Decisions in the First Inning

Rethinking Losing in Baseball and in Life

I am a rabid baseball fan who used to panic about the outcome of a game in the first inning. If it did not go well for my team in the first, I would get upset and assume that the next 8 innings would not bring my team a win. The mindset made me suffer through the next eight innings, rendering me a hopeless fan lost in the fear of a potential loss. It bothered me so much that I sometimes could not enjoy the rest of the game. On some days, I even stopped watching the game.

It took me some time to realize that there are eight other innings for a reason; the first inning is simply a prelude to an exciting and wonderful game. Every half inning is a drama, an adventure, a joy, a heartbreak, a battle, and a testament to the fact that baseball, like life, is slow and steady. In the end, sometimes my team wins, sometimes it loses, but it is always the love of the game that mesmerizes me. It is the sound of every crack of the bat, every pitch, every play, every out, every hit that forms the glue of a game I find irresistible. I used to forget that to call it a game, you had to watch it half inning by half inning and wait until the last out to see who wins. You had to hear every crack of the bat deliver another possible outcome.