[July 19, 2023] My dad was a New York Yankees fan, and by default, so was I. To this day, I never knew why; we lived in the Deep South, where professional baseball was king, but my dad still insisted the Yankees were the team we would follow, and all three of us kids (later four) will always be big-time baseball fans. I visited my dad just before he passed away at age 93, and yet despite severe dementia, he knew nearly every player’s name on the Yankees’ 1958 winning World Series team. We watched the last game of that season on television; amazing media technology.
Of course, I would play Little League baseball, usually an outfield position, but occasionally infield at first base. I could field ground balls pretty good, thanks to my dad showing me a few tricks of the game, but I was not good at hitting the ball. Dad loved watching me play. Baseball was a genuine love of his. Interestingly, I never saw him play except one spoof game with friends on the back of donkeys. Dad would take me to all the local baseball games. While there, I would sneak off, hunt frogs, and not watch the games much; I thought baseball was too slow and boring for me, so like I often did, I just goofed off.
One year, I think it was 1961, we were playing the best team in the league that game. Those city boys were good; they had a lot of older boys to choose from. It was the bottom of the ninth, the last inning to play, and we were behind one run. My dad waved me back to the outer fence. Their best hitter was up with two outs, and, true to history, he hit a line drive directly at me. With my back to the fence, I jumped as high as possible with my glove. I looked into my glove to find the ball when I came down. That was their last out.
Now it was our turn at bat, and we were only one run away from a tie and two to win. Our two best batters were up but struck out – such a disappointment. I was next. It was up to me. The first two were fastballs over the outside corner, my weakness. Two swings, two misses, two strikes. I backed off the plate and collected my thoughts. I was ready to hit the next fastball as a home run. The pitch was a knuckleball, unexpected. I missed. The goat of the game. Strike three, we lose. There is one thing our coach taught us, and that was good sportsmanship.
He told us that winning every game is not winning. A tough concept for little boys to understand. As my father always said, “It’s not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game.” Dads have been telling their kids this for generations. I thought that was stupid advice.
But a game is not just a game. A game is part of a series of games. Winning a baseball game was not really what we wanted (although we surely thought so). Our goal was to win the baseball season championship, and that was the result of a series of games. That is why good sportsmanship mattered. The strategy of winning the championship is not the same as winning a single game. For the championship, it is more important the team acts as a team.
If you play to win every game individually, the strategy is different, and you will lose the championship. We won the championship that year.
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NOTE: For all Letters to My Granddaughter, go to this link here.
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Please read my books:
1. “55 Rules for a Good Life,” on Amazon (link here).
2. “Our Longest Year in Iraq,” on Amazon (link here).
Wow, Gen. Satterfield, I just discovered your series on “letters to my granddaughter.” You have given me some ideas and thank you for that. Lovely! ❤ I’ll be reading the rest of your letters today.
Colleen, haven’t seen you in the leader forums in a long time, welcome back. Yes, indeed, Gen. Satterfield has started a new mini-series that is a take off of his first book, “Our Longest Year in Iraq.” Not a set of war letters but he is developing the idea that our children and their children should have some idea of what their parents/grands were thinking as a kid and what might have made them so successful, esp. the likes of General Satterfield. Making General is no easy task and requires something special. Keep reading these letters, like the rest of us, and get a glimpse into the inner personality of a good man. Oh, if you haven’t got his latest book, “55 Rules for a Good Life,” then get a copy today and leave a rating on Amazon.
Top notch article. 😉
… and exactly why I keep coming back to this website for insights into the minds of successful and moral people.
We are learning a lot about what makes Gen. Satterfield tick. However, I believe these experiences are not that uncommon and are what makes young men (and more mature men and women) stronger mentally. These experiences gives them the discipline and grit to keep on when others give up and quit.
No. 12. Great mini-series. Keep them coming.
Gen. Satterfield, I’m sure you were scared out of your wits as the last batter in an important game. Good that you learned a valuable lesson.
Doing what he did is an example of courage. That is what gen. S. continues to write about and rightly so. ✔
Great point, Max.
Yes, and nothing like a hard-fought baseball game to bring out the best in you.
Nailed it Janice. Remember the cowardly teachers taking their COVID vaccines before others and not going back into the classrooms and then bragging about it?
Always great to hear from you, American Girl.
OMG, great comment Janice.
Yep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks Gen. Satterfield. Well written.
I remember in the school yard when I was 10 years old and the school bully was harassing a bunch of 9 year old kids. I jumped in to intervene and got beat up for the effort and in trouble by the teachers. That was a price to pay – in the short term – but it taught me how to deal with bullies. That bully would not harass kids again when I was around even tho he knew he could beat me up. When we started playing pickup baseball in the streets, that same bully came around and became one of us and he never bothered another kid.
Baseball is the best game ever.
Yes. Today’s schools only teach kids how to be weak and victims. They would never play baseball.
Another spot-on ‘letter to my granddaughter.’ Thank you, Gen. Satterfield for giving her, and all your grandkids a kind gift of your way of thinking, one that is so successful. I only wish my grandparents or great grandparents had done this with me.
Right, and way too late now. Gen. Satterfield is one again getting ahead of the curve.
Gen. Satterfield wrote his first book, “Our Longest Year in Iraq” in dedication to his grandchildren so that they knew what he did. He noted that he wished he knew more about his relatives in the past. We call that real LOVE.
❤
Exactly, HAL. I sure hope that Gen. Satterfield writes another book and these are the start of that book. ❤❤❤❤❤❤ Like his other two books.
https://www.amazon.com/55-Rules-Good-Life-Responsibility/dp/1737915529/
https://www.amazon.com/Our-Longest-Year-Iraq-Construction/dp/1737915510/