation is the key.
Don’t be a showboat, do your job and let everyone else do theirs. Don’t be a slug, do your part. Don’t rely on somebody else to do your job. Modesty and honest effort combined with cooperation paves the way for success. Every time.
Leadership
Everybody is a leader. Leaders are those that do what they are supposed to do and not do what they are not supposed to do. The quietest guy on the team can be the leader when the moment is right.
Our High School team was a state champion caliber team when I was a senior. We’d been playing together for 3 years and were just plain good. One Saturday we lost a game. The pitchers both threw no hitters and we got beat 1-0 on an unearned run. After the game I lost my mind in the locker room. Fbombs galore, I threw stuff and generally made a real ass of myself. I noticed our second baseman on his knees. I stood right in front of him and screamed WTF. He said he was praying for me, he knew I wasn’t that guy.
I was still muttering FBombs as I wandered away to pick up all the crap I had thrown. It didn’t take a genius to know who the leader was in that locker room.
We are all leaders, in our time. Each of us. Don’t back down. Don’t compromise. Be the best you can be every time. It’ll work out.
Mr. Umpire says “Play Ball”.
Authored by: @bigtom13
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baseball has always had a spot in my heart. i remember all the lessons i learnd transitioning for t-ball to actual baseball and they really helped me as i was growing up
You got a 100.00% upvote from @slimwhale courtesy of @masterroshi!
Cool. I like that you learned your lessons in the same sport I did.
Thanks for the meaningful comment.
That's a beautiful memory........ You just reminded me that Hardwork pays; it's a thumbs up from me
Hard work certainly does pay. Thanks for making that connection.
Very good post sir, finally notice that he is an older person but with an enviable way of writing since he has several points of view and better attraction to read for many, I have read many his post and did not know if he was male or female, if He was young although I do not believe it because of his analytical ability when writing where he looks like a teacher, also very good story where his father was always proud and had that happiness that I did not have and would have wanted where the most essential thing I wanted to be was a professional soccer player and represent my selection but for not having the help I could not realize my dream but I think like his father and I will do it this way so I hope to have a child and that he likes the sport as much as I do not force him.
There was something essential that attracted me more and it is in seeing that I have always said things are won and all these MLB athletes earned their positions through large hours of work every day and it is as mentioned that many are good but do not give the same importance in completing things.
Also I would like to belong to this community and if anyone could answer I would appreciate it with the alama since I am a novice writer but with great applause to be great and I see that here I can have my opportunity, greetings and I loved this post.
@calitoo
Thanks for the incredibly kind words. I really appreciate it. I honestly do not know if I had professional grade ability. I was drafted not by MLB but the USArmy. I lost an eye and with it any chance. I did play international level fastpitch softball for about 12 years. Because I could.
Click on the link at the bottom of the article to join our Discord group. It's a big fuzzy family and I think you'd like it.
A very good post @adsactly, seeing your post about Baseball, all of this reminds me of my dad, because my dad also likes Baseball, when he was still healthy, he learned Baseball, and he has several baseball games. But soon my dad had an accident, and his leg broke, and he could not play Baseball anymore. Therefore, every time there is a Baseball game, he always watches it. But now my father is dead. Looking at your post, makes me remember my dad. Thanks for sharing, and hope you will succeed in Baseball... :)
Thank you for the lovely words and remembrance of your father.
My time is long past, my playing days ended near 30 years ago. But the lessons I learned go on and on. And I still like to watch the game.
Life is a series of awakenings and you just awakened a part of me
Greatness ahead 👍🏻
Sometimes, the awakenings come and we don't even know until they are passed.
Thanks
That’s why we should be in tune with our consciousness!
Thanks bud
Whow! My heart keeps yearning for more of your write ups @adsactly. Baseball keeps one fit physically amd mentally. I happened to be someone who did not like reading long stories and i don't like writing. But today, I'm a prolific reader and a professional writer because of steemit , adsactly and stach. But, can i ask you a question? WHow many times did you FIGHT with your opponents?
There were a few fights along the way. I played a pretty aggressive style and was never shy about defending my team mates. So I fought once in a while. Very insightful question.
Wow you really leant all the wonderful things from one sport. It so awesome. You have really shared a wonderful post @adsactly. I hope to learn from you .thanks for sharing another wonderful post enjoy your day
I did learn a lot from baseball. I played for over 30 years and still like watching.
Thanks for the kind words.
That's aswsome. Ur welcome
@bigtom13 Are you from Spokane? I (owner of this account) just finished up at Whitworth University!
I grew up in Odessa. I lived in Spokane for over 20 years before I moved to Arizona. I love the campus at Whitworth. A beautiful place.
I like baseball. The Toronto Blue Jays in particular. The lessons you offer in this post are wise and most useful. I write every day with the goal of improving my skill. Practice is essential if we are going to get better at what we do. Casey Stengel was right on, "You gotta belive.' Without belief, success will remain elusive.
