I learned something interesting when my son Jeff and I were in Arizona last week for our five day immersion in baseball spring training. I noticed that the stadiums we visited had what looked like an unfinished scoreboard or billboard in right center field. I asked Jeff, a spring training veteran, what that tacky looking board was doing out there. He said it was the "batter's eye."Despite being a baseball fan since I was a kid, I had never heard of the "batter's eye." The entry in Wikipedia describes it thusly:
The batter's eye (short for batter's eye screen) is a solid-colored, usually dark area beyond the center field wall of a baseball stadium, that is the visual backdrop directly in the line of sight of a baseball batter, while facing the pitcher and awaiting a pitch. This dark surface allows the batter to see the pitched ball against a sharply contrasted and uncluttered background, as much for the batter's safety as anything. The use of a batter's background has been standard in baseball (as well as cricket) since at least the late 1800s.Boy, that got me to thinking. One of baseball's canonical sayings is "keep your eye on the ball"--good advice for hitters, but also for defensive players as well. Only the pitcher is excused. They have to keep their eye on the mitt that the catcher puts up as a target. The pitcher's job is to throw sufficiently deceptive "stuff" that they prevent the hitters from keeping their eye on the ball.
But now comes the "batter's eye," designed to clean up the background so that the ball doesn't have to be seen against a fan's shirt or a homemade sign urging attention to John 3:16.
We should all have it so good. In life we all have to keep our eye on the ball as well. I'm kind of wishing we had a batter's eye to help us out. Our backgrounds tend to be cluttered with life's refuse and sometimes we just can't keep focused because of all the "stuff" that masks what we need to see and do.
The author is unknown to me, but one of my favorite sayings is this: "It is not known who first discovered water, but this much is known--it was not the fish." We are often the least equipped to see our own lives with clarity. When we're in the middle of it all, when we're looking out into centerfield and see only an array of shirts and signs, it is very difficult to see our own truths.
When things get tough it would sure be nice to have a solid dark background out there when the high, hard one comes our way.
Yes! And the high, hard one coming our way is almost always the thing we expect the LEAST. It is always the thing we are NEVER looking for that bites us in the behind. THEREFORE, the way I outsmart the high, hard one is by focusing on the big, horrible things that MIGHT happen. Like for example, if I worry a whole lot about the plane crashing, it will never happen, because the high hard one is the thing we least expect, SO if I am worrying and expecting something bad to happen, I have outsmarted the high, hard possibilities of life. You see the beauty of it right? Now, I have friends that try to tell me my thinking is really flawed, BUT I submit that WORRYING a WHOLE LOT will GUARANTEE that I outsmart the high, hard ones of the cosmos. Worry, has thus become my batter's eye. I know worry is supposed to be a bad thing, but this has worked for me so far. I worry, therefore, I am.
ReplyDeleteHmmm! A very thoughtful and uplifting solution.
ReplyDeleteIt occurs to me that you might have something to offer here. You undoubtedly know that in the American League we have the designated hitter. Since few pitchers are good hitters the rule has a good hitter bat in the pitcher's spot in the lineup. That provides a bit more offense in the game, supposedly increasing fan interest.
So to our fretting poster how about this proposal--you become our designated worrier? That frees the rest of us from having to do something that isn't in our nature, and it honors your worrying giftedness, providing you with your rightful place in the game.
Would that be too much pressure? Would you worry that you might be an inadequate designated worrier?
The Designated Worrier has your bat...I mean back....
ReplyDeleteThat's wonderful! because I refuse to waste my time worrying and now with a designated worrier, I won't bother feeling guilty about it. :)
ReplyDeleteLife has taught me that the things we worry most about...never happen.
It's not the exact quote you gave on fish, but Marshall McLuhan wrote in Culture Is Our Business (1970 McGraw Hill/Ballantine, NY), “Fish don’t know water exists till beached.”(p.191)
ReplyDeleteGrandpa Terrence, thanks so much for the reference on that quote. I guess it's my history background but I am a stickler for documenting sources, so I appreciate that information.
ReplyDeleteDespite the obvious similarity there are, as you infer, some subtle and interesting differences between McLuhan's quote and the one I cited. Kind of makes me want to pursue the reference a bit.
Thanks again for the insight.
Madmargie you have made my point exactly!
ReplyDeleteAs an Englishman, I have seen the batters eye in cricket. It has to be moved every game, depending on where the wicket is. Sometime they sections part of the bleachers off and a large white sheet down (Mainly found in smaller stadiums).
ReplyDeleteI will look out for it next time I am watching baseball.