As a child, I don\u2019t really remember when I knew I was a shy person, although I do recall when the realization of being that way hit me at full force, the 4th grade. \u00a0It was during that time in school when others from teachers to classmates started to comment about my nervous twitches, the constant blinking of my eyes and my chapped lips as \u201cring around the mouthy.\u201d \u00a0Then in that same year, the final ingredient to the formula for this internal dilemma of being shy, I got those ugly black rimmed glasses. \u00a0The reason for bringing this up is to set the backdrop for a discussion I’ve had many times with other people. \u00a0That discussion centers on the value of children participating in competitive team sports. \u00a0How this type of social experience helps them to become cooperative adults, who have come to understand group dynamics well enough to work with others successfully in everyday society.<\/p>\n
When discussing this matter at length, I’ve often talked about my experience when playing sports and the positive effect it has had upon me during my adult years of life. \u00a0Being shy as a child was absolutely devastating for me. \u00a0For awhile I wrestled with its cause by blaming it on the way I was raised under the tutelage of a patriarchal Scottish father. \u00a0However, I’ve had to accept that many of my father\u2019s traits thrust upon me as a child have led to my success as a leader in life. Actually as the premise for this discussion, its cause is immaterial and the means that helped me overcome my shyness is far more relevant.<\/p>\n
As a shy boy growing up in a small farm community called Freeland located near the thumb of eastern mid-Michigan, my favorite sport to watch and play was baseball. My grandfather was an ardent Detroit Tigers fan and would religiously listen to their games play by play as announced by the legendary Ernie Harwell on the radio. \u00a0The day I got to play little league baseball on the ball fields that were a part of the playground belonging to the elementary school in town, was a joy so immense, to this day I find it hard to relate fully to others the feeling. \u00a0I showed up for the minors with my worn-out, hand me down glove of which had no back strap to prevent it from flipping off my hand when catching a baseball.<\/p>\n
By the next year, I was with the big boys (as I viewed them) in the majors on a team known as the Giants. \u00a0Even though I was small at this age in comparison to everyone else, because of my athletic prowess, I got to play first-string in my favorite position called shortstop, highly regarded as the most dynamic defensive position in baseball. \u00a0This position on the field is naturally easier for right-handers to play and I was naturally born a left-hander, yet according to the traditions of old, my father made me a right-hander by forcing me to use that hand exclusively. \u00a0Ironically, this overly strict methodology became quite advantageous for me through the years. \u00a0Its overall effect has made me rather ambidextrous not only in body but in mind as well. \u00a0During this first year in the majors, my father bought me a brand new glove. \u00a0In the pocket of the glove was written the name of Don Demeter, who played three years on the Tigers in the mid-sixties. \u00a0Getting that new glove met so much to me, I used it not only in little league, but all the way through high school ball as well. \u00a0As a matter of fact, I still have that glove, which at the time of this writing, would make it about forty-one years old.<\/p>\n
When I was out on the ball diamond, playing with my teammates and hearing the cheers of the fans, my shyness seemed to be cured or at least in a remission of sorts. \u00a0My nervous twitches, the constant blinking of my eyes and my chapped lips, didn’t appear to matter as much to those around me as it did while attending school. \u00a0Out on the baseball diamond, how I performed and played with others was the determining factor more than anything else. \u00a0It is there on that field, when you are so entrenched in battle along with your comrades, against the opposing team, all working together as a finely tuned unit, you begin to learn the benefit of participating in competitive team sports. \u00a0When you walk off the diamond covered in dirt, grass stains, with scrapes and bruises as a winner or in defeat after giving it your all, you know one thing, you didn’t do it alone.<\/p>\n
Even if it was the bottom of the last ending, score tied, two outs, you at bat, a 3-2 count, the last pitch and you hit the game winning home run, guess what you still didn’t win the game all by yourself. \u00a0Only a person, who remains an egotistical soul and some do, wouldn’t realize that it was a combined team effort that led you to that unique situation in time. \u00a0The adrenaline rush of the team spirit resulting in victory as a whole with a feeling of satisfaction for a job well done can far surpass that of the individual achievement. \u00a0Why? \u00a0As part of a team you realize, you can\u2019t control all of the variables that come up while playing with others during the game. \u00a0As they say, \u201cshit happens,\u201d and in the end, what happened, makes the gaining of the prize, oh so much sweeter. \u00a0You learn through the team experience that what you do as an individual no matter if great or in failure has an effect not only on you, but your teammates as well. \u00a0As an individual, I have never experienced the lessons found through emotional pain like that felt as part of a team, which gave it their all and still suffered defeat.<\/p>\n
In little league, one of the most remembered times I felt the hurt of loss as a team, is when the little league teams of Freeland combined players and went as an all star team to play in Bay City, MI. \u00a0We were all so excited and hyped up about playing there in that baseball tournament. \u00a0We were so confident we would win and then go all the way to play the Japanese kids in the little league world series. \u00a0I was honored to be picked to pitch that game and even though we gave it our best, we were eliminated in a close game. \u00a0We were so devastated on the ride home that evening because of thinking we had let our town and ourselves down. \u00a0We learned as a team that there are times you get to shine ever so brightly in the rays of the sun. \u00a0At other times as a team, we had to learn to lick our wounds hidden under the shadow of the clouds. \u00a0We had to stay there to build each other up to mend, until once again we got the opportunity to shine in the sun.<\/p>\n
As an individual player involved in team sports, no matter how good you are, to be successful, you have to prove yourself valuable to the team as a whole. \u00a0You have to show you can get along with others even if you don\u2019t get everything your way. \u00a0You learn when you get knocked down, it\u2019s not happening to you alone and that it\u2019s your team members who help you to get up, clean off the dust and go on. In my case, I especially learned these lessons during my high school years of playing baseball. \u00a0I remember my first year on varsity, even though the coach told me I was the better player at the position of shortstop, it was the custom for the senior on the team to play that position. \u00a0Well I had to go suck it up and play left field my junior year.<\/p>\n
