Baseball as a Teacher

JCGStill working on a clever handle

So I was reading the latest in the "so what would you do" thread and thinking about some of the issues and implications, particularly how we as parents get so wrapped up in our children's careers and wanting them to have success that it seems to tweak the natural order of the universe sometimes and we forget that baseball, though it teaches us many life lessons, even at the highest levels is a kid's game we love to watch and play for the pure joy of it.

In the next room my wife was digging through some papers and she brought me a poem that my 2017 had written in class during the 5th grade, back when I was his Little League coach and before I had turned him over to guys more knowledgeable and qualified than me. Here it is:

MY TEACHER

If baseball was my teacher

It would say:

Keep your eye on the ball

Don't drift - run like crazy!

Get your glove down

Coach like an Oreo

Head in the game!

If baseball was my teacher,

Its morals would be:

Stay focused - don't pick daisies

To play the game you have to love the game.

But most importantly,

Baseball would say:

Patience my friend, your time will come.

(typos edited)

Puts some of it in perspective, and makes me think I wasn't too a bad coach! Extra points for you if you get the Oreo reference.

2/2/141:34 PM

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proudhesmine1,000+ posts

When my 2016 was 12 He played for a team that held a banquet before season started.Because of planning some of these type of events myself there was a lot to be lacked.The season was so-so.Early on I was asked my opinion on something and even tho it was a one on one deal people do hold grudges.The coaching was at best average.My son did not make the team the next year.After that summer someone has always called to find out if he was interested the next summer.There were some good times.We won a game at a national major tourney in our last abat when losing by 9.But even with the way things ended up with tears from my 2016.I would do it all again as a parent.You see there was a speech given at that pre season banquet.As the years have past I could not sit here and do it justice.The theme of the speech was how baseball is a game of failures.The tie in to life was presented just as it should be.I am no expert of speeches but I do read a ton.I love U.S. history so in my own way I have heard it all.That speech by far is the best speech/talk/thoughts on life I have ever heard.2016 and I (during rough spots) still have conversations about that speech.YES BASEBALL IS A LIFE TEACHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2/2/142:18 PM

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dad431,000+ posts

Originally Posted by JCG:

MY TEACHER

If baseball was my teacher

It would say:

Keep your eye on the ball

Don't drift - run like crazy!

Get your glove down

Coach like an Oreo

Head in the game!

If baseball was my teacher,

Its morals would be:

Stay focused - don't pick daisies

To play the game you have to love the game.

But most importantly,

Baseball would say:

Patience my friend, your time will come.

(typos edited)

Puts some of it in perspective, and makes me think I wasn't too a bad coach! Extra points for you if you get the Oreo reference.

Take a shot....hard on the outside and soft on the inside.

2/2/146:22 PM

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JCGStill working on a clever handle

Originally Posted by dad43:

Originally Posted by JCG:

Extra points for you if you get the Oreo reference.

Take a shot....hard on the outside and soft on the inside.

That's a good guess; wrong, but I like your thought process.

Actually it's a youth sports "positive coaching" technique that's like the sentence above. You wrap a correction in between two positive messages. For example "I really like the way you squared up on that grounder. Now you got to get your glove all the way down in the dirt or the ball's going to go under it. But great work keeping your glove out front."

2/2/146:48 PM