Bull Durham

Annie Savoy: "The world is made for people who aren't cursed with self awareness."

Truer words may have never been spoken.  Some days you look around and you see people who seem successful based entirely on pure dumb luck.  They don't look in the mirror to know thyself.  They just look in the mirror.  For me that has never worked as I have always tried to follow the Shakespearean sentiment from Polonius "to thine own self be true." (Hamlet: Act I, scene 3)

In any case, this month's baseball movie is Bull Durham - the story of the Durham Bulls, currently the AAA franchise with the Tampa Bay Rays.  At the time of the movie though they were the A ball team for someone.

It seems an appropriate time to talk about working through troubles and figuring out what you need to do now - in the springtime.  Like in life, we start by learning how to play the game, and as we go through life we theoretically get better at playing the game of life until our middle years when hopefully we are at the top of our professional game.

There are some interesting parallels from the movie and life though.

One, get your team involved.  As Crash Davis noted, don't try to strike everyone out.  Throw ground balls and get your defense involved behind you.  His point wasn't to make a commentary on facism versus democracy, but to say get your people on your team working behind you.  Leaders would call this delegation.

Two, as Coach Joe Reardon said...there is no room for lollygaggers.  You have to hustle to play baseball or live life.  Hustle out there.

Finally, as Walt Whitman once said, "I see great things in baseball. It's our game, the American game. It will repair our losses and be a blessing to us."  I know when I have had a hard day or challenges abound, a simple game of catch helps get me through.  Few things can relax and inspire me at the same time, but baseball does and I am thankful for that.

Spend a little time thinking about the lessons in your minor league stint and I think you will find they are similar.