Coach Jake was batting. Every ball he hit went over the outfield fence. 

Bill was pitching his slow fastball. Coach Jake said he didn’t care how fast the ball came. Hitting had little to do with speed, only timing.

      So Bill threw his most comfortable pitch. The one he could throw for seven full innings and then for the rest of the day too. He watched each ball come off Coach Jake’s bat and then fly up into a perfect parabola, a symmetrical curve from the bat to the grass on the other side of the outfield fence. 

      “This is the nuts!” Coach Jake shouted to Bill and the rest of the world.

      “Amen!” was all Bill could think to say.

      Another ball flew to its destiny, hitting the letter B right in the middle of the scoreboard. Bill had never hit a homerun, he hadn’t even gotten close. He had hit the ball to shallow outfield but never deep. He thought he just didn’t have enough strength to hit a ball that far. So he always focused on just getting infield hits, and Bill was very good at doing that.

      “Showing off?” Bill pointed out with a bit of attitude.

      “If you got it, you gotta use it. Executing your talents isn’t showing off…, well, okay, it is.” 

       Bill bent over laughing hard. He had struck his teacher out.

      “But if you have a talent, shouldn’t you show that talent to others? Maybe showing off is a good thing?”

      “Okay, justification accepted,” Bill replied. “Now about that talent thing. If you’re showing off, why don’t you show my curveball the way to the outfield fence?”

      “Give me your best, little man,” and Coach Jake reentered the batter’s box, now with the attitude and intensity of a professional ballplayer.

      Bill suddenly realized that this moment was more grand and stressful than any moment in any game he had ever played. Pitching to his coach was not the time to choke.

His only thought was, relax and execute. He ran his Signature Curveball Algorithm in his head, wound up and the spheroid flew.

      Coach Jake knew the curve was coming, watched it start its curve, knew it was moving slower than it seemed, and knew that just when it looked like it was going to hit him in the face, it would stall and fall to the outside of the plate. He had watch Bill throw the curve hundreds of times.

Coach Jake had the ball in his sights. He swung in perfect balance. And he completely missed the ball.

      Bill was the winner but he felt sad for Coach Jake, his idol, and a bit embarrassed, like he had been the one showing off. “Feeling good and bad at the same time? Very odd,” Bill thought.

Coach Jake’s experience was the opposite. He dropped his bat and walked to the pitcher’s mound smiling big, “What a pitch! I’ve seen it but never faced it. I really didn’t know what you were doing. That pitch is fantastic Bill!”

      Bill’s embarrassment turned to pleasure. He had pleased his master.

“Isn’t it weird how it looks when it gets close? I think that’s the secret to the pitch. Not how I throw it, but the illusion that is created by the way the ball moves,” Bill explained. “What the batter sees and what the ball is doing are two different views.”

      “Well it’s something for sure, because I clearly saw it dance.”

      “I wish I could bat against myself. I would love to see what my curve looks like.”

      “You’re missing quite a show,” Coach Jake said, a sincere compliment.

      Then Coach Jake thought of a weird fact that was similar to Bill’s lament about not being able to see his own curveball.

      “It’s like this Bill, you can never see your own eyes.”

Bill looked at him with a question mark face.

      “You can see the reflection of your eyes and a photograph of your eyes, and people can tell you all about them, but you will never be able to see your own eyes. Or your signature curveball. Such is the way of a human life.”

      “Thank Goodness we have baseball.”

      “And a double ‘Amen’ to that.”

 

 

                                                                                     * * *

 

 

3:30 and the first baseballers started to arrive on the field. The rest came in the next ten minutes. No one was going to be late. Each had waited all day for this practice. It sounded like it would be magical.

      “3:52. Well men, shall we start early?” Coach Jake said in the bliss of the moment: just him, his players, his field, and his life.

      They shouted, “Let’s go!” and so practice began. 

      The first part was warmups and then practice throwing the ball. First from sixty feet apart, the distance between bases. This was the most strict part of practice. The players were working on the pillars of the Church of Baseball. Throw the ball and catch the ball. And certainly, the dropping of a ball or an unfocused throw deserved a penitence.

      It was one lap around the outside of the baseball field with other players allowed to disrespect the runner at their will. It wasn’t a big deal, just the price to be paid.

      Then throws from eighty feet, the distance between 3rd base and 1st. The parameters for error were adjusted because of the distance, and the fact that it’s just a difficult throw to execute properly. It takes a lot of strength so even a tiny misjudgment will put the ball’s trajectory off target.

