Baseball will break your heart. If it hasn’t, you must have just started liking it or playing it an hour ago. A player can be the hero after knocking in the winning run in the bottom of the final inning and the next game he can become the goat. I’m not referring to the greatest of all-time (goat) either. That will come tomorrow or maybe next Thursday hypothetically if it quits raining.
I have seen players make a play without incident numerous times, maybe even over several seasons without an error on that particular play only to blow it in a big game in a situation that determined the outcome. You can be riding high and thinking how great you are for whatever it was you just did, but just wait a minute, you are about to miss a sign or lose a ball in the lights or take one off the shin after a bad hop or just be thinking about what is for supper. It will happen…I see it happen all of the time. 
I have been that player when it seemed that it was impossible for me to swing and miss and I have been that player that has gone 0-for-March. It will happen, that is a guarantee. This applies to fastpitch as well. Same principles as baseball…if it can happen, it will happen. One of my best buddies has been coaching a long time and knows all about Murphy’s Law. Ol’ Murphy has snuck up on him a time or two or three or four…well, you know it’s going to happen.
That is why you enjoy the good times while they are paying you a visit and get as much as you can before it leaves, because it will. It will leave without warning too. I have seen it leave from one game to the next, on the same day. Player “A” is on fire for three games in a row and is hitting everything hard all over the field and then just like that the magic is gone. If I could figure out how to bottle that magic and sell it, I definitely would not be sitting here banging out this column on my little keyboard I can assure you.
Well, I might not be sitting here but I would probably be sitting somewhere typing away a little story about something stupid I am sure. Just too much of that stupid stuff to write about.
Anyway, baseball will humble the best of the best and it will make heroes out of the lesser talented players as well. It will happen and it is something to behold. Hate it one minute, love it a lifetime.
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Stan Beall is the sports editor at The Star-Herald. He can be reached a sbeall@starherald.net.
