Perspective

I love baseball.

I love everything that is good about the game. I love pitching duels and home run binges. I love wall-banging, run-scoring doubles, and I love simple ground balls that move baserunners to second and third base. I love the smell of hotdogs, nachos, leather, and pine tar. I love standing at attention, with hand over heart, as the national anthem is sung, and I love standing again six and a half innings later joining thousand of other fans in singing Take Me Out to the Ballgame. I love double-headers and extra innings. I love playing the game and watching the game, on television or in person in an uncomfortable, sticky stadium seat, whether played by kids, students, or the highest-paid professionals. I'll say it again: I love baseball.

But, contrary to a popular line of t-shirts from the 90s, Baseball is not life.

Not even close, really.

For some people, like me, baseball is a means of enjoyment. We can read the latest news from around the league. We can participate in fantasy leagues. We can listen intently to the local sports talk radio for any insight into our home teams. And we love it.

For others, baseball is a means of employment. A job that requires immense amounts of travel and time away from family and friends. The players who make a living playing this game grind out 162 games every year. They hop from jet to jet, town to town, every day like the last, and only getting a few days off a season.

But occasionally life happens, and we are reminded that baseball is a only game, a past time, not the end-all be-all. Some things are much more important.

Perspective can come in the smallest and most fragile of packages. And the miracle of life far out-weighs the feats performed in a ball park, a stadium, or any other sports venue. Last night I met a pair of "rookies" in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit at a local hospital. They were called up to the big leagues a little early and they're spending a little time on the bench. But those two little sluggers show us what true inspiration is, and remind us what is truly important and noteworthy in the game of life.