7 Rules for Life Baseball
1. Stand Up Straight With Your Shoulders Back
Act like you have been on the field before. Your body language makes a big difference. Step on the field with confidence, ready to compete. Dig into the batter’s box and take your position like you are ready to play.
2. Treat Yourself Like a Teammate, You Are Responsible for Helping.
Imagine a teammate has struck out six times in a row. If you want to help them, you would not scream at them after the next strike out. No good teammate would, so do not scream at yourself inside your own head.
3. Be the Kind of Teammate That Wants the Best for Your Teammates.
We would all like to be on a team with a great vibe with good camaraderie. This takes time but you can help get there by being that kind of teammate yourself. If you genuinely want the best for everyone else and conduct yourself that way, the kind of team you want will form around you.
4. Compare Yourself to the Player you Were Yesterday, not to the Player Someone Else is Today.
You are all the sum of all your previous seasons and the work you have put in. Keep looking for ways to improve your game. There will always be a better player around, someone faster, stronger, who hits the ball farther. You can look to them for what is possible, but do not get down because they are better. Look to them to learn what you might do better. Set goals to improve yourself a little bit all the time. Make your performance in the next game slightly better than the last. Keep that up and you will be on a good track.
5. Set Your Game in Perfect Order Before You Criticize the Umpires.
Take responsibility for your actions and your outcomes. Do not come off the field blaming the umpire. Look at what you can change next time so that the outcomes will not be so close. You cannot change the ump, but you can change yourself. If you are going to strike out, make it swinging, not looking.
6. Pursue What is Meaningful, not What is Expedient
Baseball and life are not games, they are a series of games. Never sacrifice victory across the series of games for victory today.
7. Enjoy a good Sunset over the Field When you See One.
You will have times when you are in a slump and just cannot get a hit. It will be frustrating, but you can get through it. While you are working on it, make sure to enjoy the beauty of the sunset or the big birds that live up in the field lights. When you are in a slump and it seems like a heavy load, shorten your time frame that you are focusing on so you are not overwhelmed. Take the game one pitch at a time and you can work it out.
