Play the ball; don’t let the ball play you

By Jeff Becraft

 

They say in baseball, “Play the ball; don’t let the ball play you.”

That means on a ground ball, you want to field the ball where you want to field it… which usually means moving towards it.  You would rather catch it on a hop that is up off the ground. If you are waiting on it, you are back on your heels and then you have to field it in whatever position it is in (and you are in), and that might be less than ideal.

We can have all kinds of situations in life where something, let’s say a smaller thing, happens, and it really doesn’t phase us that much. But then you have one small thing happen, and then another thing goes wrong, and then another thing goes wrong, and those small things start to add up… and now the small things are a big thing. Any of those things by themselves may not rattle us that much, but the fact that some things start to go wrong, it can have a negative effect on us.

The other night, I had to work later than I was planning. Now, I have worked much later than I did this particular night. In fact, there are some nights that I’ve worked really late into the night and even eating food I wouldn’t even normally eat at that time of night (so I can stay awake) and drinking flavored creamer with a little bit of coffee in it (I am not a real coffee drinker), and I’m actually enjoying the experience. I might be working on a project… and then I get the project done… and then there is a great sense of accomplishment.

So why was it the other night when I had to work later than planned that that became a little bit more stressful? It’s because I wasn’t expecting it. I wasn’t planning for it.

Some famous author (and I can’t remember his name… so I guess he’s not that famous to me), and I am grossly paraphrasing what he said, but it was something along the lines of that a big part of the problem is when we expect life to be easy. You see, the nights that I would be up really late working on a project, I knew that was coming. It was already on the radar.

But when there is a day when I have already got planned (because I’ve got other plans in my head for that evening) that I want to leave by a certain time, and then there are too many things that have to be taken care of that day… and the clock is ticking… and I can see I am not going to make my departure time… that’s when the stress or anxiety or the disappointment or the lack of enjoyment really creeps in.

I heard someone say years ago, expectations ruin relationships. A lot of times we just expect everything to go easily. And then when something goes wrong, it catches us off guard… and it throws us off balance.

When I was playing baseball, we didn’t have manicured fields taken care of by highly trained grounds people. (There is not space here to describe the fields we played on… but that would make for a good other Friday email.) We had rock-hard ground, some infields didn’t even have grass, and rocks abounded.  In fact, most of the time between pitches, I spent my time throwing rocks off the field from the shortstop position.

You knew that the ball could take a bad hop at any moment.

That’s why you want to play the ball – you want to get the ball before it has a chance to take a bad hop.

And if a bad hop did occur, you make the adjustment and you make the play. And if the bad hop causes you to not be able to make the play, then you leave that alone and get ready for the next play.

Some guy named Derek Jeter said that if he missed a play that cost his team, he couldn’t dwell on it; he needed to get ready for the next play. The game is still going on.

Maybe that’s why he is in the Hall of Fame.

 

Jeff Becraft is the Director of Our Place of Hope and the Director Emeritus for Youth Corps and has dedicated much of his life to helping shift the vision of people’s lives. Our Place of Hope is a paradigm shift for people living with mental illness that encourages them to regain meaning, purpose, and hope for their lives. You can connect with Jeff at  [email protected].