Wow! What an exciting win by the Phillies today in their Opener. I watched it on the DVR with the boys after we had lunch at Taco Bell, our First Friday family tradition now, it seems.
Great article by Jayson Stark here.
Friday, April 1, 2011
That's One
Wow! What an exciting win by the Phillies today in their Opener. I watched it on the DVR with the boys after we had lunch at Taco Bell, our First Friday family tradition now, it seems.
Great article by Jayson Stark here.
Lots of Waiting and Then Big Moments
One of the great things about being a college professor is that you still get to have a Spring Break. How great is that? What other job gives you a full week off in late March? I can't think of one.
I used one of my Spring Break days yesterday to watch lots of Opening Day baseball games. (I have the MLB Extra Innings package again this year; it's going to be my annual birthday gift to myself for quite some time.) I watched the Nationals-Braves game pretty closely. I wanted to see the Braves revamped roster and I also wanted to see Jayson Werth have a bad start to his Nationals career. I also flipped around and caught parts of the Reds-Brewers game (which began with back-to-back home runs by the Brewers, the first time that that feat had been achieved since the Reds did it back in 1969) and the Yankees-Tigers game. All in all, it was a fun, relaxing day of baseball, topped off by watching my son Michael's (age 11) Little League team claim a 12-7 victory in an away game at Sunshine Little League here in San Diego.
What struck me about the events of Opening Day was how much of baseball consists of waiting while relatively mundane things happen -- strikeouts, ground outs, pop ups, etc. These mundane moments, however, are punctuated by exciting, big, meaningful moments, such as those lead-off home runs by the Brewers or the walk-off three-run home run by Ramon Hernandez of the Reds in that same game.
Isn't life pretty much the same way -- mundane moments punctuated by exciting, significant moments? That's the way my life often feels to me. It's mostly boring, everyday stuff -- getting up, going to work, taking the boys to practices and games, eating meals, reading, watching TV, etc. Then, important events crop up.
I've always felt that my life has been marked by these big moments, some of which have taken me in totally different directions from what I might have expected or predicted. Here are some big moments that changed my life: getting accepted to Saint Joseph's Prep in Philadelphia, winning a couple of basketball championships in high school, getting accepted to Duke, meeting my wife-to-be in late February 1991, getting accepted to USC's Ph.D. program in Clinical Psychology, getting married on 8/19/95, watching my first son, Michael, be born on 4/30/99, watching my second son, Ben, be born on 6/18/02, and watching my third son, Matthew, be born on 1/17/05.
Outside of those moments, most of my everyday life and activities seem pretty boring. They are notable mostly for really not being notable. Like baseball, it's those big moments in life that stick with you and create memories for a lifetime. I'm hoping that today's Phillies opener starts a season that will be quite memorable for me and the boys, and maybe even my wife...
I used one of my Spring Break days yesterday to watch lots of Opening Day baseball games. (I have the MLB Extra Innings package again this year; it's going to be my annual birthday gift to myself for quite some time.) I watched the Nationals-Braves game pretty closely. I wanted to see the Braves revamped roster and I also wanted to see Jayson Werth have a bad start to his Nationals career. I also flipped around and caught parts of the Reds-Brewers game (which began with back-to-back home runs by the Brewers, the first time that that feat had been achieved since the Reds did it back in 1969) and the Yankees-Tigers game. All in all, it was a fun, relaxing day of baseball, topped off by watching my son Michael's (age 11) Little League team claim a 12-7 victory in an away game at Sunshine Little League here in San Diego.
What struck me about the events of Opening Day was how much of baseball consists of waiting while relatively mundane things happen -- strikeouts, ground outs, pop ups, etc. These mundane moments, however, are punctuated by exciting, big, meaningful moments, such as those lead-off home runs by the Brewers or the walk-off three-run home run by Ramon Hernandez of the Reds in that same game.
Isn't life pretty much the same way -- mundane moments punctuated by exciting, significant moments? That's the way my life often feels to me. It's mostly boring, everyday stuff -- getting up, going to work, taking the boys to practices and games, eating meals, reading, watching TV, etc. Then, important events crop up.
