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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, a listener of Stuff I Learned Yesterday gave me a pineapple while I was in Chicago last week, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share a lesson I learned from the game of softball.
How do you feel when someone puts their self-interests before that of the team?
Today’s Fun Fact: The average hen lays one egg approximately every 26 hours, which is about 265 eggs per year.
What I Learned Yesterday
Long time listeners to this podcast know that I am not athletically inclined at all. As a youngster playing t-ball I was sent to the outfield where I’d have the smallest chance of messing things up, as an 8th grader I made the football team but was deep on the roster, as a 9th and 10 grader I never made the varsity basketball team and only made it into the junior varsity teams if the game was a blowout and there was less than 1 minute remaining.
I’d like to tell you that it didn’t bother me but that would be a lie. Both my brother and step-brother were very athletic so it bothered me a lot. On top of that, I saw the way athletes were treated by everyone at school, and I was jealous. I was a geek before being a geek was cool. I was the guy that girls called sweet and told to never change. It stunk.
For the most part I stayed positive and tried to find the silver lining in all aspects of my life, but if I had encountered a magic potion that would have given me athletic abilities I would have guzzled it down without a second thought. I mean, my step brother was a starter on the varsity basketball team and and the varsity football team. When we had homecoming pep rallies, he was the guy that got on the microphone and got everyone pumped up. He had girls lining up to get some of his attention and he had the recognition of the entire school. I wanted that.
I’d like to say that after I graduated high school, those feelings went away. Unfortunately, that’s just not what happened.
I didn’t really have many athletic activities after high school so it took a while before I realized these feelings still existed. In fact, other than playing a semester of tennis as an elective, I didn’t really attempt any type of competitive athletics for a few years.
That changed one day when some people from church decided to join a church softball league and asked me if I’d like to play. It sounded like fun, so I agreed. Guess which position I played? If you said right field, you’d be right!
Fortunately for me, playing right field in an adult softball league is much different than playing softball in a t-ball league. I actually enjoyed it! Not only did I enjoy playing right field, I felt like I was pretty good at it. I also felt like I was pretty good at hitting and getting on base. I certainly wasn’t the worst person on the field for either team, and that was something that I don’t think I’d ever been able to say before. It was cool!
Despite being a fairly small church, we sometimes squared off against churches that were quite a bit larger than us. Much to my surprise, one day we faced off against a church that was not only much bigger than ours, but two guys I went to high school with were on that team. Even though the two guys had graduated a year or two after I did, I knew enough about them to know that they were good at baseball and were very likely good at softball.
When I first realized that we’d be playing their team, my thoughts centered around ways I could avoid embarrassing myself. However, the more I thought about it, I realized that I had a great opportunity. I no longer focused on what I needed to do to avoid embarrassing myself but instead focused on what I could do to impress them.
The more I thought about it, the more I became convinced that this was my chance to get that high school glory that I never had. I could rise up in this moment and show these two guys just how awesome I was. They were going to be impressed with me. I couldn’t wait to talk to them after the game was over and hear them tell me how well I’d played.
So with that as my mindset, I hit the field.
Guess what happened? Do you think I had my best game ever? Did I avoid embarrassing myself? Did they compliment me after the game? Did I get my moment of glory?
Well…I definitely got my moment.
I don’t know what inning we were in, but I think the game was getting close to being over. Up to that point, I hadn’t done anything that would garner their praise. Sure, I hadn’t embarrassed myself, but that was no longer my sole goal. I wanted glory and this was my one and only chance.
Finally it happened. As I stood out in right field, eyes focused on the batter and base runners, the pitcher released the ball and hurled it toward the strike zone. Crack! The batter smashed the ball and hit it over the heads of the infield players and into the outfield. The ball was heading between the centerfield and right filed zones, so it wasn’t immediately clear as to who should go for it.
I focused my eyes on the ball and ran as quickly as I could to the spot it would land. At the same time, Jennifer, our centerfielder began running toward the ball as well. Jennifer called out that she had the better line and called me off the ball.
I looked over at her to see her trajectory, and she definitely had the better line. Protocol meant that I should alter my course and get behind her in case she missed the catch. However, protocol meant nothing to me. Protocol would not bring me glory. I ignored Jennifer’s call and kept pursuing the ball.
Jennifer again called out that she had it, and I again ignored. We each continued running at full speed toward the spot the ball would land. With our eyes locked on the ball, it was hard to gauge the position of each other.
What happened next can only be described as the antithesis of glory. With our eyes heavenward locked on the descending ball, our bodies smashed into each other. Upon impact, we each recoiled and then fell to the ground. The ball landed between us. What should have been a simple out with no runners advancing resulted in no outs and at least one run scored.
Here’s what I learned.
It’s probably no surprise, but we did not win the game. Both Jennifer and I were totally fine. She was justifiably frustrated with me, and I was humiliated. I had placed my own selfish ambitions and dreams of glory above all else, and the entire team had paid the price.
After the game was over I avoided the guys I went to high school with. I wanted nothing to do with them. I didn’t want to hear them laugh and I didn’t want to have awkward small talk.
The lesson here was clear. The selfish actions of one person can have a detrimental and even devastating affect on the entire team. If I had allowed Jennifer to field the ball, I could have avoided humiliating myself. Who knows, maybe she would have missed the catch and I could have looked good coming to her back up. But because I wanted all the glory, I ended up with nothing at all.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to win, trying our best, and even wanting to impress others. But when we elevate those things over protocols and procedures that are intended to make the team stronger, we weaken the entire team. We all play a part on a team and it’s just as important to allow others to shine as it is to be ready to step in and shine when the ball heads our way. Otherwise we’re just setting ourselves up for a dropped ball and more than just a bruised ego.
I’m Darrell Darnell, and this has been Stuff I Learned Yesterday.
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