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A Baseball Metaphor for Success

Success in school is like playing baseball with only eight men. 

Fall meant one thing in our family. Fall Ball at the nearby Little League Fields.   The younger kids were shagging the baseballs that cleared the fence. They raced to retrieve the balls before they rolled into the muddy creek. Each ball was dutifully  returned to the concession stand for the reward, a small cup of ice and Coke. That’s how the League kept up with lost balls.

My eldest son was on the field, warming up with his team. I took my place on the aluminum bleachers among the other parents watching our sons play catch. Then something unusual happened on the field.

It was game time.

Both teams were now in the dugout while the coaches faced off. Both coaches dressed in dingy white baseball pants, their team’s shirt and ball cap. They stood toe-to-toe between the mound and first base . The other coach was head and shoulders taller than our coach. Our coach stood with his back toward our bleachers with the rule book bulging out of his back left pocket.  The clock was ticking and still no first pitch. We sat quietly in the bleachers and the boys were unusually still in the dugout. We watched. The pitch of the coaches’ argument increased.  The other coach became louder and waved his hands in frustration. Our coach stood his ground with his hands on his waist.

The umpire did what umpires do so the coaches stopped arguing and returned to their respective dugout. Our coach stopped at the hurricane fence separating the spectators from the players. He hung his hands on the fence just above his head and grinned at us, parents.

“We’re short one man today,” he explained.  “The other team has a full batting order and they want us to forfeit the game but I told ’em we’d play with eight men. The rule book allows us to take the field with eight. Every time the ninth man comes up to bat we just take an out. He doesn’t seem to like that rule much. But don’t you worry none.” He winked at us. “We’ll win with eight.” He tipped his hat at us and walked to the team waiting in the dugout.

Our sons played ball that afternoon. And earned an out every time the absent ninth man was up to bat. At the end of the 9th inning our team was ahead and won the game with only eight players. Our victory celebration snow cones were extra sweet that afternoon.

I learned a life lesson that day on the Little League Fields. Our coach’s words echoed in my ears every time the odds were stacked against me. “We’ll win with eight.”

As a classroom teacher, every school year,

I was filled with enthusiasm and hope with a new class. As the weeks went along, it was quickly apparent which students were going to struggle. These students worked hard, were respectful and still just couldn’t “get it.” Soon that sparkle in their eye would fade. Their shoulders would slump. They were reminded of past failures.

Maybe long term retrieval was low average or  processing speed was below average. Maybe.  My students might have a diagnosis of a specific learning disability that would impact their learning experience in traditional classroom education.

And here is the big BUT.

My students  had  other qualities, strengths, abilities and skills.

Learning deficits are like the absent ninth man in a Little League baseball team. Learning how to learn is like letting  the other eight players who are there and ready to play ball, take the field and win the game. 

Success with learning or attention deficits is like the absent player in a baseball game and letting the other eight players who are there and ready to play ball take the field. 

Let’s take an example. Let’s say I struggle with short term memory which means I struggle with the ability to hold information and use it immediately. When the teacher announces the assignment aloud, I will probably miss what is due and when it’s due. But I have real good people skills, so I’ll ask  my neighbor in class “What did the teacher just say?”

Here’s another example.

Let’s say I struggle with processing speed which means I struggle with processing information efficiently. It takes me longer to make sense of new information. But I’m pretty good at reading. So I’m going to try to read the main headings of the chapter we are studying this week ahead of time. I’ll become familiar with the vocabulary in bold print for each chapter section. Then when I hear the instructor using these vocabulary words in the lecture, I’m familiar with those words before I need to actually use them to make sense of the lecture.

The mind is so much more than what an exam in history (or in any other academic course) can measure.

You can learn to use all your brain to learn what you need to learn.

Photo by Ben Hershey on Unsplash