Now that baseball season is back in full swing, my thoughts often go back to my playing days at Minden High. I have wonderful memories of great teammates, state championships, and experiences that I will never forget. There were significant life lessons learned along that way that have made a significant impact on my life.
One of those lessons played out in the state championship game of my junior season. We were playing Catholic High in the finals. Back then there were no select and non-select divisions. There were four classifications and four state champions.
Catholic was a very strong team. We battled to a tie after seven innings. They scored two runs in the top of the eighth inning to take the lead. In the bottom of the eighth inning, our first two hitters got on base, and I was up next. The Catholic High coach finally took their starting pitcher out of the game. He was a lefty and was so good. I was elated to just see a different pitcher.
As the new pitcher warmed up, my confidence grew. He was good, but he was not as tough as the last guy. I started thinking about scoring the winning run. In the semi-final game down in South Louisiana, I drove in the winning run late in the game. Here was another chance to deliver for my team on a big stage.
As I got ready to step in the batter’s box, I looked down at my coach and saw him give me the bunt signal. I know, you baseball purist say that’s the right play in that situation. However, that wasn’t what was on my mind. I stepped back out and looked down at him again. I don’t know if I was hoping he would change his mind or if I was just hoping I had seen the wrong sign. Nope, he was giving the bunt sign.
My focus was now on getting a bunt down, not driving the ball into a gap. The first pitch was a fastball right down the middle, and I bunted the ball toward third. They got me out at first, but the runners advanced. One batter later, with two outs, our cleanup hitter belted a three-run homer to win the game and the state championship.
The newspapers didn’t mention the sacrifice bunt. The TV reports didn’t interview me about the bunt placement. In fact, looking back at things, the bunt really didn’t matter in the end. However, in the moment, it mattered.
When I look back at the state championships in high school, there were likely a lot of those type moments during those seasons. Seemingly insignificant and forgotten moments that made a difference at the time. Moments that allowed for something more significant to happen.
Those same moments occur in everyday life as well. We have opportunities to sacrifice for others. We have opportunities every day to do small acts of service for others, share words of encouragement, take a moment to listen, or any number of other actions that make a difference in the life of someone else. These actions can be random in the moment or intentional actions planned in advance.
In a culture that promotes attention, self-recognition, and living one’s best life, wouldn’t it be impactful if we all focused on sacrificial actions to better others even if we weren’t recognized for the effort? Is that something your organization, your family, or your sphere of influence could use?
Oh, and to be honest. I still sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have been the one to hit that homerun. That’s ok though. It was a great bunt!
