The Bullpen Gospels - A guest blog

The following post has been re-printed with the permission of the author.  The original article can also be found here.

Sometimes, when I leave the ballpark with a bad taste in my mouth, I take the long way home. Come the next day, if that taste still is there, I take the long way back to the spoon that fed it to me.

Pitching isn’t easy. I’ve never said it is, not even in the arrogance of my youth. Baseball simply won’t allow it to be. No matter how good a pitcher is, he must wind and let go of the ball. In that instant, when the little white dot flies from his hand, anything can, and often does, happen.

This unpredictable nature of baseball is what leads the men who play it to create such fanciful routines, rituals and superstitions — including buckets of chicken, compulsive tooth brushing and the occasional wearing of women’s underwear. Do these things really impact the sport or are they done simply to soothe a player’s mind?

I pray. I’d like to think my invocations are more than superstition, but during times such as these, when I wander to the ballpark, when no amount of compulsive tooth brushing cleanses the disgust, when my supplication becomes frustration about the absence of a changeup, communing with the Almighty seems less than divine.

Maybe it’s how we talk, angrily calling God into the office of my mind during aimless walks around town. Telling Him He needs to shape up, because I have a life and a career and plans He’s supposed to fulfill. I offer to go halfway, but He’s always silent during negotiation, which leads me to grumbling. Come the end, when I’ve dumped it all out, I tell Him I’m tired of meeting under these circumstances.

At the end of my most recent walk/performance evaluation with God, a sound of joy interrupted our talk, pulling my attention from the destination of the locker doors to the patch of four-base-agony I was on last night.

There, on field, were dozens of happy children.

Plastic bases marked miniature diamonds in left, right and center field, populated by parents pitching soft, foamy balls to the long, loopy swings of bat-sized kids. The players were special-needs children. Some played positions in wheelchairs, others from behind braces.

Still others stood, under the pull of autism or Down syndrome.

God and I watched the scene.

When a long swing struck a ball into play, the children let loose with shouts, chasing after the white bauble like freshly lit firecrackers. Once caught, they clamored at the opportunity to throw their prize. To whom or where seemed irrelevant. Just throwing it was fun enough.

Besides, where the ball went didn’t matter. No outs were being collected. The drama was an illusion, but a pleasant one.

The kids reset. A new hitter strode to the plate, a young girl roughly 6 years old with dark hair, a darling smile and no arms. The fabric of her sleeves hung from her shoulders like a flag without wind. Her father came to her side and held a bat with a handle wrapped in a towel. The girl pinched the padded handle between her shoulder and chin. Bat secured, she dug in.

The pitch. The swing. Grounder to everyone!

Down the line ran the girl as the fielders gave chase. She hit first base, promptly ran to second, then to third. The ball was thrown straight up, then chased again. Rounding third, heading home, the slide … safe!

A home run on an infield single, and everyone was happy.

Father met his daughter at home plate, dropped to his knees and hugged her. Despite the absence of arms, she hugged him back, firm and tight. I stood taking it all in. God, I’m sure, smiled.

I couldn’t help but wonder, what did that father and his daughter pray? Was it superstition or sincerity? Were they angry when they called on God? Did they grumble about a lack of fingers to fold while praying, how it wasn’t part of their plan, how they’re tired of meeting under such circumstances?

Or were they grateful to a God that makes hugs and home runs possible, even without arms?

Dirk Hayhurst is a 1999 Canton South High School graduate and a former Mid-American Conference Pitcher of the Year at Kent State University. The 28-year-old right-hander currently is a member of the Toronto Blue Jays, and his book, The Bullpen Gospels: Major League Dreams of a Minor-League Veteran is available for order at Amazon.com.  You can find Dirk on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TheGarfoose

Where We Live - guest post by Farhan Lalji

Karim Kanji asked me to write a blog post about, well in his words via twitter “I was thinking abt various places u’ve worked (cities) & the great things abt them for u?” for his blog. It’s a topic I’ve thought about, I wrote a bit of a critical post about Monocle magazine’s top 25 places to live a couple of weeks ago. So this blog post appears on both Karim’s site and my own blog.

A little bit about me, for those who don’t know me or haven’t come across my blog before, I’ve been living/working in Switzerland for the last year, before that I spent about 8 years in the UK, working in London. I’m Canadian by birth, but haven’t lived there for almost 10 years. I’ve worked for big brands, small brands, the public sector, start ups, and now I’ve been working for Yahoo! for the last few years.

Ok, so here’s my theory on choosing a place to live where you’ll be happy. I believe there are five major categories to picking a place for work/life. In no particular order these include; professional, social/cultural, personal, financial and functional. All of these have different levels and at different times in your life may take differing heights of importance.

“Professional” is the job you’re in and the ability to find jobs that you’ll love. I came to Switzerland because I enjoyed the job I was in and wanted to stay in it. I went to London because the Brits were more willing to hire a web developer with a Kinesiology degree then the Canadians were.

“Social” is the people and the activities that you can participate in. You might enjoy the British Pub culture, or the outdoors life, swimming, hiking, skiing or snowboarding etc, or you might enjoy a place with culture, many museums (easy to access) or the opera or other social/cultural events or happenings. This criterion can also include the places nearby, being able to travel, explore and have adventure at your doorstep.

“Personal” is about your personal status and life, if you’re young and single, being in a place where you might meet someone is pretty important, when you’re older with children being in a place near your family might be more important.

“Financial” is about how much you can earn and how far your money will go. You could live in a place where you’re earning a lot, or you could be in a place where it doesn’t matter if you earn a lot because living there is not very expensive.

“Functional” it might be important for you to be able to drive everywhere, or to not have to drive anywhere. It might important for you to find a takeaway Chinese meal or a pizza. Or it might not.

Knowing how important the different criteria are to you and how well a place meets the criteria that are most important to you is a good way to figuring out whether or not you’ll be happy working and living in a place. Switzerland wasn’t our choice, but it met some of our criteria and we’re glad we took the chance. So as important as it is to set criteria and know how a place measures up, being open to new experiences and allowing your self to give new places a shot is pretty important too.

To Do Lists

I've always believed that if I wanted to get something done, it would have to be on my "to do" list.

This is Victoria Day long weekend in Canada. Only self-employed types and restaurant servers will be working on Monday. Which brings me to the point of this post.

What do you have on your to-do list this weekend?

I'm planning to get some barbecueing done; enjoy Toronto with my wife and son; maybe stop off at the Ontario Science Center (we have a family pass till July); do a little spring cleaning and do some business building.

Business building? Why? Because it's all about time. A good friend of mine does not get to enjoy long weekends like the rest of us normal people do. Why not? Because many years ago he worked during long weekends. Now he has a successful business and is enjoying the fruits of his labour. His business provides him with the income he needs to enjoy a very nice lifestyle without him needing to work more than a few hours per week. So, he always has long weekends.



So this weekend, I'll be doing some business. Oh, I'll also enjoy the weather and friends and family.

What are you doing this long weekend?

Happiness

Yesterday I asked on Twitter what you defined happiness as.

Here are your answers:

HAPPINESS!

(click above)