Baseball and EMS

People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring. – Rogers Hornsby

I am a few days away from sitting staring out the window.  Hornsby was right.  What else is there to do without baseball?

Okay, maybe this would be a poor use of my time, but it does make me think about EMS as baseball and vice versa.  We can sit around quite a bit too…granted not usually staring out the window, but are we focused on the current season?  In both EMS and baseball a few things are fundamentally similar.

One, the job is inherently physical.  In EMS, we move patients from point A to point B.  In baseball, you move runners from first to second thru third, hopefully home, more often than the other team does.

Two, the job requires a degree of sophistication that can not be just physical.  Sure, you may be a big bruiser who can smash homers or lift patients, but if you can’t determine the difference between a fastball (normal sinus) and a cutter (atrial fibrillation), you aren’t hitting home runs.  Realistically, you aren't even getting on base.

 

EMS is interesting in that like baseball, we have specific groups: infielders, outfielders, pitching staffs; much like managers, EMTs, and paramedics.  Like baseball we even specialize.  We know that in every 911 service there is one trauma junkie black cloud that can handle the proverbial mass casualty of hemophiliac children who drove into the glass factory with ease just like the greatest of closers.

Third, both jobs require practice.  I know, I know I’ve been droning on about skills and people practice, the last several posts.  Apologies, but I am disciple for the mindset that muscle memory drives actions in crisis.  I am also a disciple for the thought that as heart rate goes up, IQ drops exponentially faster.  Granted in EMS if you let the game come to you, your patient may become apneic, but this drives home my point of perfect practice in drills makes perfect execution when the time comes.  You practice intubation with your backup roll not because you aren’t going to be able to get the ET on Fred the Head, but because you have to get yourself into the mindset of having the backup for when you misjudge your current patient’s Mallampati score and get into trouble.

 

I get it...practice is boring and you already got it right, but I'm not in this game to get it right, I practice so I can't get it wrong.

Anyone remember the fall of 2001?  No, not September 11^th…in this case I am referring to the ALDS where Derek Jeter makes the flip to Posada to tag out Jeremy Giambi.  Why was he even in the vicinity of that play?  His answer: because I’m the third backup.  THE THIRD BACKUP!?!?!

Again, many days we aren’t even thinking about our first backup…maybe we should. 

There are a million more factors that go into success and could be added to this conversation about EMS and baseball.  I am still a fan of family and it applies equally to EMS as baseball.  Similar to EMS, baseball is an extended family – on the road together for months out of the year – and for many of us we are with our family, months out of the year. 

Success in the field of EMS or on the field of baseball usually still revolves around passion for what you are doing.  Do you want to take care of the sick and the injured?  Do you want to grind out game after game, practice after practice?  Do you have the self respect to prepare, the intelligence to make good decisions in your life?  Are you enthusiastic every morning when you walk in for shift change or do you have to be drug to the dugout?  Where are you with your team?  Are you the one superstar on your team or are you part of a high functioning group?

 

It's a topic for another day the issue of being the one person fighting the good fight and not having a team around you.  It's something I have to find a way to address, but teams mean 2 + 2 = 5 or 7 or 3.  It depends on the team and whether or not a single player or manager is trying to carry the load themselves or if they are allowing everyone to participate...the learners to learn, the doers to do, and the leaders to teach.

Anyway, I hope you figure it out, because it’s World Series time and I want to be a player on a World Series team…especially if the game is EMS.