Take Me Out To The Ball Game


"Take Me Out To The Ball game...
Root, root, root for the home team,
If they don't win it's a shame."

My beloved Toronto Blue Jays, back-to-back winners of
the 1992-93 World Series, have fallen on hard times in
more recent years. This is a 'rebuilding' year and
after some promising moments earlier in the season, the
team looks like it is already packing it in. The team
is young and growing. The feeling around here is they
will be back in contention within another year or two.

However, today with the final score of 17-2 (yes, this
was a baseball game!) the fans could have gone home
very upset. But we didn't. In fact, there was more
enthusiasm and cheering in the top of the ninth than
for the entire game combined.

Was it because the fans were GLAD the game was over.

Nope.

You see, there was another 'game-within-a-game' going
on... a special promotion sponsored by a local pizza
chain. The deal was, if the Blue Jay's pitching staff
was able to strike out 7 opposing batters over the nine
innings, every fan would be able to redeem his/her
ticket stubb for a free slice of pizza! And it took
nearly the full nine innings to do it. Very exciting!

So, I was thinking (as I always do) about how this
relates to life. Here's what I came up with:

Has your game plan come upon hard times recently? Are
you in a 'rebuilding' year?

GREAT! You can still go home happy if you look at the
'game-within-the-game' that's going on in your life.

When I was diagnosed with Leukemia, it was a tremendous
wake-up call. At the time, I was 45 years old and I
determined that I wasn't ready to die.

During my 'rebuilding' I was forced to change my crappy
thinking. I took a closer look at my diet and exercise
habits and found they needed a little tinkering as
well.

Five years later, I'm home and happy to report that my
blood tests are virtually back to normal.

It's so easy to look at problems as a 'death sentence';
to get caught up in doom-and-gloom. Just remember,
there's ALWAYS a 'game-within-a-game' going on. You
can still WIN, even when it looks like you are losing.

Who cares if your team lost? Get out there and grab
your pizza slice!

Yummy in Toronto,
Russ