Opening day of baseball always brings a little something extra or a renewed sense of energy to the air. The smell of fresh cut grass, beer and hotdogs, the voice of the announcer, crack of the bat and buzz of the crowd are all the same as last year but they never seem to get old. So it is baseball and the lessons that can be learned from just watching and studying it that has my interest at the moment.

Most everyone has heard of Babe Ruth, one of the most famous players in history, and may even be able to recite his stats. But for those who need a little refresher. Ruth was the home run king with 714 home runs in his career that span from 1914-1935. That record stood for 39 years until broken by Hank Aaron who hit 755. What you may not know, and what is extremely amazing, is that Babe Ruth went to bat 8,399 times, had a total of 2,873 hits (including the homeruns) and struck out a total of 1,330!!

Many lessons can and have been taken from this and from baseball in general. I’ve even found a few that I like, that always seem to ring true and help in my quest of always moving forward and living life. The first, main and most important thing to know is that you can’t always hit a home run. Striking out more times than you ever care to admit is highly possible. You can also stand there doing nothing at all and possibly get to base on balls, perhaps even score.

In fact, there are seven different ways to get to first base…. BUT, unless you go to the batters box with a bat in your hand you will never do any of them. Then, unfortunately, unless you swing that bat at the balls thrown to you, you will most certainly strike out more times than you will ever get to base.

So whatever you do, be sure and play the game. This is the first of 162 games this year but it still can mean something important.  And by all means, grab a bat, stand up there and just swing. Who knows what will happen……you may just get that homerun.