Life Is Tough Enough: Lessons from baseball and politics

Looking at the field

you might think things are easy.

Come to bat and see.

Batters work at walks.

Bases loaded takes a hit.

Step up to the plate.

Three good chances now.

For four you have to choose well.

Get on base safely.

Sure, you'd like a hit.

It's your turn now, and the team's.

Make the moment count.

The base and bench wait.

The cheers and jeers might inspire.

The outcome is yours.

You trained for this time.

The proof is in the pudding.

Make that training count.

Today is the time.

Now is the moment to act.

Swing, miss, hit, or wait?

Moments are life's stuff.

We teach "Live in the moment."

Your future starts now.

Baseball teams and baseball games can teach us many lessons, both about team efforts and individual efforts.

As with most games there are rules which define how baseball is played.

So it is with politics.

There are ways the game proceeds and how the outcome is determined.

Coaches choose their team's lineup. They make substitutions and changes. They share in the blame when poor choices are made.

Spectators who watch the games know there is a certain order as to how the game is played.

They also know that they are watching a team sport with umpires who enforce the rules. and that there is only one batter batting at a time.

How does that game relate to American politics?

While there may be many teams in a league, there are only two teams competing in a game.

American politics for some time has been a contest between the two major parties: the Republicans and the Democrats. A Supreme Court dictates how the rules are applied. Congress is by and large made up of the two teams.

There is one major difference between American politics and baseball. While each team has coaches and players, American politics has one leader at a time, the President.

In effect he is a coach, an umpire, a batter, a pitcher, fielder, and catcher all at the same time and performing all those functions sometimes simultaneously.

We can learn a lot of lessons from the American game of baseball.

We might even apply some of those lessons to American politics.

The love of baseball draws players to compete. A love of country is needed to draw the best and brightest to serve and govern.

While the cheers and jeers apply to both baseball and politics, the stakes are much higher in politics. It is not just a game that is here today and over today, with another game tomorrow.

Politics can set new rules, increase the stakes, and make positive steps and mistakes that have real consequences for men, women, and children far beyond the "ball park" of Washington, D. C. and America's individual states.

Free and fair elections change the lineup of who governs America at any given moment, and under the American rules both teams are "up to bat" at the same time charged with the outcome of the game, led by one executive and his advisors who have special powers and responsibilities to lead for the well-being of all Americans...the real winners and losers in the game of politics.

Those same men, women, and children are part of the American team, from their local communities, school boards, and legislatures, to their own roles in national politics. Their stake in the game is, if anything, greater than that of the politicians who may come and go while insulated in part from the very laws and decisions they make.

At their best, politicians work in the best interests of their constituents. At their worst, they fail to do so in effective and positive ways that insure the best possible outcome for those they are expected to represent.

Championship baseball teams excel in all facets of their game. Championship governments can learn from their examples.

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© 2017 Demas W. Jasper All rights reserved.