They say sometimes when things go wrong you just have to suck it up and keep going.  You could be mired in an 0 for 20 slump but you still have to go up to the plate and take a swing.

Then again, what happens if the manager decides to pull you from the lineup?  Isn’t there always someone there trying to take your place?  

I keep hearing coaches in football talk about this “next man up” philosophy.  Ok maybe not so much a philosophy as an idea.  The thought that if someone gets hurt or isn’t doing their job the person behind them is stepping up.  Injury?  No problem get the next person in line.

I guess you could say it’s probably not fair – but you know the old saying fair is that place you go to eat fried foods and ride the rides.  Ok maybe not.  I’d just like to think that we could share a little humility.  Some people plug alone in a position for years and then suddenly its next man up.  I guess that’s the story of life.  

I always thought that Paul Pierce would end his career as a Boston Celtic and in a way it bothered me to see him in so many jerseys.  However the more I think about it, I guess he still had more to give to the game and there were others who saw that.  Sometimes it takes stepping away from a stale situation in order to see that there is something moving in the horizon.  

When Frank Thomas left the Chicago White Sox and went to the Toronto Blue Jays, no one cries for him.  Plenty thought he had been finished for a while.  Unfortunately that’s the climate we live in.  Athletes are just like us, they find themselves in situations where they have to use their talents in the best possible areas.

I don’t think that Thomas and Pierce were happy to leave at first – I’m sure it was a struggle to adopt change.  Everyone has to come to grips with the fact that as the world spins things get off balance.  The more times the Earth goes around the Sun the more likely we are to struggle with our situation.  It’s just human nature to find some sort of problem with something in our lives whatever it may be.  We have to do our best to deal with it – it’s not always easy to do that.

If I knew how to deal with every situation I’m sure I’d write one of those books that would be on the New York Times bestseller list.  I’d be the guru to end all gurus.  But then again maybe that would be a bad idea.  See no two people deal with a situation the same way.  That’s part of being a human.  My philosophy on life and yours probably have differences.  I’m not going to always agree with the way you do things and you aren’t going to agree with me.  But the one thing we can try to do is make the best of whatever comes our way.  It may not be perfect or the thing that we wanted.  In fact I would bet that it’s going to be a curveball rather than the pitch you were looking for.