Baseball Is A Simple Game, But It Is Not An Easy Game To Play

“A good friend of mine used to say, ‘This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains.’ Think about that for a while.”

– Ebby Calvin “Nuke” LaLoosh (Tim Robbins) from the motion picture Bull Durham (1988)

Baseball at its most fundamental level is quite simple. Throwing, catching, hitting, and running are not difficult concepts to understand. Nor generally speaking at its most basic level are they difficult concepts to execute. Virtually everyone can throw, catch, hit, and run to a certain degree. Yet although simple in nature, there are layers of technique for throwing, catching, hitting, and running as they relate to baseball that make them difficult to master. Mastering them is not so easy.

In baseball, as is the case with other sports, talent matters. Skill matters. Speed matters. Strength matters. But baseball is not simply a physical game. You may throw well, catch well, hit well, and run well but you are not guaranteed success in baseball. Baseball is particularly challenging because it combines the physical elements of throwing, catching, hitting, and running with other less tangible considerations. More so than any other sport I believe, baseball is a game of patience, and strategy, and fortitude, and knowledge, and confidence, and understanding, and focus, and much more. To excel in baseball you must master more than the physical aspects of the game. You must master the mental, emotional, and intellectual elements of the game as well. Doing so is not so easy.

In his poem The Children’s Song, Rudyard Kipling writes “Teach us to delight in simple things.” We delight in baseball because of its simplicity. As players, coaches, and spectators we gravitate towards this game because of its beauty. Yet despite its simplicity and beauty, it is not easy. We are challenged by the game in many ways. Wes Westrum, a catcher for the New York Giants from 1947 to 1957, once said that baseball is like church – “Many attend but few understand.” This is perhap why we stay engaged with the game. We seek to understand. We strive for excellence.

Anyone that has ever played a game of baseball, coached a game of baseball, attended a game or watched a game on television, listened to a game on the radio or internet, or simply read about a game of baseball, should feel fortunate for having done so. For baseball is truly a remarkable endeavor.