Growing up, I loved baseball.
You might not care for baseball—and that’s okay—but I believe there are things in the game of baseball that will help make you better at life.
Not only did I love playing baseball, but I loved watching my favorite team. It was especially easy as I grew up an hour outside of the Bronx in the mid-to-late 90’s and had the opportunity to watch my New York Yankees win what seemed to be every year.
It’s been 20+ years since I’ve played baseball and 15 years since the Yankees have won another World Series, but recently I thought about this: baseball terminology is still used in my (and other’s) everyday language.
Here’s a few that come to mind:
- Hit a home run - to achieve a significant success
- Strike out - to fail at something
- Out of left field - something unexpected
- Step up to the plate - to take on a challenge or responsibility
- In the ballpark - to be close to the correct answer or estimate
- Play hardball - to be uncompromising in negotiations or dealings
Not only has some terminology leaked into our everyday language, but so have some sayings.
There’s one baseball player who stands out among all of the other ones as the one with the most iconic sayings: New York Yankee great and Hall of Fame catcher, Yogi Berra. He stands out so much that there’s a term for his sayings: Yogi-isms.
Here are some of them:
- "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."
- "You can observe a lot just by watching."
- "You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours."
- "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."
- "Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical."
Here’s my favorite one though: "It ain't over 'til it's over."
At a quick glance, it seems to be another one of those Yogi-isms that doesn’t make too much sense once you think about it for more than 2 seconds. But I think Yogi was on to something with this one.
Unlike football, basketball, hockey, and most other sports, a baseball game is truly not over until it’s over. No lead is safe and no deficit too large to make a comeback.
Has life thrown you a curveball? Know this: it’s never too late to win at life.
Here are three things from the game of baseball to keep in mind to come from behind and win the game of life:
1. You need to know the game you’re playing.
Until you truly know the game that you’re playing, you’ll never be able to win—no matter how good you think you might be.
Remember the 90’s Yankee dynasty team I mentioned before? They were not just a good team—they were a great team. With that said, how good do you think they’d do against the worst professional basketball team at a game of basketball?
Not very good. Why?
Because they’re playing the wrong game.
The Bible gives us a clear picture of the game we ought to be playing:
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 22:37-39 NIV)
We need to shift our mindset.
We’re winning at life when we are loving God with all of our being and loving others by serving them.
2. You can’t win without sacrifice.
In baseball, there’s a play called a sacrifice fly. It’s a selfless act where the batter will intentionally hit the ball deep into the outfield and get out, effectively giving up their chance to get on base. The purpose of a sac fly is to advance or score a teammate to ultimately help their team win, even though it comes at a cost.
The Bible often talks about living a life of sacrifice, but here’s one verse that stands out:
…do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. (Hebrews 13:16 NIV)
I love that the writer of Hebrews gave us a clear, practical step to help us offer sacrifices that are pleasing to God: “to do good and to share with others.” Doing this comes at a cost, but we win when the team wins.
Try this today: find someone in need and do something to help meet their needs.
Perhaps it’s a neighbor whose lawn is overgrown—go mow their yard.
Or maybe you know of a couple who has young kids who haven't had a date night in months—offer to babysit their kids so they can have an evening being husband and wife instead of mom and dad.
Perhaps the way you can help others is by volunteering at church.
I serve as a life group leader and as much as I love the young adults group my wife and I get to lead, it is a sacrifice. We give up our Monday nights every week (which feels like even more of a sacrifice during the football season). Often we’re not only giving up our Monday nights, but also the early hours of our Tuesday morning when one of their lives gets especially hard.
Frankly, we wouldn’t have it any other way because we know that we’re living out the calling God has placed on our lives to help others the way that others have helped us.
Maybe your way of serving others isn’t using your time, but rather your finances.
Perhaps it’s a single mom at the grocery store who is frantically digging through her purse looking for one more coupon for diapers and formula—offer to purchase her groceries.
Or maybe you know of someone who is dealing with extra medical bills in the midst of the toughest of seasons—help them by giving what you can.
Or perhaps it’s giving at church. I know that when I give to the local church, not only will practical needs be met like feeding the homeless or collecting diapers, wipes, and other baby supplies for struggling mothers, but also more and more people will learn about the life that is found only in Jesus.
3. You need to have a winning attitude.
Babe Ruth, another New York Yankee and Hall of Famer, once said, "It's hard to beat a person who never gives up."
Have you ever experienced a person that gives up when life gets hard? Or what about a person that never gives up despite how hard life gets?
Who’s winning at life? Who do you want to be?
In the same passage we just looked at above, the writer of Hebrews presented a challenge to us in the verse before:
Through Jesus… let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. (Hebrews 13:15 NIV)
A sacrifice of praise signifies a heart attitude of worship and surrender to God, even when life is hard. It involves acknowledging God's goodness, faithfulness, and sovereignty, regardless of circumstances, and offering Him praise for who He is and what He has done.
This is not easy. All too often, we’ll get stuck in destructive thought patterns that hinder us from winning at life.
It’s easy to love God when things are good, but God is most glorified when we love and worship Him in every season we face without giving up.
How to ultimately win at life:
If there is one person who won at life, it was Jesus.
The Bible tells us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). But not Jesus—He is the only one who has ever lived a sinless life.
And while Jesus could have leveraged his perfect life for His own gain, He leveraged it for you and I by giving His life on a cross for our sins.
Here’s what the Bible says in response to Jesus’ selfless act of love:
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11 NIV)
Ultimately the way to win at life is to give your life to Jesus, to make Him Lord of your life, and spend the rest of your days doing as He did—bringing glory to the Father and leveraging all you have for those around you.
To learn more about Jesus, consider attending a weekend service or one of our Next Steps Classes, or simply ask for prayer.
And if you’ve already placed your faith in Jesus but you’re not living a life that honors Him, you can do that today too. Seek God and ask Him, “How can I be more like You today?” and just do what He says.
To close, here’s one more quote by Babe Ruth to consider: "Every strike brings me closer to the next home run."
It’s not too late. You’re not too far gone or too broken. As long as you have breath in your lungs, Jesus can bring restoration to your life… if you step up to the plate.