Baseball to Relax the Mind

Despite the end of the semester, I continue to stay just as busy. Next week will see me begin another turn as a mentor with the Summer for Undergraduates Program. To my surprise, I was asked to write blog entries here about the program as part of my job duties.

Lee Corso, a former great of the gridiron at Florida State, said not too long ago, "Life is about change and your ability to adapt to it."

While it is always exciting to meet new people and come into new environments, the change can be a little stressful as well. The house cats at my friends' and family's homes do not always react so well to my visits. The cats sometimes leave little "items" on my bed or on my suitcase to let me know that my new presence in their space is upsetting to them.

The 60 students we have coming in for the Summer for Undergraduates Program will also be wondering about where they have arrived, the people they will meet, and what they will be doing. I can assure them that we will have a lot of fun. If they are anything like the group from last summer, they will make fast friends and learn a lot about themselves and law school. It will a great experience for them, something they will remember for a long time. . .

I also have ways of trying to relax my mind during times of change. In my first year of law school, I was completely focused on classes and took little notice of the outside world. This year, however, I started following the Florida State Seminoles baseball team. I have been surprised at how much I enjoy their games.

As a kid, I was an avid fan of the major leagues. I also played baseball from the time I was a toddler up until high school, when the ball began moving too fast for me to compete.

But the players' strike in the 1990s, the steroid use, and the obscene salaries the players received to play this little game with a round bat and a round ball cooled my enthusiasm for the major leagues as an adult.

The rediscovery of baseball in the college ranks, though, has been like a breath of fresh air to me. I had forgotten how fun a game it is, with the hitting and the fielding, the pop of the leather glove as a ball comes sizzling into the pocket, the squeeze play, the double play, the perfect throw from the outfielder to nail a runner trying to reach home.

I understand baseball more than any other sport, and as such I enjoy watching the games within the game: The interplay between the shortstop and the second baseman to see who will cover the bag if the runner on first tries to steal; how tight the infielders play when there is a runner on third; how aggressive a base runner is against the pitcher's pick off move; whether the batter will swing away on a 3-0 count; all the options a manager has when there is a runner on first and third with one out. The list goes on and on.

Yesterday, I went to see Florida State play North Carolina State, and I will go to watch the same two teams play again tonight.

My uncle is also an avid baseball fan. He was a much better athlete than me growing up, though, and coincidentally played baseball for North Carolina State when he was in college. He will travel to Omaha in June to watch the College World Series.

My uncle sent me an email message earlier this semester, encouraging me to watch as many 'Noles games as I could, as baseball "relaxes your mind."

I had never quite thought of baseball in this way, but he is right. The rhythm of baseball is unlike any other sport. There is a quiet method to playing baseball. Because I understand the game well enough, the rhythm and method lends itself to a predictability and analysis that can be a comforting distraction to the other stresses of life. Watching a baseball game unfold is like watching all the pieces of a puzzle come together in a satisfying way. And you are outside in the warm summer air with all the familiar sounds of the game, the colors of the uniforms and the green grass of the field.

I understand my uncle when he says baseball relaxes your mind. It does provide a pleasant distraction for me. A baseball game would relax me even more, though, if I could stop myself from scanning the crowd for pretty women sitting by themselves. That is one distraction that baseball has yet to overcome in my mind.

Until Next Time,

Nathan Marshburn