The Craziness That Is Baseball

Every morning, we wake up and go through the same routine: take a shower, brush your teeth, shave, get dressed, eat breakfast, read the paper, and go to work. But somehow, even though you’ve gone through your morning routine countless times, something still doesn’t go your way. You spill coffee on your shirt, or you lock your keys in the car.

It’s the same with baseball. You have your routine in the batter’s box: Step out, look at the sign, check the fielders’ positioning, fix your batting gloves, adjust your helmet, take a practice swing and step up to the plate. But you see, in a baseball game, you can do everything right and you still won’t win. Sometimes it’s the hardest hit ball that gets caught.

Then again, you can do everything wrong and still come out a hero. Last year, I entered a game to pitch with the team winning by one run. I inherited runners on first and second with one out. I walked the first batter on four pitches to load the bases. Then I hit the next batter with a pitch to force in the tying run. On the next pitch, I induced an inning-ending double play. In the bottom of the inning the team rallied at the plate to take the lead for good. I was credited with the win. My stat line looked something like this: W, IP: 0.2, BB: 1, HBP: 1, ER: 1. The worst pitching performance I can remember produced my first college win.

That’s baseball.

Baseball is having an alumni, who pitched some of the best games in your school’s history, yet never picked up a win in his four years, send a text message to your teammate after a game like that saying: “Bubar got a win?!”

Maybe baseball just can’t be figured out no matter how much you play. No two baseball games are alike. No matter how consistent you are, no matter how perfect you replicate the way you bend down to field a grounder, the ball doesn’t bounce the same way every time. Sometimes the ball kicks up off a pebble in the dirt and hits you right in the mouth. And all you can say is: “That’s life.”