By DELMAR LEATHAM
Baseball games are the bookends of summer. It is a complicated game that anyone can play. It has been said that you can never understand America until you understand baseball.
As a young man I got my first lessons in baseball from my brother and the neighborhood kids. We had a homemade baseball diamond in a dirt field in the back yard. Bases were pieces of boxes or tin cans.
Everyone who wanted to play could just show up and play. If only 3 or 4 kids showed up, we played knock it out and roll it in. If more kids showed up, we played rotation where you went from outfielder to pitcher to catcher to batter. Everyone got a turn but your success depended on your own ability.
There was no umpire on thar dirt field just your own conscience and the consensus of the other players. There was no higher authority than the united voice of the assembled players.
At eight years old, your little league team became the focus of your life. A new mitt, a uniform and a coach became a part of your summer.
The umpire was tolerated but was unheeded by the mothers in the stands. They clearly knew better than him if the call was right or wrong. They voiced their collective opinion with the vocabulary and volume they had learned from their dairy farming grandfathers.
I’m reminded of the coach who called in his player from right field and asked him if he understood sportsmanship and how to behave in public. The young man said that he knew how to behave during the game. The coach told the obedient player to go into the stands and explain to his mother how to act during the game.
It is a hard lesson to learn when you stand at home plate with your bat in your hands and you are waiting for the pitcher to throw the ball. All the crowd and all your teammates are focused on you. All the players on the field are ready to spring into action as soon as you swing. Both disappointment and success are waiting for you. The pitcher uses all sorts of tricks to make you miss the ball. Sometimes the pitcher may even make you the target of his pitch.
Once you are on base a new phase of the game begins. The pitcher tries to keep you on the base and the first baseman tries to tag you out. The old hidden ball trick becomes a part of the team in the field and stealing a base becomes one of your goals.
I think that the rules of the game are in place to give you an opportunity to get around the rules. I would say ‘cheat’ but that would be an insult to baseball players everywhere. I like to think it is just a creative way to apply the rules. Its only a violation if you get caught and then its only wrong if the umpire says it is wrong.
There is nothing like a spit ball to challenge the rules and question the eye sight of the umpire.
Three umpires were talking at lunch. The first umpire said “I call them as I see them.” The second umpire said “I call them as they are.” The third umpire said “they’re nothing until I call them.” It’s not the law that determines right or wrong. It is the character of the person who applies the law that separates right from wrong.
Theodore Roosevelt reminded us all to get out of the stands and into the game. “It is not the critic who counts; nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better,” he said. “The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
If we wish to select the best people to serve in public office perhaps, we should consider how they performed in little league baseball.
Learning how to play fair and treat others with respect is the real goal of all sports. Vince Lombardi is often quoted as saying “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing!”
The actual quote was much richer in meaning, “Winning isn’t everything, but striving to win is.”
All true Americans strive to win. It is the principal that separates us from others. Each and every person is allowed to step to the plate and use his skills to succeed or fail. Each swing of the bat reveals our character. If we strive long enough, we all get to hit a home run.