Then outfield throws to practice aiming and increase throwing distance. No penalties in this part of practice. Just throw as far as you can and do your best to be accurate.

After a short water break they all sat in the shade. This next part of practice was why all the players were so excited.

      “Before I talk about, ‘what a homerun is’, let me tell you what it ain’t,” Coach Jake began.

The team chuckled and chatted a bit. Coach Jake knew they were all nervous and that this was perhaps the most important practice to help them improve overall as a baseballer. He was going to teach them the simplest, most natural move in baseball. A move that is fundamental: hitting a homerun.

      “A homerun is not a thing to be planned or even to think about. If you’re thinking homerun, you will never hit one. Hitting a homerun is not a goal to be accomplished, not a feat to impress your girlfriends and boyfriends. It is not a great thing to have done, not a point of pride or power. A homerun has nothing to do with what you think a homerun is, or whether or not you think you can hit a homerun, or whether or not you do hit a homerun.”

      The players were in a trance. This was not what they were expecting. It was much, much more.

      “So what is a homerun? A homerun is a thing that happens naturally, because the ball wants to go over the fence, land on the grass and become a homerun ball.

      “To hit a homerun you must have no interest in hitting a homerun. You can’t want it, need it, pray for it, or pay money for it. A homerun is never in your thoughts. If you’re thinking ‘homerun’ then you will only earn an out.

       “So…,” Coach Jake finished his first inning of teaching and started the second, “So guys, what do you think about when you are in the batter’s box?”

      “Hitting the ball as hard as I can?” DJ offered.

      “Focusing on a certain point and then aiming the bat there?” Kurt said trying to remember what he really does think about when he’s at bat.

      “Thinking positive,” Rodney said. “I think I can, I think I can…”

      “Nope,” Coach Jake sadly replied.

      No other player was willing to be wrong so no other player spoke.

      “Good,” Coach Jake said. “So here it is. It seems simple but remember our pillars are throw and catch, and who can’t do that?”

      “Uh, me?” DJ joked. He had run two laps earlier.

      “Yes, DJ, you. What were you thinking when you dropped those two throws?”

      “I don’t know.”

      “Exactly,” Coach Jake was right on track, “What do you think might have happened if you did think at the moment just before you dropped the ball?”

      “Uh, I would have caught it?” DJ knew that was the right answer but wasn’t sure how it applied.

      “Maybe,” Coach Jake said. “To hit a homerun you can’t be thinking ‘homerun’. So you need something else to fill your mind. Don’t just ‘think a positive thought’ but a real aid that will help.

The players all adjusted their bodies on the grass. “Now we’re getting somewhere,” the group thought.

      “Your focus, thinking, intention, wants and needs are all in one word. When you’re at bat you really can’t think of anything complex. Thinking the simplest thought is the best.”

Coach Jake gave the obligatory long pause before revealing the key to his lesson. The players were charmingly patient.

      “Balance,” Coach Jake said. He knew it would be anti-climatic. “Balance is the single most important element for hitting a homerun. Not just being in balance on your feet, but being in balance in every part of your body: your mind, and heart and soul.”

      “Sounds simple,” Travis said. “Must be pretty complex.”

      “Exactly, Travis. The toughest things to accomplish in life always seem pretty simple but upon execution they turn out to be very difficult.

      “Bill!” Coach Jake said and Bill jumped not expecting to be asked a question.

But Bill had no worries. Coach Jake was asking about his greatest talent. “Bill, when you throw a pitch,” Coach Jake began. Bill was all balanced ears.

      “What do you do first, once you’re on the mound and ready to pitch?”

Bill thought for a long moment and he didn’t realize how long until Coach Jake said, “It’s not a trick question, Bill.” 

       Everyone laughed. The smart guy was stumped.

Bill realized Coach Jake was just including him, not challenging him.

      “Of course, I go backwards to start my windup.”

      “You are correct. Congratulations, you can now bat last.”

      Coach Jake challenged his 2nd Baseman, “So, DJ, what do you do when…”

      “I can’t pitch Coach Jake.”

      “Can you throw the ball?”

      “Often, on good days,” DJ answered as an astute player.

      “And on those rare occasions where you have reached consciousness and also remembered to bring your glove, can you throw a baseball? Assuming you are properly motivated.”

      “With a Coach’s motivation, yes sir, I can hit the glove’s pocket every time.” “Every time?”

      “Every time it wants to get hit,” DJ concluded and then hid under his cap to get out of the spotlight.

      The players all laughed like little boys and rolled around on the trimmed, moist grass. And when Mikie saw they were relaxed completely, he jumped up and commanded the team, “Now boys, up, jump up! Don’t just ‘get’ up Wyatt, jump! When a coach says jump, you jump!”

