Play Ball!

When I was a kid, I loved baseball. Still do. Unlike all of my friends, however, I was pretty bad at it. Try as I might, I just couldn't throw very straight. And in my first year in little league, I don't think I got a single hit. I got slightly better as the years went on and eventually could hit pretty well, but I never really learned to throw with much accuracy.

A few years back, my sons-in-law bought me a new baseball glove. We would spend many summer nights playing three-way catch in front of my house. Those evenings are still among my fondest memories of time spent with those guys.

I will never forget one day when we were throwing the ball around, and Ryan assumed the catcher stance that said "Pitch it, Dad." Uh oh, I thought, here we go again. After demonstrating my signature inconsistency, I confessed that I've never been able to throw with much accuracy. He asked to see my grip and made a simple suggestion: drop the ring finger; just use the thumb, index and middle finger. I wound up and let the ball fly.

Steeeee-rike one!

I couldn't believe it. Jorge and Ryan may not have noticed a difference in my throwing, but for me it was like night and day. It felt great. So did the next pitch, and the one after that. For the awkward kid inside me, it was an almost redemptive moment. Now, to be sure, it probably would have taken a lot more than a new grip to help my boyhood ball playing. But one thing was for sure: one of the negative labels I'd given myself so long ago had been erased.

It's amazing how a positive change can not only influence our future for the better; it can also help us to gain insights that allow us to see our past in a new and more positive light. As in my case, when a simple grip change I learned in my 50s showed a young boy that he really could play ball after all.