CARL’S CORNER

April 1, 2015 – Carl Gustafson CA Regional Tri-Director (San Diego)

By Carl Gustafson

Most Players Who Quit Give Up Way Too Soon

“I used to play softball when I was young, but I’m too old now.”

I venture that every one of you has heard that before, and probably from somebody younger than you.

Of course we just laugh at the concept because we all know guys playing in their 80s.

In fact, the man who saved my life a few years ago, Larry Blankenship, is still playing six days a week and he’s 91 and lives the game to the fullest.

Those who think they are too old have resigned themselves to it and that can be a curse in old age. Like the ancient Indians who decided it was a good day to die, you can’t talk them out of it.

I know guys in their 40s, thus resigned, who awake one day, buy a recliner, a wide screen TV, a couple Hawaiian shirts to flop over their increasing waistline, start drinking beer and practice belching.

Unlike the old Indians who die in a couple of days, this method takes around 30 years. Of course, the older they get and the stiffer their joints and arteries, the more they believe in age demise.

It’s a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Are you guilty of a similar resignation?

I’m asking about those who are resigned that they can no longer improve their game. I hear it all the time: “I used to hit .775 and the long ball, but those days are gone. It’s downhill from here.”

It’s downhill because you are resigned to quit going uphill, which means: continuing to work on your game, seeking advice like it was gold, changing your diet, stretching, swimming, adjusting your technique, and most of all believing you can improve.

Before you e-mail me telling me why you can’t, think about the league of blind people Bill and Susan Ruth saw who play softball by sound and timing.

How about Jerry Brooks whose left shoulder and arm quit working so he became an absolutely great hitter using only his right arm.

How about the monster slugger Clyde Phillips whose powerful hips degenerated so he tirelessly practiced and adjusted a new wrist swing that took him back to the top of his game.

In Texas, we have Jim Cary who lost so much upper body strength he couldn’t do a pushup, yet he won a home run contest over the behemoths of the sport by developing near perfect technique.

“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t — you’re right.”

—Henry Ford