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Vail Valley Voices: You can learn a lot from Little League

Randy Wyrick
Vail, CO, Colorado

Little League baseball is like life. Stay with me, this is darned near Shakespearean.

Most of the stuff your kids should know, and you, you can learn from a well-played baseball game. Or a poorly played baseball game.

You have time to think of this stuff when you’ve put in your last pitcher, you’re still losing 21-3, and it occurs to you that your players don’t care about the score as long as they get ice cream after the game.



n It’s better to have swung and missed than never to have swung at all.

n If it hurts when you do that, quit doing that.

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n There’s no time clock. You have to finish. Or as Yogi Berra says, “It ain’t over ’til it’s over.”

n It’s a game. It’s not life or death, despite how it might feel at the time. When the umpire starts the game he doesn’t holler, “Work ball!” he hollers, “Play ball!”

n The last two words of the national anthem are “Play Ball!”

n Baseball is ball. Football is football. Basketball is hoop or rock.

n Winning isn’t everything, but it’s better than anything else you can do out there.

n Little stuff matters because it adds up to big stuff. Do lots of little stuff right all the time and before you know it you’re doing big stuff right. Do big stuff right and you make the Hall of Fame.

n Pete Maravich spent 20,000 hours practicing before he went to college and pro ball. So will you. There are no exceptions.

n Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.

n Life is like baseball. Sometimes something terrible happens. Sometimes something wonderful happens.

n Whether something is wonderful or terrible depends on your perspective, whether it’s happening to you or for you.

n Mostly, baseball and life roll rhythmically along.

n Mentorship matters. You play, then you coach and teach, then you teach the coaches. Then you sit in the sun with a tall beverage and enjoy a thing done well.

n The will to win is nothing. The will to prepare is everything. Sun Tzu said it first, and he’s still right.

n Life is a team sport. No one ever accomplished anything in isolation. If you have a belly button, you need look no further for proof of this.

n You’re never too young to play.

n You’re never too old to play.

n Move quickly, but don’t hurry. The faster you try to go, the more mistakes you make.

n Life and baseball average out. That team we lost to 21-3, we beat 16-4 the next time around.

n Like life, baseball will break your heart

n Like life, baseball will thrill your heart.

Staff Writer Randy Wyrick can be reached at 970-748-2935 or rwyrick@vaildaily.com.


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