During baseball season of my junior year of high school, I learned one of the most valuable lessons on creativity that one could learn. Our starting pitcher, Wesley Praetorius was making his debut for the season. I was the catcher, and I had been Wesley’s catcher since Babe Ruth League. I knew his tendencies, his attention span, his strengths, and most important … I knew when he was on. For those that grew up in Merritt Island with me, you probably remember how dominant that kid was on the mound, especially when he was on.
Well, that night he was on. Through the first couple of innings, he shook off a couple of my pitch selections. In fact, I realized after two innings that he shook off everything unless I called a fastball. I think he was feeling it, too – he was on fire that night. I proceeded to call fastballs through the third inning. Our pitching coach, Don Sodestrom, was yelling at me from the dugout. I can still hear his deep New England accent: “Come on Peta, mix it up.” (A lot of people called me Petey back then, but for some reason Sodie called me “Peta”.) Following the fourth inning, I told Sodie that we had thrown a few sliders. “He’s hot tonight – even his sliders are in the mid-80s”, Sodie proclaimed. The truth is that Wesley didn’t throw anything but fastballs the entire game. His ball had ridiculous movement and pop that night. He threw a complete game one-hitter, and was the headline story in the Florida Today sports section the next morning.
What if I got creative that night? What if I convinced Wesley to mix in some curve balls and sliders? Calling the game was one of my favorite parts of being a catcher. I would analyze the hitters’ swings, facial expressions, and body language while walking to the plate. I would call brush-back pitches just to see how the hitters reacted. I was proud of my pitch selecting, but that night I called the game like we were nine years old again – just throw strikes as hard as you can. It worked, and I learned a great lesson…
Sometimes the most creative solution is simply being disciplined and sticking to the fundamentals. If you want to lose weight, eat better and less food. If you want to improve your golf game, go to the range more often – especially the putting green. If you want to improve your relationship with your kids, eat at the dinner table together most nights. I’m guiltier than all of you – I’m always looking for a faster and better way to do things. Heck, I’ve spent the last four weeks trying different routines to writing my blog posts for the week. My solution: sit down the week before for 90 minutes of uninterrupted writing. Wow … now that took a lot of creative thought.
What are you trying to accomplish right now? What areas of your life can you improve? Are you outsmarting yourself? Are you looking too deep at something? Does it have to be as complex as couple therapy or advanced hot yogalates classes? Could it be as simple as going on a date once a week, or just walking for 30 minutes every morning? (Btw, I made up “yogalates”, but just googled it and it’s really a thing!)
Enjoy the weekend, and take a look at these improvements you’re hoping to make in your life. Sometimes the answer is as simple as throwing a bunch of fastballs that no one can touch.