One of my best friends and a partner is a maniacal Jays fan. I am a Mariners fan. This week has been fun for me :)
these all qualities takes aman toward success.@adsactly
You sure learnt a lot of things from the baseball game ...from leadership to coaching ,training ,team work my favorite part, to faith to leadership. Thanks for sharing I sure learnt a thing or two and I would apply them in my daily life.
Awesome post...
I did learn a lot from the game. I gave it my life for a time and it gave me lessons for the rest of my life. Thanks for the kind words.
faith, heardwork, leadership and teamwork is needed for success for every game...
It is, and I appreciate that you read that here. Thank you!
Am also a die hard fans of baseball, it's one of my favorite game thanks for sharing with us @adsactly
It is my absolute pleasure to share it with you. Thanks for reading it!
"Baseball been berry, berry good to me." -SNL, 1979.
Ahahahahaha Exactly. Adsactly! Cookie Rojas played by Eddy Murphy. I loved that character.
LOL...I thought maybe that reference would go completely missed....Following you, bro.
This game needs intense concentration and well-being in life, and a lot of time
Yes. A lot of the attributes have carried me on in life.
I believe the moment I was born I was already a fan of ice hockey 🏒 which was enormously popular in my country Czech Republic 🇨🇿. I believe your love for baseball gave you your father’s genes at some point. You are right, your whole life is about learning. When I immigrated to US in my early 20’s, not that long after I was curious about baseball and I fell in love with it. I’m a quick learner so learning baseball rules wasn’t issue for me at all. You are right about overall life and your baseball experience. You can even compare crypto investments, as long as you learn from bad decisions or mistakes you always continue to go up. There is this saying “on the way up, don’t forget to take a bumpy road once in a while”. Even being proficient coder can be compared to your baseball experience. Just because everyone expects expected doesn’t mean you must go the same way and I mean your first base determination. Good mentor or coach is great help for your success. However, it’s always and mostly up to your dedication and determination to reach you goal. Everything else is just a great help. Yes, practice, practice and practice!
I agree!
Wonderful story. I am also a Hockey fan, but I never progressed past pond Hockey. The lessons are the same, though. I do know that much.
Thanks for the wonderful words. I really do appreciate the time and effort you took to not only read but comment on this post. Thank you.
I live in a country where we know about baseball only from movies. That is, here in the priority of quite other sports. For us, baseball is a sport that we only saw on TV. Although in rare cases there are fans of American football. Nevertheless, I liked your article. This is an interesting description of this wonderful game. This created a definite idea for me. Good job.
You described this "from yourself". That is, it is a life story that reveals the true essence of baseball. Now I understand that this is really a "hard" sport. This is a sport in which many characteristics are important. You must have strong character traits. You must be a smart, fast and strong player. It is important to understand and listen to the commands of your coach. It's important to be part of your team and be persistent!
I liked your message! This is worthy of attention! Thank you
I know that your Football is called 'the beautiful game'. I think so too, even though my entire experience is simply from watching. I KNOW that the same attributes make a successful football player AND human.
Thank you for a very kind review. I really do appreciate it.
wow so amazing to help one achieving his or her dream and follow his or her vision.now i got the best guide that just gave me strength to follow my dream of been a great slam poet artist and an environmental councellor and i believe if i follow this it will really help me.will be honored and happy you check out my new post
Grand Slam. Wonderful baseball term. I wish you luck in your aspirations.
Thank you.
thanks.please can you check my posts and view my writings
Lucky. I played for fourteen years and all I learned was how to run ninety feet and scratch and spit...and how to flick Gatorade caps incredible distances.
Great read brother!
Ahahahahahaha. I learned how to scratch and spit but Gatorade wasn't available til I was in college and only as a powder. I never learned the fine art of Gatorade cap flicking. I've been cheated!
Thanks for the great comment.
@bigtom13 what a great post and how well written is. I'm glad it was you when I saw who wrote this.
Sports are very big part of the kids life that teaches them a lot about the world and life that is in front of them. We cannot neglect that and go on like it doesn't exist. We need to use that in a better way so we can help each other.
As you may know, I practice Am. Football and I learned a lot from it, even though I am 30. It teaches me to handle my ego and move it on the side, or kill it preferably. If you remove Ego from the equation, the life gets better immediately, it is easier and many more things are done that way then. My cousin plays baseball in my town and I'm going to a game this week. Can't wait for it, because I wasn't on baseball game for about 7 8 years. It will be interesting to watch the mental side of it, I'm so curious..
Thanks Tom for sharing your thoughts with us. Have a great day all!
Baseball is such a curious mixture of individual performance and team chemistry. Just about the time I think I have it all figured out I find something new. The mental preparation is prodigious and can make or break a team.
It's all about giving it up for the team, which is so important in life.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment. I really do appreciate it!
Exactly, it is all about giving yourself for a team. Later you realize you never gave yourself, you just shared yourself, so you didn't lose anything and you gained a lot...
