My Endless Gratitude for Baseball (Thanksgiving 2023)

Credit: The Middle Age Amateur Ball Player

First, Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers! I am beyond thankful for you tuning in to read, comment, and like my articles every time they are posted! I am praying you can enjoy this break and get much needed relaxation, time with family, and good food to go along with it!

Baseball has given me everything I could have hoped for and more in my 16 years and counting in playing the game I love. I am forever grateful for the friends and coaches, the memories, the ability to be active outdoors, and most importantly the life lessons I will carry with me throughout the rest of my life. In today's article, I want to explain why I am thankful in each of those four areas mentioned above...

1. Friends and Coaches

Ever since I first started playing T-ball all the way through to college baseball, I have always had teammates I can bond with and grow close to, whether it was on or off the field. Friends have been the one constant that remained throughout all the different age groups and levels of baseball as I grew older, was my friends. The ultimate chemistry and bonds would form between us after days where we would play from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm during tournament bracket play on Sundays. Then, the dinners/hang outs that would happen outside of practices and games would just grow the friendships more and more. Fortunately, baseball brought me these friendships, some I still have to this day. Whether for fun or to get better at the game we love, baseball brought me friends to connect with and go through our baseball lives together with. I am blessed to have teammates and friends I can trust and know have backs just like I do for them, and this is all from the common baseball connection we all share.

Credit: Inc. Magazine

The coaches that were brought into my life by baseball is something I am eternally grateful for. Looking back, and into the present, every single coach I have had cared for me because they wanted me to be successful on the field, but more importantly to grow as a person through the lessons baseball has taught me about life (something we'll touch more on in part four). When thinking about how my coaches have impacted my life, the two characteristics that come to my mind immediately are consistency and discipline. While the games are where we can showcase our skills and garner success through the coach's instructions and work, in practice is where truly I feel coaches developed the regimen for me to consistently show up every scheduled practice time and perform the drills set out for me and my teammates. These two traits then have permeated into other areas of my life, like academics and my professional career, something beyond baseball that my coaches have changed my life.

2. Memories

The early morning car rides with my parents at 6:00 am and stopping at McDonald's for breakfast, all for an 8:00 am game. The late tournament nights where bracket games have gotten delayed as we are just beginning to start the championship game at 11:00 pm. These are just some of the countless memories I can look back on and realize that I wouldn't have been able to have them if it had not been that baseball was ever present in my life. Yes, baseball can seem boring and monotonous to outsiders and fans at times, but to me the memories of my first home run or my best pitching performance along with the success of my teammates and playing and practicing with them in the pouring rain are moments I can look to when baseball seems dull. In the times where the games seem to drag out, being in the dugout or out on the field joking with friends and coaches can simply just make the game more enjoyable and create lasting memoires in those times.

Then, there are times when I was on fire tearing the the cover off the baseball and seemingly can't make a bad pitch while on the mound, and then times when I was in a slump, not able to hit anything thrown my way, or just throwing ball after ball on the mound and can't make the adjustment to get hitters out. Looking at the real side of baseball, it's a game of failure. I will fail more times than I'll succeed. But, in those successful times it's important to relish and live in that moment, because they're are times within the game where I'll feel like I am on top of the world, where other times I will feel like giving up on the sport that's taken me so far. However, in those bad times it's important to still view that as a memory that I have gotten over and learned from, and am now a better player and person because of it.

3. Enjoyment of Being Outdoors and Active

Also, as I have gotten older, I have come to enjoy just simply being outside under the sunny and nice weather. There's just something about playing baseball with the temperature being at 70-80 degrees Fahrenheit, no clouds in the sky, the sun out, and a slight breeze that passes through to keep the heat and humidity manageable, especially down here in Texas. Even in the early mornings and cold and rainy weather I am grateful that I got to be in the position of playing baseball and being able to get through those tough conditions.

Credit: The Sun Newspapers

Working out and getting stronger and more explosive has become a larger component in addition to baseball in my later high school years and through college. But, those workouts and runs I have gone on throughout the past couple of years have contributed greatly to my health and being conscious of what I am putting in my body food wise. I love baseball and want to become the best I can be at it, but in order to get there I need to take care of my body by staying in shape and getting stronger. But, rather than looking at working and cardio as something that "I have to do", I look at it as something "I get to do." This changes my mindset and allows me to look at the exercise needed for baseball as something fun for me and something I may not be motivated to do if I wasn't playing baseball.

4. Life Lessons

Finally, and most importantly, baseball has been one the greatest teachers of life to me. Baseball and life are full of failures, rejections, and periods where you are just not confident in your abilities. On the bright side, baseball has taught me to never quit despite the slumps and moments in time where I've felt giving up even after playing the game for so many years. I have also seen through my coaches, as mentioned earlier, that the art of being self-disciplined will get you far in baseball, and even further in life. It's just not ingrained in the sport, and in life, to be successful without working hard and putting the work in. Baseball has taught me I have to earn and work for everything I want to succeed in. If I want that starting spot, I have to go out there, outwork my competitors and teammates, and earn it. If I want to achieve and reach a certain statistical measurement, like throwing a certain velocity as a pitcher, I have to be disciplined and work towards that goal. It just simply won't be given to me if I am lazy and expect it to be handed to me. There are numerous other lessons and experiences I could explain further, but, above all, I am grateful baseball has been in life for so long. It has helped me mature, gain knowledge and wisdom, and learn what hard work, resilience, and staying disciplined truly is.

Credit: Medium

Conclusion

Baseball is everything to me. I am passionate about the sport and would like to continue doing something related to the sport, even after I stop playing the sport eventually. It has given so much to me that I can't even begin to express how grateful I am for those values and experiences. Looking back, writing and publishing these articles weekly has been my act of gratitude back to baseball as I hope to pass on knowledge and stories of the topics within the sport to my audience. Overall, playing baseball has been such a ruthless, yet awe-inspiring experience that has built who I am throughout my childhood and into my early adult life. I am forever in debt and grateful to you baseball...