      They all did and Coach Mikie just nodded with acknowledgement, then yelled in his leadership voice, “Stand on your left foot and hold your balance for two minutes! Now! Do it!” Mikie knew that would be a challenge for many of the boys.

      Coach Jake loved it when Mikie came up with his own coaching ideas and  injected them into Coach Jake’s teachings. Mikie was already a superior leader and would only get better. He was going to make an excellent professional coach.

      At ninety seconds some of the players started to quiver and used their hands to stay in balance.

Mikie became the Drill Sergeant as he addressed Travis and then Kurt, “You will not move player! No! You will not, you piece of meat! That leg is your only hope of making this team! Head up! Back straight! What are you thinking, soldier!?! Breathe now! Twenty more seconds! Whose got this? 

      “Kurt! Whose the baseballer? You? Whose got what it takes? You? This is the time of balance, boys. Don’t fail me! Don’t fail your fellow players! Don’t fail yourself! Ten seconds! This is the end men. Finish strong!”

       Mikie called ‘time’ and the players all fell to the ground, now masters of standing on one foot.

“So how did that feel? Was it difficult? At the end?”

      “Not too hard,” Other Matt, the right-fielder, concluded.

      DJ added lightheartedly, “So Coach, if we practice balancing on one leg for twenty minutes each practice, then we will be hitting homeruns daily?”

      DJ got the answer he did not expect.

      “Yes!”

      The players began chatting with each other. Was a homerun really as easy as standing on one foot?

      “But of course, there’s a catch,” Coach Jake conceded.

      “Dang!, I knew it, there always is,” grumbled Matt.

      “Not only do you need to be able to balance on one leg for twenty minutes, but you need to bring every part of your body into balance. Your feet are the most important part of your body for balancing, so that’s where we’ll start. Your feet are your foundation. And like pillars, if you don’t get your legs in balance, nothing will follow.”

      “What else?” Shortstop Wyatt asked. He knew he was learning something new and very important.

      “Everything else,” Coach Jake answered intently. And then he made a list of every body part, every thinking part, and every emotional part of a baseball player.

      “Your feet, your hands, and your head sitting on your neck. Your back, buttocks and shoulders, your gut and all your muscles, your toes and fingers, ankles and elbows.”

      “Is that all?” Rodney questioned in his funny voice.

      “No,” Coach Jake shook his head sadly, “Those are the easy areas.”

      The players all looked at each other. This was the point where a good lecture was going to turn into trouble for them.

      “The next step. You want to balance your brain. Your thinking mind. Now, in theory, baseball players don’t have any brains. And while that may be true, we still have the remains of a primitive reptilian brain. And it works good enough. Well, good enough for a baseballer.”

Everybody laughed and relaxed. Things were getting better.

      “Then you need to balance your emotions. This is the hardest part. Remember being in a game where you were losing by a run or two? Remember how you felt? Anxious, worrisome, fearful, unsure, incompetent? Yes? Anyone ever been able to remain calm when it’s the sixth inning and we’re down by a run?”

      No player spoke or moved. Each player knew Coach Jake was talking directly to him.

      “Imagine. Close your eyes and imagine. Imagine that it is the sixth inning, game tied, and you are coming up to bat. A very pressured situation, right?”

      The players, with their eyes tightly shut, all nodded.

      “Now, think about how you would be feeling then. Not very good, I bet.”

      “I hate it. That’s the worst situation for me,” Travis said.

      “Me too. My mind just goes blank,” Matt confessed.

      “Now imagine,” Coach Jake began, “that you are in that same situation, but you are calm and relaxed. All of your body is in balance and every single part feels ready for action. How do you think you would perform then?”

      The players got it, and nodded their heads, lost in thoughts, “Everything is balance.” “Every part of my body in balance.” “My mind has never been in balance.”

“How do I balance my ears?”

      Coach Jake could hear his players thinking and responded, “So how are you feeling? If you are nervous or out of focus then you are out of balance. It’s about your ‘personal power’, your ability to overcome negative thoughts and feel very clearly, that you will hit the ball.

      “Personal power is also called ‘Chi’. That’s a Chinese word that means your life’s force. The energy that drives you forward in your life.

      “In slang, it’s also called ‘mojo’.”

      “Got your mojo working?” Wyatt asked in a funny voice.

      “That’s it!”

      “I never knew what that really meant,” Matt nodded his head with new knowledge.

