Casey at the Bat...Beating Yourself Up

Casey McGehee had one memorable night last night for the Brewers. He started by making a bone-head move by dropping an easy "grandma" catch at third base. "Grandma" catch being that even the most unathletic people could have made the catch. He allowed two runs to score and continued to beat himself up even though his team was still winning. During the bottom half of the same inning, Casey came up to bat with the bases loaded. A great time to redeem himself for a ridiculously silly error during the top half of the inning. What did he do? He more than made up for the error by smacking a huge grand slam, the first of his young career. The crowd went wild and even got young Casey to come out of the dugout for a curtain call! Was he happy? Not one bit! After he belted the homer, he continued to yell at himself in the dugout, screaming into his helmet about the error he had made.

Why is it so much easier to remember the bone-headed plays? Why do we continue to beat ourselves up for things that we know we can do better? I'm sure Casey McGehee will always remember his first grand slam, but he will also remember the dumb error he made prior to becoming the hero.

A natural defense mechanism is self-deprication. We stay "on guard" and remember all the mistakes that we had made in the past, but seldom remember the good things we've accomplished. Today, I will attempt to remember one of the good choices I've made and try to quickly forget all the bone-headed errors I've made.

One last baseball note...must be nice to come into a game, make one pitch and earn a save. One "pitch" or choice makes a day successful.

Off to find a recipe for sauerkraut pie, wonder how the kids would like that one ;)