Tom Guarriello marks the start of baseball season with four lessons the sport teaches: a 162-game season gives you many chances, the slow pace rewards attention, patience matters more than speed, and no game clock means hope never dies. The Detroit Tigers came back from 21 games down in 2023.
Well, hey guys, it's Tom Guarriello. Sunny, a little cloudy, overcast, but not too bad here in Connecticut today. And, um, you know, we're getting ready for a very, very special weekend and a very special time in America anyway. I know it's going to be Passover, so a lot of people all over the world are going to have a special time starting on Monday. But in America, it's gonna be a special time for a different reason. It's gonna be a special time because here, starting this weekend, it's gonna be time for us for those two very, very special words, which are "play ball." Yep, baseball season starts Sunday night with the Mets playing against the Cardinals in Connecticut— in Connecticut— in St. Louis. Now I know a lot of people all over the world don't care about baseball, and I know a lot of people in America don't care about baseball, but I care about baseball, and I'm going to tell you why I think you should care about baseball. First of all, baseball starts in April. Baseball continues through October. That's a very long time. 162 games each team plays that many times. That's a very, very long time. That means that baseball deals in large numbers, like life. Think of your life. How many chances do you get in life? Every day you get up, every day you get another chance. Every day in baseball there's another game. Every game, if you're a batter, you got 4, 5 chances to get a hit. Remember, if you get 2 hits out of 5 in baseball over a long period of time, you are in the Hall of Fame. So I like the fact that baseball season is very long. It starts off when it's cold, sometimes it's snowing. It finishes off in the fall. Sometimes at the World Series it's snowing again. You've been through a long period of time. I like that. Number 2, baseball is slow. I know a lot of people say, "It's slow, that's awful, it's slow." No, no. It's slow so you can appreciate the details in baseball. Baseball isn't about blurs and things whizzing by you. Occasionally, occasionally. But baseball is about little details, paying attention to little things that happen. Oh, look, the shortstop moved 5 inches over to his right. Next thing you know, He was able to get a ball that he wouldn't have been able to get if he didn't move 5 inches to his right. The pitcher throws a curveball. The ball sometimes breaks just a little bit, but just enough to make the batter miss. And in life, what matters? Details, details, details. You have to pay attention to details. So like life, details. Now, a corollary of long and slow, of large numbers and details, is what? Patience. You must have patience in baseball. You can't be overeager in baseball. You have to be patient. You must learn to wait for the right moment. Pick your pitch. Don't swing at the pitches that look like they're going to be good. Don't go out with the girl who— watch out for the guy who's got— be patient. Be patient. That's the lesson in baseball. Be patient. I think very important lesson in life. And okay, one more important thing, and then I'm gonna quit Just to give you a flavor for why baseball. Baseball, no clock, right? Basketball, clock. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. Football clock. It's like 24. Baseball, no clock. What does that mean? In baseball, there's always hope. Bottom of the 9th inning, your team is losing 8 to 1. In football, if there's 2 minutes to go and your team is losing by the equivalent of 8 to 1, no way, no way. In baseball, there's hope, there's always hope. Last season, we saw here in America that the Detroit Tigers, a team that had lost for 13 straight years more games than they won, won the American League pennant. They didn't win the World Series. They lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, but they proved there was hope. And if there was hope for the Detroit Tigers, We know there's hope for my favorite team, the New York Yankees. But we also know that there might even be hope for my other favorite team, my sentimental favorite team, the Pittsburgh Pirates. Perennial doormats in the National League. So, oh, and one more thing about baseball. That's really cool? These things. The baseball cap. If it wasn't for baseball, there'd be no baseball caps. And everybody all over the world knows, coolest headgear anywhere? Baseball caps. In fact, in baseball, you can have many different caps for the same team. So, all you baseball fans out there, I know you're excited. And the rest of you, Get into it, 'cause baseball's got a lot to teach us about life. So, take it easy and let's go Bucks! Bye-bye.
