A Swing...

...And a miss?

Watching a little World Series action. Are you tired yet of my love for all things baseball? Because it will probably change once the series is over and baseball isn't in front of my face and thus on my mind. At least, that is the case until next year rolls around and playoff season begins anew. And then I'm sure I'll be back to obsessing over the game.

But leastways, while I was watching the game tonight, I was thinking about how hard it must be to hit the ball. A slo-mo replay came up on the screen and there the batter was, swinging for a slider that slipped below the bat, dropping just as the batter was trying to connect with the ball. A swing, and of course, a miss. You know, and that is what happens when these guys get up to bat. They don't connect with the ball too often, and that is baseball for you.

I remember when I was around twenty, someone talked me into playing on a co-ed softball team in Spanish Fork. Bad idea. I love baseball - I don't play baseball. This is softball, you might say. Either way, doesn't matter. I don't play. Mostly it's because I can't hit. Even when I get lucky enough to connect with the ball, it usually doesn't go very far. Maybe, with a little luck, I can get the ball past the pitcher, but out of the infield? Forget about it. It's not going to happen.

One night I show up for our team game. And who should be the home plate umpire but Ben Marziale, a boy I went to high school with who played baseball for the University of Utah. Ben is an athlete, naturally gifted and really good, too. I got up to bat, and I wouldn't swing. Not for anything. Ben kept telling me to swing for it, to try, to hit the ball. I was so self conscious that I could not do it. This happened every time I got up to bat. I can't remember how many times I got walked and how many times I struck out, but either way, I wouldn't take a swing.

I didn't really understand the game then. I liked baseball, but I didn't understand the game. The game is getting on base and that is almost all it is. Sure it's fielding...catching, throwing, pitching. But mostly it is hitting the ball and getting on base and that means that you must swing the bat once in a while even if you might miss it. Even if you might swing super hard, like super hero slugger ready to blow it out of the park hard, and miss the ball.

I was so afraid of looking silly that I missed the point. You might miss it a lot. After all, the majors miss the ball a lot. And these guys get payed millions of dollars to play the game. No one thinks they look silly when they miss the ball, and no one mocks them. Well, they might get heckled, but they all know how to take it in stride. And so they swing for the ball.

Now I've talked a lot about missing the ball. Oh but what about when it goes the other way? What about when the batter connects with the ball and really hits it and it flies, soars really, far far far, deep into the park and into the stands? What about then? That's rare. Most of the time when someone connects with the ball, they're out at first. Or it's a pop fly and someone in the outfield catches it in the air. Barring unforeseen errors, even when someone gets a piece of the ball, most likely they'll be out, anyway.

That's why I love the game. Baseball is really life. Even if the odds aren't in your favor, you get up to bat anyway. You swing and swing, and sometimes you get a really big piece of the ball and out of the park it goes. And even though that is rare, everyone comes out to play. Batters get up to bat, pitchers go to the mound to pitch, players head out to the field and take up their positions, and they play anyway.

No, I tell you, I didn't understand baseball back in those days when I wouldn't take a swing. Life is about taking a swing, hitting the ball some days and missing it others. It's about a pop-fly that is easily caught or an error that allows you to at least get on base. How many times in life do you hit that ball way out of the park? Not many, but that doesn't mean you don't take the risk and show up to hit the ball anyway because if you do hit it out of the park, oh if you do hit it out of the park, that is a beautiful thing. And the rest, well, that's just beautiful too, because that is the experience and the learning.