Parable of the Ground Ball

One day while the sun was setting and we were wrapping up Baseball practice, the motivational Coach Leip called in the Outfielders and decided to hit ground balls to his First-String Infielders. In our last game we uncharacteristically committed several infield errors that nearly cost us the game, so Coach did something unprecedented…He moved up from home plate to the PITCHER’S MOUND and grabbed a FUNGO BAT, (an unofficial long thin baseball bat specifically designed to hit fly balls to the outfield). Come on, no one hits ground balls from the pitcher’s mound with a Fungo Bat!

 We all shook in our pants, for the balls were zipping by us with blinding velocity, and we could barely react. Seeing the ground balls blowing by us, Coach demanded the improbable: He wanted us to CHARGE the ground balls! In fact, he threatened to bench anyone that did not charge. Coach declared, “You gotta love it!” ‘Repeatedly, he shouted out, “You gotta love it! You gotta be tough! You gotta have GUTS!”

 Almost in defiance of his crazed request we retaliated and stormed the ground ball like raving mad-men. That’s when I received an epiphany! Meeting the speeding ground ball head-on was astonishingly safer than I thought. The first time was just pure guts, but afterwards, the method behind the madness turned to mastery. When I started telling myself ‘I LOVE IT!’, everything changed! Everything changed- because I changed. The ball wasn’t attacking me- I was attacking it! The ball no longer played me- I ‘PLAYED’ the ball!

P.S.
You gotta have GUTS,
You gotta be TOUGH,
You gotta LOVE IT!

Lesson learned…from the Lookout-Post.