Baseball apiece enjoy sort of game?

 In the Ballpark of Seeking Peace and Joy

In the previous entry I hammered out my feelings about the current lock out and I make no bones about it, the owners are allowing the love of power rule over the power of love (the love many fans have for the game and the love many of us would pass on to others).  In terms of seeking peace and joy, baseball is more than a hot dog and a beer or peanuts and Cracker Jack—why?—at least three reasons.

You see….

Baseball is not dictated  by external time.  Nearly all other major team sports, if not all, start with a symbol a horn a whistle and then the clock starts to run and every action has some time components to it.  Baseball starts when the ball comes to the place where the first batter has a chance to observe it, act on it or let it pass and the story of the game at hand comes  about.   The game goes on until the last batter concludes an action and then the results  can be considered and placed into perspective  along with lessons from other games etc.  The pitcher, the fielders, the batters, the umpire, and the fans don’t wait for a two minute warning and aren’t watching  the clock at all as the only thing that counts is what is happening right now.  

There is an expectation of “failures” leading to learning.  

Even the “best” hitters fail to reach base about 6 or 7 times out of ten.  The odds that any pitcher will pitch a no-hit game let alone a “perfect” game are smaller than tiny and all game long we cheer for  our flawed hero’s.  We expect  the hitters to take wicked cuts in situations where they are challenged.  I wonder  how much more interesting life would be if we expected the same of ourselves and those we know?  I wonder. How much more peace and joy would abound if we accepted  that failure would happen often and lessons would be learned.  

All game situations are temporary.

There are  enough games. In a season, enough at bats and enough pitches in each game, that what happened  in one inning or in what at bat in one game comes and goes and each action can be the beginning of a new  plot twist, a new story etc.  So even if todays game was rotten  tomorrow is a different story.  Thus it is. Or can be in life.  

We cheer for people we don’t really know, however, we share a purpose with.

You stand and cheer for your home team.  You don’t really know the players  and they don’t know us, yet because we share a goal we all stand and cheer.  What if, once we made our purpose known,  like-hearted.people would stand and cheer when we had a good day?  

Baseball give the players and the fans plenty of time to talk with each other on and off the field.  While sitting in the stands you can turn to the person next to you and have plenty of time to connect, chat about the game or almost anything.   You can also sit and observe  many parts of the baseball universe and know that many people sitting around you also know and appreciate the subtle  aspects of the life experience you are having in this moment.  

Baseball as a sport gives us all. Of that not to mention all the joys children and their parents get playing and passing it along…maybe that’s for tomorrow.

For now —let’s get the bargaining agreement  done.