"Bottom of the ninth, two outs, full count, down by two. The fate of the teams season rests in this players hands." The drama and excitement of baseball is something that has drawn millions of fans all throughout America and throughout the world to the game. Millions of kids have grown up thinking they would be the next Mickey Mantle or Babe Ruth, but only an elite few have grown up to the players we all watch on TV or cheer on at the ballparks. While becoming a professional baseball player is highly unlikely, a number people have come to be successful in the sport at several different levels, whether it is in college or only high school. To become successful in baseball takes certain techniques often used to become successful in a number of life’s challenges. Hard work, teamwork, determination and coming through in the clutch are some of the main qualities necessary for baseball success. Using these qualities, combined with a few necessary steps for success and hopefully a little talent, one can become successful in the exciting and very popular sport of baseball.

First off, to be successful at anything, you must know what you are supposed to do. Knowing how to play the game of baseball and knowing all of its many rules is a big step towards success. It would be impossible to explain all the rules in a short time, in fact can take years to fully grasp all of the games concepts. A person can only watch the game time and time again, and ask question about confusing aspects of the game until they begin to understand what is going on and until some of the rules become clearer to them. Once the concept of the game and how to play is understood, then the process of becoming successful can begin.

Practice. This is the simplest way to become good at many things in life. Baseball is a unique sport because many parts of the game revolve around the individual, while different parts depend on teamwork. Individual practice is very important to success in baseball. There is no possible way for a team to be able to play together, without each individual having his skills sharp. Like most things in life you have to practice, baseball individual skill work is not easy. There is no other way to practice hitting or fielding, than actually hitting and fielding. This in turn means that you need to devote time into your practicing efforts. To work on your fielding, you must first have a glove to catch the ball with. Second you need a partner to hit balls to you both in the air and on the ground. Judging where the ball is going to go when it leaves the bat is something that comes with practice, and it is a skill necessary to have. This way you can get to a fly ball and catch it before it hits the ground. For ground ball practice, the main thing to keep in mind is that you do not want the ball to get past you. No matter what position you play, if the ball gets past you it is going to be trouble. Therefore you must try to get behind the ball because there will be less of a chance for the ball to get past you for even if it bounces away from your glove, it can still bounce off your body and stay in front of you. The other most important individual skill in baseball is batting. To improve your batting skills you must first get a bat and some baseballs, and then take batting practice. You need to see pitches, whether thrown from a pitching machine or from a person, in order to get your timing down. This means you become used to how fast the ball is coming, and you begin to know the right time for you to swing. You need to also be able to tell when a pitcher throws a breaking ball. A breaking ball is a ball thrown by the pitcher that will curve in different directions depending on which way they make it spin. This skill of recognizing the pitch takes the most work because you never know what pitch you are going to get. Being ready for a pitch, is similar to being ready for life’s challenges. You never know which ones you are going to get, and you must work extra hard to fight off the ones you don’t like. A mastery of these individual skills will enable you to bring something productive to your team, and once everyone on your team is practiced and ready to contribute, you are now ready to have team practices to put all of your skill together and prepare to win some baseball games.

The development of teamwork is the next step to achieving success in baseball. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. This is true in almost any team activity in life, especially in baseball. If you were to take the worst team in major league baseball, and give them Barry Bonds (one of baseballs greatest players), the team would still not win because the team would still not be able to work together which is needed for victory. Therefore this next step requires developing teamwork by joining all of the skills each individual player has practice on his own together. On any given play in baseball, teamwork is necessary for success. In the field you must often throw the ball to another teammate once you get it in order to get an out. For example, after the shortstop receives a ground ball, he must throw it to the first baseman before the runner reaches first base. This is one of dozens of possible combinations of throws between different players that must be made through out the game, and therefore all of these situations must be practices as a team. The team must go over mental aspects of the game together as well. Every member of the team must know what every sign given by the coach means, and what they are expected to do in different situations. How to achieve this is to do a situational drill. This is done in practice, and you must pretend that your team is playing in different game situations to test your team’s knowledge of where to throw the ball when you get it. You put different runners on base, alter the pretend scores and pretend number of outs, and hit the ball to different people on the team to practice mentally how to complete a given play. This drill will make sure your entire team is on the same mental level, while also practicing your physical skills. While it is impossible to say exactly how to practice your personal and team skills, by following these guidelines of what needs to be practiced, and by completing the process which ever way you feel is best, you are now ready for the next and final step: playing the game.

When the pressure is on, anything can happen. Whether you are making a speech to a crowd, taking your SAT’s, or are in the late innings of an important baseball game, you will feel the pressure and you must fight through it. You will stand no chance, come game time, if you do not practice the skills mentioned above, namely knowing the game well, practicing individual skills and practicing with your team. But assuming you have already done the following steps, this final step will definitely raise your chances for success. First, you must approach the game no differently that you approach practice. Do not look at all the people in the crowd, only focus on what you are trying to do. When you are batting, you must pretend that it is batting practice and that there is no pressure on you. If you think to yourself you must get a hit because it is game time, you are liable to become over anxious and mess up. The same is true for when you are in the field. You must think you are playing in a practice game and to not get nervous when a ball is hit to you. The single most important aspect of this step is maintaining a healthy mental outlook towards the game. In any team activity, you must trust in yourself and in your teammates. If you make a mistake, you must go on with the game and not dwell over it. Remember that everyone makes mistakes in everything they do, and by getting angry you only compromise your chances of success on your next play. By not letting your emotions get to you or the pressure or the game, you will be able to execute the practice you and your team has put in before that game, and will have a high chance of being successful at the great game of baseball.

Baseball is one of the most popular and cherished sport in baseball. Fans know that becoming successful in the game of baseball is similar to achieving success in their own lives. To work hard, to develop individual and team skill, and to mentally cope with ones own emotions and the pressure of the moment. A lot can be learned from just looking at the steps one must take to become successful in baseball by seeing all of the hard work it takes. If you are looking specifically for baseball success, make sure all of the previously mentioned steps are completed, and you and your team will be more successful.