I’ve played softball for many years and I’ve been a pitcher for most of that time. Talk about standing in the face of agony and glory. You’re right out there in front of guys that are launching rockets at you. Some pitchers take too much credit and others take too little. I consider myself to be an excellent pitcher. I know the job. Above that I know that my defense deserves most of the credit when we win. It’s hard to win if the defense is not doing their job. I witnessed a pitcher keep pitching to the best home run hitter I’ve ever seen and his reasoning was that he was not pitching around him. He lulled himself into believing that he could keep this guy in the park. This clubber hit 2 grand slams in a row and hit 2 more home runs after that. The pitchers team was telling him not to pitch to him and everyone on the sidelines were saying what’s he doing. His pride got the best of him.
I once was in a tournament against an opponent who I discounted as an easy fight. I had defeated this guy in a previous outing 3 – 0. He wasn’t a problem and I assumed he would know that too. Only thing was he decided not to cooperate. He scored on me and I thought, no big deal I can come back and totally defeat him. He scored again. I was 2 down with only one mistake left and I had to score three times with out giving up a point. Besides that how dare he do that. I was ticked and attacked with fury to which he responded by covering his head ducking and turning broadside towards me. I only saw a little bit of red head gear and I hit it. I forgot control. My pride got the best of me and I got disqualified for too much contact. See in a point tournament, you are only allowed a minimum of contact to the head and I surpassed that! Pride made me discount him and pride made me blast him.
Don’t let pride get in the way of doing what you should do. Do your job. Don’t underestimate even the seemingly weakest opponent and don’t try too hard to go head to head when you obviously can’t defeat the persons best. Try something else. By the way that team was the underdog but was playing great ball and were winning before they started giving up home runs.
Have pride. Use pride to propel you but don’t let your pride make you make stupid decisions and ultimately and lead you to defeat!
Shihan Perry Culver
Culver Karate Club
