I love baseball!  As a dad, I have had the pleasure of watching my boy play baseball and my daughter now plays softball.  Over the past 8 years I have also been able to coach each of my kids either as an assistant or head coach.  I was thrown into that mix my boys first year of playing and it just stayed with me til now.  This is the first year, I am not coaching in some time, which is awesome.  I actually get to sit back and enjoy the games.  My oldest, no longer plays baseball, but rather is now into archery.  My other son, competes at a high level in travel, with hopes of playing professionally and my daughter, now plays competitively in travel softball, and also hopes to play professionally.  It is a true joy to see all of my kids do things they enjoy and excel at what they do.

Aside from my kids playing I still love the game of baseball and love to watch the Braves play each year.  Pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training next week and they’ll be underway for another season.  Baseball is one of those games where each day and each game can bring you something completely different.  You may have a phenomenal game one day and the very next, nothing seems to right.  It’s a lot like life in that sense.  Each day brings you new challenges that are often completely different from the day prior.  For any ball player, the challenge can be how to deal with those games that seem to not go your.  With my kids, I know they have had plenty of those.  But what they learned is that, they just have to push those tough games aside and keep right on going.

Hank Aaron, the real Home Run King, said, “My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging.”  This is the approach that we should all take.  You have to keep swinging.  You cannot let a down day keep you back.  You have to keep right on and keep moving.  In baseball, or softball for that matter, gotta be fair to my daughter, if you strikeout, you cannot let that keep you down.  Get back up and go again the next time around.  When coaching my kids, I always told them that even the best players strikeout.  In life, even the best and most successful fall from time to time or have those down times and believe me, for most of them, they had to earn their way there through trials and difficulties.

Gotta keep swinging.  It’s so simple, but such a real part of life.  There are so many sports analogies that could be used I guess, but I love this one.  There’s always another opportunity to do better and to hit that line drive in the gap or blast one out.  There also, always another opportunity to reach your goals.  Set your mind toward it, keep swinging and until you drive it out of the park.  If you fall, get back up and do it again.  Now play ball and keep shooting for those dreams.