It was an incredibly ordinary 2-1 softball win, and my 9-year-old daughter felt frustrated.
She didn’t get a hit in her one at-bat. She didn’t throw anyone out at first base from her shortstop position. She didn’t feel like she played a part in that victory.
Sometimes we all would benefit from a step back to realize that sometimes doing the ordinary can be extraordinary.
No, she didn’t have a hit in the game. Half the team didn’t have a hit in those three and a half innings, which accounted for just one at-bat for most of the girls. Some of her team’s usually best hitters also didn’t have a hit.
No, she didn’t throw anyone out from shortstop. She did, however, stop a fast liner from going past her. Once she stopped it and pulled it up off the ground, the runner was already safe at first.
That runner would’ve gotten to second if the ball flew past our shortstop, though, and she probably would’ve gotten to second if my daughter tried to throw her out at first. Oh, and by the way, that runner ended up stranded on third base when the inning ended.
By not trying to do too much, my daughter kept that girl from getting in scoring position. When you only win by one run, as can be the case in youth softball, it matters that you play your role without trying to be a hero.
When they came in from defense in that inning, I looked up from the score book I keep for her team and congratulated the girls on the team for doing their part.
“We all have a part in this,” I said. “Except me. I just stand here and yell your names really loudly when it’s your turn to bat.”
We all play important roles in the day to day of life. Most days, I don’t feel like a superstar at my jobs or in my home. Many days, I barely feel like I’m making a dent in the world.
But games like that remind me one of the many lessons taught in sport. If you do what you’re supposed to do, even if it seems insignificant at the time, you’ll like find success at the end.
Every person doing what’s needed to be done builds toward the success of the whole team.
Sure, their team could’ve lost that game just as easily as it won it. Life’s like that too. Sometimes you’ll just run into another group that does things a little better than you do too.
When we do what’s expected of us, though, we’re all playing a part in the win. There’s no greater honor than that.
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