Great comparisons!! Sports and life can mirror each other so much. You learn so many life lesson that can be taken with your for the rest of your days. You will often be in situations in life that you can draw a direct similarity to a situation you experienced in sports. I love how you related hard work, leadership, and teamwork to your time in baseball. These are all skill we need every day. The ability to refine yourself and improve in everything you do is something we should all be aware of. I also look fondly on my sports years as strong contributors to who I am today. The best thing is these are stories you can share for a lifetime. Great post sir!!!
I really did learn much from sports. Things that can't be gotten any other way.
Thanks for a wonderful comment.
Baseball is very beautiful
I love watching baseball league
I wish you all the best
Are you an @adsactly baseball player,
I love watching this game, but I know very little about baseball
Thanks for sharing this writing blog
I appreciate your sports
Thanks for sharing this sports
Wonderful story. I am also a Hockey fan, but I never progressed past pond Hockey. The lessons are the same, though. I do know that much.
That is great sports
Very beautiful photo capture @adsactly
What is a baseball game called football america ??
baseball, an exciting game in addition to football, this is one of the obligatory games of my time school, but this is not my original game of the country
I like me post ADSactly Personal - Everything I Need To Know I Learned Playing Baseball
Folle me
Ahahahaha to the beach yo
Good work..thanks for sharing
Hi, My dear sir, I am Upvote You Upvote me back thank you...
This is considered as a spam comment on this platform. If you wish to be followed, at least read the article that somebody gave time and effort to write it, and comment with a meaningful comment... Thanks..
Excelente post, que la comunidad siga creciendo.
very cool this post , i love Baseball
Lucky. I played for fourteen years and all I learned was how to run ninety feet and scratch and spit...and how to flick Gatorade caps incredible distances.
Great read brother!
Lucky. I played for fourteen years and all I learned was how to run ninety feet and scratch and spit...and how to flick Gatorade caps incredible distances
Great post, brother!
Lucky. I played for fourteen years and all I learned was how to run ninety feet and scratch and spit...and how to flick Gatorade caps incredible distances
Great post, brother!
Sir that is true we are learning of what thing we are focusing of. And on that thing you will be discipline. In my way i learn everything from drawing sir wherein i express everything. That is a nice post sir thumbs up for you.
El Beisbol ha sido un pilar fundamental en mi vida, desde niño tuve la oportunidad de jugar hasta llegar a jugar en categoria Doble AA en mi pais. y parte de esa vida fui Umpire de liga menor, y hoy dia soy Profesor universitario en la catedra es Beisbol (Como se debe juegar en cada posicion, la historia a nivel mundial y todo lo que se relaciona a sus reglas y condiciones de juego) por eso hoy digo “La Pasion por el Beisbol se lleva el la Sangre” Exelente publicación Señor.
Excellent story, your memories of your father are really beautiful and put them into practice as you did was the best, also that you liked the same sport that is wonderful since they shared something in common and not problem, on the other hand it is necessary see this kind of advice as you mention that practice makes the teacher where this is seen in daily life and every day that passes if we do not give the best and we do not plan is a day really lost, greetings. I encantotu post.
i hope someday that i would be learned baseball game cause this is one of my favorite game but i have doubt in myself that if i will try that, some people laugh at me co'z i don't know how play this game..
thank you for sharing, that was so great motivation as like me.
Very detailed post on the game. I love baseball too - if you are willing to be a bit open-minded, a great anime I recommend is Cross Game:
https://myanimelist.net/anime/5941/Cross_Game
Cross Game is about a young boy who does not really have an strong interest in the game, but his friends influence him to become a pitcher for his high school team with the goal of reaching the legendary Koshien.
One of my top 3 anime's, just recently re-watched.
Baseball is a bat-and-ball game played between two gatherings of nine players each, who substitute batting and taking care of.
The batting bunch tries to score continues running by hitting a ball that is hurled by the pitcher with a bat swung by the hitter, by then running counter-clockwise around a movement of four bases: to begin with, second, third, and home plate. A run is scored when a player pushes around the bases and returns to home plate.
Players on the batting bunch substitute hitting against the pitcher of the dealing with gathering, which tries to hinder continues running by getting hitters out in any of a couple of ways. A player on the batting bunch who accomplishes a base safely can later undertaking to advance to following bases in the midst of accomplices' turns batting, for instance, on a hit or by various means. The gatherings switch among batting and taking care of at whatever point the taking care of gathering records three outs. One turn batting for the two gatherings, beginning with the gathering, constitutes an inning. A beguilement is made out of nine innings, and the gathering with the more significant number of continues running toward the complete of the redirection wins. Baseball has no redirection clock, yet all diversions end in the ninth inning.
A copy and paste comment with your own upvote. Flag call.
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A very good post @adsactly this is my favorite seeing your post about Baseball, all of this reminds me of my dad, because my dad also likes Baseball, when he was still healthy, he learned Baseball, and he has several baseball games. But soon my dad had an accident, and his leg broke, and he could not play Baseball anymore. Therefore, every time there is a Baseball game, he always watches it. But now my father is dead. Looking at your post, makes me remember my dad. Thanks for sharing, and hope you will succeed in Baseball i love this game to much. From @izatullah
You probably shouldn't have done copy/paste on a comment that I truly loved. Flag for you!