During that year, this same senior while hot-dogging to catch a fly ball hit directly to me in left field, ran into me with his head and knocked both of my front teeth into my mouth. \u00a0Due to my teeth being loose, this injury sidelined me for awhile and then I had to suck it up again and go play right field. \u00a0Along came my anticipated senior year to redeem myself from the mishaps of the previous year in baseball. \u00a0First came football season and as if fate was not going to leave me short-changed as to lessons to be learned, I broke my right hand during practice. Being as competitive as I was, as well as not wanting to let my team down and against my mother\u2019s best wishes, I played the whole season hurting my hand again and again. \u00a0Over the winter, my hand seemed to have healed by the time baseball season rolled around.<\/p>\n
The 1975, Freeland High School baseball team, is by far the best team I’ve ever played on and the coach was the best I’ve ever played for since. \u00a0The main reason for our success was because we were a very close team, like brothers of a family that started for many of us when playing together or against each other in little league baseball. \u00a0We knew each other\u2019s strengths, weaknesses and personal traits during the test of competition inside and out. \u00a0Our coach for four years had taken a personal interest in each of us and had honed our skills to play the positions we played. \u00a0Our skill level as a team was never truly appreciated by most of our other schoolmates at the time. \u00a0The previous year, this baseball team from a small school in Michigan made it to the state regional’s and almost to the state finals. \u00a0So going into the \u201875 year as a team, our expectations were to finish what we hadn’t did the year before, go to the state finals and win everything. \u00a0However my year personally, didn’t workout that well. \u00a0 My hand that was broke earlier in the year in football started to bother me and affected my swinging the bat. \u00a0I don\u2019t remember if I told my teammates about my problem or not, like before, I sucked it up. \u00a0As my batting average plunged during the season to a modest 315, I had to refocus my efforts more on my teammates to encourage them to step up their game to fill for my lesser play. \u00a0This was an important challenge as to the future development of my true character as an adult. \u00a0For me, it was a defining moment in my life to really step up to the plate as a leader.<\/p>\n
The lessons of life didn’t at all disappoint, putting me in the most humbling of situations throughout the season as if I was destine to prove my worth in this role as a leader through example. \u00a0One of my toughest challenges did arrive in the form of the ultimate sacrifice, literally. \u00a0It was during the closing innings of a baseball game in the state district tournament, where elimination for our team seemed forthcoming, I came to bat. \u00a0As I stepped to the plate, as usual I looked down the left field line at the coach for a sign and then it happened. \u00a0Coach gave me the sign to lay down a sacrifice bunt to advance the base runner. \u00a0In the following seconds my thoughts raced back and forth questioning what I was going to do. \u00a0In my mind\u2019s eye I could clearly see myself swinging away and hitting a home run making me the hero of the game. \u00a0Then the ball was suddenly pitched and in the manner of a leader by example, I put aside personal glory to make the ultimate sacrifice for the team, I laid down the perfect bunt. \u00a0The runner advanced and as things worked out, we still lost the game. \u00a0Afterwards as we got on the bus to head home, it took all of my self-control to not reveal my disappointment to my fellow teammates. \u00a0Especially knowing our season had ended on a bad note and this was the last game I would ever play with my longtime teammates. \u00a0Later that year I represented Freeland in a game playing on the area all-star team and that was the last time I played competitively as part of a baseball team.<\/p>\n
As the years have passed by the many lessons lived during the experience of participating in competitive team sports has proved time and again invaluable to me in adult life. \u00a0No doubt from being thoroughly dowsed in the zeal of the competitive team spirit, is where a shy boy so paralyzed with fear was socially baptized under fire to become well versed in the ways of group dynamics. \u00a0I had been adequately prepped to confidently communicate and fully use the skills learned during the trials of competition to become a capable team player in other aspects of life. \u00a0Through the experience, I had to learn self control by dealing with the good with the bad, the positive with the negative, the egos with the personality conflicts, etc., more than enough to prepare me for the future. \u00a0All to equip me with the proper mindset and forbearance to be able to work well with others to successfully accomplish a purpose. \u00a0Without hesitation, I have been able to step up to the plate to take on the role of leader and then like in the past, I’ve been able to do it well by starting with the sacrifice of personal example.<\/p>\n
So tell me the critic, what is wrong with a youth acquiring these kinds of social skills while playing competitive team sports? \u00a0 \u2018Cause gosh, me, I really, really don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
Words by \u00a0 \u00a0~Keith Alan Hamilton~<\/p>\n
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As a child, I don\u2019t really remember when I knew I was a shy person, although I do recall when the realization of being that way hit me at full force, the 4th grade. \u00a0It was during that time in school when others from teachers to classmates started to comment about my nervous twitches, the … Continue reading “\u2018Cause gosh, me, I really, really don\u2019t know”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wisstorytelling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.keithalanhamilton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.keithalanhamilton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.keithalanhamilton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithalanhamilton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithalanhamilton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1586"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithalanhamilton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1587,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithalanhamilton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1586\/revisions\/1587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.keithalanhamilton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithalanhamilton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithalanhamilton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}