      “So if my mojo is out of balance, then my mojo ain’t working?” clarified Other Matt.

      “But if I am in balance…”

      “Then you’re walking the correct path, a path with integrity. I know it seems impossible, and in a way it is impossible, so don’t put pressure on yourselves. Just do your best and then stop thinking! Remember, you are just a baseball player.”

      Bill and Mikie sat back on the grass. They felt like they were in a different world. “This just ain’t a sport,” Mikie speculated.

      “And it ain’t just a religion, either,” Bill acknowledged.

      Then they both looked at each other with big smiles and announced in unison, “It’s baseball!”

      Coach Jake continued, “I know this is a lot to think about and even more to actually do. But everything will happen at its correct time.

      “We’ll work on the basics and then advance as you all progress. Whether you master the art of balance or not, doesn’t matter. All you need to do is keep working on it. Show up with the intention to be in balance and when you’re not, then figure out what you can do. Often the solution just presents itself.”

      “That’s like life,” Travis agreed. “Lots of times I don’t know what to do but the solution always seems to present itself anyways.”

Kurt added, “I know that when I’m calm and relaxed, I always make better decisions.”

     “Yes, exactly. For us, baseball and life are the same thing so what applies to one automatically applies to the other. 

      “Being in balance is like walking a ‘razor’s edge’.”

Many of the boys recognized the phrase but never understood its meaning.

      “To walk a razor’s edge is not about being careful and slow or never straying from one’s course. It’s about always being out of balance and then coming into balance for just that moment you hit the ball. That, what did Bill say?”

      “One one-thousandth of a second,” Wyatt knew.

      “Yeah, that’s it. Just be exactly on the razor’s edge, in balance, right at that moment. And that will be a homerun.”

      “So,” Bill repeated for each player’s benefit, “Our job is not to be balanced but rather to be able to re-balance. To rebalance ourself for just less than a second.”

      “Not to difficult,” Rodney agreed.

      “You just have to do it well,” Coach Jake concluded.

      The players all took a breath and stretched their bodies.

      “I have found that just thinking about being in balance helps my balance. Like most other things in baseball, it’s not hard to do,” then Coach Jake smiled big, “just hard to do well.

      “So the first technique, the one I use all the time, is easy and works great for beginners.” Coach Jake paused for his teachings to settle in. “Simply, as you’re walking up to the plate, just start saying and thinking ‘balance’. Nothing else. 

      “It’s your ‘mantra’. A mantra is a simple saying, a chant, a chant that won’t let other thoughts into that pee-wee baseball-brain of yours. Focus only on your mantra, saying it calmly, over and over.

The players were focused on every word their coach spoke. They understood that these words were the pathway to Coach Jake’s teachings. It was how he hit homeruns all the time! This was valuable information, even their pee-wee brains understood that.

      “So empty your mind. And you can empty it by repeating the mantra: ‘Balance. Balance. Balance.’”

      Coach Jake then added, “To succeed in any endevor, you have to think a successful thought. If you’re thinking ‘balance’ instead of ‘I hope I get a hit’, your success rate has got to be better. Yes? Obvious?”

      Coach Jake stood up and that was the cue for the players to stand also.

      “Let’s go!” he shouted his moniker. “It’s time to hit homeruns!”

      Bill was pitching the same slow fastball that Coach Jake was hitting out of the park.First up was Mikie the captain. Everyone could hear Mikie as he mumbled with confidence, “Balance, balance, balance, balance, balance, balance, balance, balance, balance, balance, balance, balance…”

Everyone smirked and giggled. Was it really that easy? Well, maybe it was.

Mikie stood in the box relaxed. He intentionally tried not to do anything in the batter’s box that he had done before. This ‘at bat’ was a fresh start.

       He just watched the first two pitches to get his timing correct with Bill’s slow pitch. The he nodded his head to his friend, and once again the spheroid flew.

Mikie knew not to swing too hard. Coach had made it clear that strength was not a factor. So he just swung smooth. His body felt good.

      The ball hit the bat right in its sweet spot and everyone cheered when they heard the ball ‘pop’ off Mikie’s bat. The ball had no power and was not grand or impressive. It was not sailing or flying over the fence. No drama, no memorable moment. Just a baseball that went up in the air and then went down into the tall grass, on the other side of the outfield fence.

      Mikie ran the bases proudly and everyone cheered. The players all lined up on the third base side and Mikie gave each a high-five and a homerun smile. Then he jumped onto home plate with two balanced feet and a balanced soul.

      “Simple as that!” Coach Jake concluded with a blissful smile. “Well done, men.”

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