I've always felt that my life has been marked by these big moments, some of which have taken me in totally different directions from what I might have expected or predicted. Here are some big moments that changed my life: getting accepted to Saint Joseph's Prep in Philadelphia, winning a couple of basketball championships in high school, getting accepted to Duke, meeting my wife-to-be in late February 1991, getting accepted to USC's Ph.D. program in Clinical Psychology, getting married on 8/19/95, watching my first son, Michael, be born on 4/30/99, watching my second son, Ben, be born on 6/18/02, and watching my third son, Matthew, be born on 1/17/05.
Outside of those moments, most of my everyday life and activities seem pretty boring. They are notable mostly for really not being notable. Like baseball, it's those big moments in life that stick with you and create memories for a lifetime. I'm hoping that today's Phillies opener starts a season that will be quite memorable for me and the boys, and maybe even my wife...
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Baseball as a Metaphor for Life
I woke up this morning and had a mini-epiphany. I've been considering ways to incorporate more writing into my life. I've been thinking about blogging as a way to do so. Then I remembered that tomorrow is Opening Day for Major League Baseball. So, I thought, what about writing about baseball?
I grew up in Philadelphia and have been a lifelong Phillies fan (phan). Unless you have no interest in baseball and/or you live under a rock, you'll know that the Phillies have been very good for past 5-6 years. This year they have constructed a starting rotation that could be one for the ages -- Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt, Cole Hamels, and Joe Blanton (the requisite fifth starter in the rotation). The press has dubbed these first four "R2C2," a moniker that my sons find hilarious.
So, here's what I'm thinking. This could be a historic year for Phillies baseball. It would be a blast to chronicle the 2011 season as it unfolds. I'll use this blog to do so. To make it even more interesting, however, I won't just write about baseball games. I'll do that on occasion, but I thought I'd try to do something more interesting here: I want to use baseball as a metaphor for life. I want to tie baseball into what is going on in my life and in the world more generally. For example, what lessons can be learned from the events that unfold for the Phillies in this 2011 season? What else is happening in my own life that relates to the long-running drama that is a baseball season? What am I reading about elsewhere that ties in to the tale of this 2011 season? What am I experiencing as a Little League dad and, this season, Little League manager that connects to what transpires in MLB this year?
I'm not sure where this journey will take me, but isn't that the fun thing about these sorts of adventures? In a baseball game, you never know what might happen next -- a strikeout, a double play, an infield fly, a home run, or, sometimes, absolutely nothing. Can't you say the same thing about life? So, that's what I'm here to do this season, look for connections between baseball and life. Can baseball be a good metaphor for life? What lessons can I learn by thinking about this timeless game in these new ways? Let's see what happens.
Play ball...
I grew up in Philadelphia and have been a lifelong Phillies fan (phan). Unless you have no interest in baseball and/or you live under a rock, you'll know that the Phillies have been very good for past 5-6 years. This year they have constructed a starting rotation that could be one for the ages -- Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt, Cole Hamels, and Joe Blanton (the requisite fifth starter in the rotation). The press has dubbed these first four "R2C2," a moniker that my sons find hilarious.
So, here's what I'm thinking. This could be a historic year for Phillies baseball. It would be a blast to chronicle the 2011 season as it unfolds. I'll use this blog to do so. To make it even more interesting, however, I won't just write about baseball games. I'll do that on occasion, but I thought I'd try to do something more interesting here: I want to use baseball as a metaphor for life. I want to tie baseball into what is going on in my life and in the world more generally. For example, what lessons can be learned from the events that unfold for the Phillies in this 2011 season? What else is happening in my own life that relates to the long-running drama that is a baseball season? What am I reading about elsewhere that ties in to the tale of this 2011 season? What am I experiencing as a Little League dad and, this season, Little League manager that connects to what transpires in MLB this year?
I'm not sure where this journey will take me, but isn't that the fun thing about these sorts of adventures? In a baseball game, you never know what might happen next -- a strikeout, a double play, an infield fly, a home run, or, sometimes, absolutely nothing. Can't you say the same thing about life? So, that's what I'm here to do this season, look for connections between baseball and life. Can baseball be a good metaphor for life? What lessons can I learn by thinking about this timeless game in these new ways? Let's see what happens.
Play ball...
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