Spiritual Lessons from the Baseball Field

Introduction

Twelve 7–10 year-olds looked up to me this baseball season as their coach. My family walked into baseball this year hoping to make some friends in the community, introduce our kids to a team sport, and invest in our neighbors. Through some unexpected and tragic circumstances I ended up coaching my oldest daughter’s team, and I filled in to varying degrees for two other teams.

As I scrambled to remember fundamentals and coaching techniques, I realized I wanted to teach my team more than just baseball this year. It would have been easy to leave coaching to “step-and-throw”, “your glove is your force field”, "finger's up, thumb down", and “keep your back foot planted and elbow up,” but that would have only served these kids on the field. As the season progressed I built up five principles that were meant to serve them on the baseball diamond, but even better and longer for their whole lives.

Here they are in order of importance.

1. Do your best! It is popular to hear, “The most important thing is to have fun!” But that is not the most important thing; if having fun is the most important thing then when you stop having fun, you stop playing baseball. Both my team and other teams lost kids early in the season who weren’t having fun and walked off the field. We played an early season game at 34 degrees Fahrenheit, and we played a late season game at 100 degrees. Neither was comfortable, but we weren’t out there to have fun, we were out there to do our best, and it was a huge blessing to be able to say to the kids that I watched them do their best in the extreme cold and the extreme heat.

I love the saying, “Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly.” If there is a benefit in us being on the field and supporting our team, then that benefit exists if we’re freezing or sweating, having fun or crying, winning or losing.

I hope I always remember the look of epiphany when I watched my short-stop hold a baseball while trying to make the decision of where to throw it, ultimately not throwing it anywhere; I told him, “I’d rather you make a wrong decision than no decision.” I was parroting Theodore Roosevelt, “In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.” Later in the season he made an excellent play, a perfect throw to third base, only to realize there was no play at third base. I lauded his effort because he fielded and disposed of the ball quickly; knowing where to throw it will come in the future.

2. Support your team! Like most leagues, some of my kids had been playing baseball for years, and some had brand new gloves that they didn’t even know how to wear. It is a beautiful thing watching elementary kids calling out encouragement to their teammates and cheering them on, coaching their fundamentals and being patient with their foibles. Baseball has been called the ideal team-sport because you cannot win—or lose—a baseball game on your own, it requires the efforts of the entire team to see success.

Watching a third-grader realize this on the pitcher’s mound when one of his teammates botched a play was priceless. He understandably criticized his teammate; but I was in position to explain to him that you have to help each player to succeed, teach them to field, and back them up, because your team is only as strong as the weakest player. That remark, early in the season (maybe second or third game) was the last disparaging comment that I heard come out of any of my players’ mouths.

Next year I hope to rope my team parents into this and get them investing not just in their own kids but all of the players on the field. Late in the season I started employing young family members as base-coaches, which provided an excellent opportunity for team growth and involvement.

No-one can win a baseball game on their own, so always look for ways to improve your teammates, whether that is your family, friends, schoolmates, or coworkers!

3. Have Fun! I thought about calling this one, “Attitude is everything,” but decided to stick with the language from “the most important thing is to have fun” by pointing out that we should be enjoying ourselves, but not to the detriment of our team or our efforts when we’re not. I remember my first two years of baseball were on the dead-last team in the league, yet I always remember enjoying playing with my team. This made it oh so sweet when our third year we showed marked improvement and were the only team to give the first-place team an L (for Loss) that year.

It’s easier to have fun when you know you and your teammates are trying your hardest. I watched one of my kids rocket a line-drive into the waiting glove of the third baseman, I watched another do everything he could to beat out a play at first base only to be out by half a step, and I cheered on kids who bounded balls half way into the infield who previously couldn’t even make contact. Their smiles showed that they appreciated their improvement and effort, and it made for everyone having a better game and season.

4. No Walking on a Baseball Field! The rules of baseball don’t say anything directly about moving with a purpose (except maybe the ambiguous “delay of game” or “pace of game” rules), however it has been a long unwritten rule to “hustle up.” This isn’t just to make the game less boring, it helps with doing your best. It may be summed up, “Anything worth doing is worth doing well.”

I reminded one meandering coach about this unwritten rule, and then thought about how much better so many things in life would be if everyone moved with a purpose and did the job they were there to do. Now, granted, in baseball the kid’s have paid to be there, but most of them don’t know that. If we can ingrain the idea that doing our best is separate from how much fun we're having, money we're making, or glory we're reaping, then we’ll do great things in life.

5. Safety isn’t First! It doesn’t take much imagination to see so many communities, societies, work-places, and people succumbing to the temptation to become risk-averse and facing extreme consequences because of it. The baseball field is not immune, and I heard several comments along the lines of protecting yourself from harm rather than making a good play. Now, I certainly do not want kids to needlessly get hurt, but avoiding the risk of pain in baseball is almost certainly going to cause you to fail at the previous four principles.

After-all, a baseball in this league might come at you in excess of fifty mph, or a bat for that matter, or a tag might be a little excessive. My own daughter sat out half an inning tending to a bloody nose when she was tagged out at home in the face. Several players stopped balls with their sternums, more than one catcher limped off the field after finding their padding covers a lot, but it does not cover everything.

I awarded a “perseverance award” at the end of the season to the player who got hurt the most without quitting. With no bias at all—purely statistics—this person actually was my daughter.

Kids who slid into base, were hit by grounders (or the occasional pitch), or who were bruised in some other way were encouraged to walk-it-off and “get back in there”, and it was a tremendous blessing to watch them push through the pain, assess the risk, and realize that great risk brings great rewards.

Conclusion

In conclusion, none of my kids got trophies or medals at the end of the season, but they all improved vastly at baseball, and were invested in by some great adults and kids, and the lessons they learned will serve them well throughout the rest of their lives.

 I hope you, dear reader, will always remember that having fun and staying safe are not the most important things, but that setting your eyes on the prize, deciding to try your best, and pushing through the pain will serve you and those who are served by you when the glory of who had the most W’s and the least L’s fades.

Note: I’ve purposely left this article more on the baseball side for copy/paste/quoting, but I do especially want to encourage you to “Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and his righteousness, and everything else will be added to you,” and “Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. . .Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”