A Lot of Retirements at Baseball Games -- Another Definition of "Retirement"

Watching Retired Guys At the Ballgame

In the city where I live we have a minor league baseball team.  I have loved baseball since I was a boy and I really enjoy going to the games.  While at the games we see a lot of retirements taking place.

In those games when a pitcher retires the side, it means that the team being retired has ended their turn at bat.

Being retired, ending a turn at bat does not mean leaving the game however.  Instead it means going into the field, and the field is a very good place to perform at a high level.

Before your team is retired your role is to perform as a batter, the same as everyone else on the team.  But when your team has retired and is in the field, you are able to perform at your individual position.  When your team is “at bat” everyone on the team has a batting assignment, but when your team has been retired there are many individual positions to be covered in the field. 

The analogy occurred to me while watching a game last season that being retired opens up more possibilities as to what position we may play in life, just like being retired on the team “at bat” opens many position possibilities in the field of positions to play. 

That is not to say that being a good batter is not important.  After all hitting the ball may lead to scores being made and games being won.  But being in the field after your team has been retired opens up a whole gamut of opportunities for utilizing skills and executing strategies that make the game interesting.  It has been my experience while attending baseball games that the fans applaud more often when a fielder makes a difficult play than they do when a batter hits a difficult pitch.  In fact, the fans of both sides applaud a difficult play in the field; but only the fans of the batting team seem to applaud when the batter hits a difficult pitch.