Nine life lessons from baseball

My son and I are going to our first baseball game of the season next week when the Angels take on the Blue Jays. Baseball remains my favorite sport. It’s my favorite to watch. It’s my favorite to play, even though I wasn’t good at it. Most importantly, baseball offers life lessons. Here are nine (as in innings) life lessons I’ve learned from baseball.

1. Baseball is an heirloom. My mom introduced it to me as a child, just as her father introduced it to her. I then passed it on to our children. Like all heirlooms, the value we get from baseball are the memories we create. My mom going to Gilmore Field to watch her Hollywood Stars before the Dodgers came to town. The times I spent playing catch with my son when he was in Little League. This is what makes baseball special to us.
2. Baseball offers tradition and change. It’s the same sport it has been for the last century or so. Three outs, four balls, three strikes, nine innings, and nine players on the field. You can watch old black-and-white movies from games in the 1950s, and they will make sense. But so much has changed over the years. Uniform styles. Expansion. Relocation. Universal DH. (My mom turned in her grave when it came to the National League.) Baseball can stay true to the basics and adapt to the times.
3. Sports can be an engine for change. We recently rewatched 42 about Jackie…