Cody Bellinger struck out four times in game three of the 2017 World Series and became the second youngest ball player, leaving the honor of being the youngest to do so to “The Mick.”
Presumably as a ballplayer he would recognize the nickname of Mickey Mantle and know that for a generation “The Mick” was one of three ballplayers, if not the ballplayer you wanted to be.
Since Bellinger had no idea who Seinfeld is I can’t say for certain if he is familiar Mantle but he is all of 22 years-old so it’s not completely ridiculous for him to not know Jerry.
Two strikes into his third at-bat and I knew he was lost in his head and thought about how often we are our own worst enemy.
Thought about how some times we need our own lady in white to show up and that it doesn’t always matter if we actually see her or not.
Call It Fate Or Call It Coincidence
There have been moments where I felt the presence of my woman in white and found myself slowly turning in a circle to see if I could spot her.
Sometimes I was certain I would see her wandering the aisles of whatever store I was in and sometimes I figured she was just thinking about me.
If I told you I spotted her and that my luck changed you might call it fate or you might call it coincidence but I am not sure that matters.
What matters is what I thought, felt and believed because it impacted my attitude and my approach.
Any time I felt like I had one of those positive moments good things happened and I just ran with it. I didn’t try to figure out the how and why of what happened because I didn’t want to get lost in my head.
I didn’t want to convince myself of good, bad or incidental.
I just wanted to enjoy the moment for as long as I could.
What I wanted was this.
People Say
People say what is for you won’t go past you.
They say happiness is a choice and that if you love someone and set them free the proof of destiny is their coming back to you.
I am not convinced happiness is as simple as making a choice or the way to test love is to say goodbye to someone you love and hope they will choose to find you again.
Experience has taught me to question those because circumstances can create challenges that prevent you from moving in the direction you want.
Sometimes those circumstances can make it impossible to smile and choose happiness because the situation is such that a reasonable person would agree happiness is not the natural choice.
That’s ok.
Sometimes you need to sit with your sadness or anger and let it run its course and not be fooled by greeting card therapy that suggests you can just set aside your feelings.
And sometimes you need the feeling of that woman in white to help pull you out of your head.
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Bellinger was 0-13 in the series when he finally got a hit in game four.
Those are the kind of stats that kill your confidence and make you question everything but they offer opportunity.
“Kids, all it takes is one swing and you forget all the bad stuff. One hit and life feels good again.”
I didn’t take my eyes off of the screen to see if they listened, rolled their eyes or nodded in agreement.
A moment later we cheered together and laughed as we read Bellinger’s lips recognizing the colorful word he expressed as he stood on base.
I felt good for the kid, because I had watched him swing from the heels and recognized the frustration and desire to fix it all with a home run.
That is my nature, one swing, knock out punch or touchdown pass and I am back. But the nice thing about not being 22 any more is I know I don’t have to get the knockout I can still win by decision.
There Are Readers
There have been a few moments that have reminded me you never know for certain who is reading your posts and who isn’t.
A couple of those ticked me off and my initial reaction was to respond in a way that wasn’t kind because I felt betrayed and attacked.
If I was still 22 you can be certain I would have but again the benefit of being older made it easier for me to sit back and think.
There are moments to act and moments to think before you act.
Sometimes you have to stop swinging from your heels and get out of your own head so that you can let the game come to you.
