A quote I live by is from the baseball themed movie Bull Durham (1988). The main character Crash Davis played by Kevin Costner is a sort of philosopher baseball player who is tasked with training a rookie pitcher named Nuke LaLoosh played by a young Tim Robbins. This quote is not the only quote that I love from this movie, but probably the most notable in my mind.
“This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains.”
Nuke Laloosh/Tim Robbins
How I Interpret the Quote
I tend to be overly competitive at times, always trying to find ways to get better, work harder, win more often, and hating to fail at things. This quote resonated with me because it helped me understand that there is a natural ebb and flow to things. Winning is not always done by the best team, losing is not always done by the worst team. A failure is not a failure unless you don’t learn from it.
Looking at the quote metaphorically, substituting life for baseball , it describes each day and what you can expect in a simple, down to earth way. Some days you will win, somedays you will lose, and somedays things just get away from you because of random luck.
Why We Love Bull Durham
The movie has a lot of interesting twists and turns that you would not expect in a baseball movie. Susan Sarandon also plays a key role in the film as “Annie” a lover of baseball and baseball players. I am guessing the writer of the film based her character on her own life as a university philosophy professor of some sort. I want to stick to my illusions, so no I am not looking it up!
How To Reach Peak Performance Bull Durham Style
Sarandon convinces Nuke at one point that he needs to wear women’s underwear and breathe out of his pineal “third eye” like Fernando Valenzuela. It is absolutely hilarious, but makes one think about the power of metaphysics in finding our peak performance and oneness with the universe because it is kind of true! The more you overthink things the worse you tend to do!
If you have not seen Bull Durham, I highly recommend it if you are a fan of baseball, love stories, or philosophy. I have watched it countless times and still find it immensely entertaining and thought provoking. Thanks for reading: Tough Call WordPress But I Think I Will Go With This One
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What are your thoughts on this?