Focus

I saw this picture on the internet today as I was checking ESPN at lunch time and I just thought, WOW, when I looked at it. I thought wow for many different reasons, the first being "that guy has huge forearms." It also struck me because, if I am being honest, I am a HUGE Albert Pujols fan. I am an Albert fan because A) he is the greatest baseball player of this generation and B) he is an incredible christian/human being (wikipedia him if you don't know who he is.) But I also thought wow because fundamentally everything about his swing in that second is perfect! His knuckles are lined up correctly, hips open, hands out in front, chin on his back shoulder, the bat is cutting the ball in half and the most important, his eyes are on the ball. Look at the focus in his eyes at the split second before contact. His eyes are on the ball and he is focused intently on his ultimate goal, drive the ball hard somewhere. If you watched the St. Louis Cardinals game last night you saw that the result of Albert's focus was a 4-5 night with three doubles and a home run. He was in the zone, and when a hitter is in the zone a baseball looks like its as big as a beach ball. Being in the zone though is a result of all of his hard work and the focus you see there in his eyes.

How often in life do we lose our focus on the important things? How often do we "take our eye off the ball? It's easy to do, life gets busy and we have a lot going on. But just like Albert Pujols in the picture above, if you put your eyes back on the ball, if you focus back in on what's important you can find yourself in the zone.

**bloggers note** I think the game of baseball is a beautiful game. I think a perfect swing is beautiful. I think a diving catch is an incredible thing to watch. A backdoor slider amazes me and good fundamentals when fielding a ground ball makes me happy. Seeing a fly ball off the bat, taking the correct angle on it, tracking it down and making the catch is a work of art. I love the game of baseball, and the playoffs are my time of the year. Since the Indians are back to playing like they did in "Major League" I am on the Cardinal bandwagon! Go Red Birds!