Note: As this essay goes to press, at 3 am Tuesday PT, I still cannot view any of my daily essays or comments since last Friday June 4th. Facebook keeps replying to my Help requests but so far there is no resolution. For now I intend to keep posting anyway but if this is not resolved, I'll put up a notice to say where my new web location will be going forward. This experience has convinced me there is no long-term future for me at Facebook.
People like me who are enjoy both statistics and sports *love* baseball, pure and simple. One reason is that in baseball, unlike life, you can be successful by failing more often than not.
A great batting average is .300, which translates to three hits out of every ten tries. Currently, a little over a third of the way through the major league season, only 14 of the roughly 400 rostered position players in MLB are maintaining that high a batting average. Nick Castellanos of Cincinnati leads everyone at .359.
But there is another measure of hitting success, called on-base percentage (OBP), which includes walks and getting hit by the pitch. A mere six players have attained .400 in this category; Vladimir Guerrero, Jr., of Toronto leads all players at .436.
(Both of these categories require a certain number of plate appearances.)
The point here is that for all of the rest of us who are not Major League Baseball hitters, that kind of success ratio in most jobs would be considered an abject failure.
But perhaps a lesson we can take from the Nicks and Vlads of this world is to keep trying even when we fail. They are elite performers because they don't let adversity define or confine them.
They just pick themselves up and keep going.
Again in baseball, there are mirror-image stats for pitchers. Earned Run Average (ERA) captures the earned runs per inning pitched -- a good level would be 3.00, which translates into three runs per nine innings pitched.
Just twenty-one of the roughly 380 rostered pitchers are below 3.00 in ERA so far, headed up by Jacob deGrom of the New York Mets with a microscopic 0.62.
Another pitching stat is WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched). A WHIP under 1.00 is considered exemplary. There are currently 16 pitchers at that elite level, headed up again by the amazing deGrom at 0.57.
None of these statistical achievements are likely to stand up over the course of the entire season, because virtually every player will hit a slump. Castellanos has a career BA of only .278 and Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. an OPB of .360. As a pitcher, deGrom has a career ERA of 2.51 and a WHIP of 1.02.
Everyone who soars eventually returns closer to the mean.
So, again, regarding the rest of us, what can we divine from this? Everyone gets to go on a hot streak now and then, but absolutely no one is on top of the game all the time. We all hit slumps.
But persistence is its own reward and the older we get, hopefully the smarter we get at recognizing when and how we can have the most impact, which may be the ultimate measure of a successful life.
And by impacts I do not mean becoming a billionaire or winning baseball titles, far from it.
Rather, recognizing the moment you can reach out to a person in crisis and choosing to do so -- that is success. Helping save a life.
Being generous with your time, your skill, your friendship -- that is success. Loneliness and isolation kill people.
Taking a stand when it matters is another measure of success. It most definitely may not be rewarded in real time; in fact, the opposite often occurs.
But that is a grand slam home run every single time in my book, and I'm keeping score. The thing to remember is none of this is a game.
***
The news:
* Scientists begin to unravel the mysteries of the coronavirus and brains -- Even as the pandemic appears ready to recede in the United States, dropping below an average of 30,000 new cases daily, it will take years to fully understand the way the virus afflicts the brain. (WP)
* Google said it would make changes to its global advertising business to ensure it did not abuse its dominance, bowing to antitrust pressure for the first time in a landmark settlement with French authorities.The deal with the French competition watchdog could help rebalance the power over advertising in favor of publishers, which held sway over the business in the pre-internet era but lost control with the rapid rise of Google and Facebook. (Reuters)
* Manchin Vows to Block Democratic Voting Rights Bill and Preserve Filibuster -- Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, appeared to slam the door on the far-reaching measure when he wrote that he would not vote for any partisan voting bill. (NYT)
* Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.) tore into Manchin over an opinion piece in which the West Virginia Democrat wrote he would vote against a timely elections bill because it doesn't have the support of Republicans. “Sen. Manchin would rather preserve Jim Crow on some outdated theory of bipartisanship that frankly does not exist in the same way today as it did a generation ago,” Jones said on MSNBC. [HuffPost]
* Supreme Court begins its sprint to finish — with a retirement decision possible -- As the court’s term winds down, decisions await on the future of the Affordable Care Act, gay and religious rights, and whether Justice Stephen G. Breyer will create an opening for President Biden to fill. (WP)
* Federal Student-Loan Loss Forecast Rises by $53 Billion --The new estimate reflects pandemic-relief efforts for borrowers and low repayment rates on the government’s $1.6 trillion portfolio. (WSJ)
* Israeli Security Forces Clash With Protesters in East Jerusalem -- The security forces fired stun grenades at demonstrators rallying in East Jerusalem in support of several leading Palestinian activists who were arrested in the area on Sunday. (AP)
* Amid unending conflicts, Gazans wrestle with rebuilding — and whether it’s worth it (WP)
* 2021 is on pace to be the worst year for U.S. voter suppression laws since 2011, and activists are worried that Democrats aren't responding aggressively enough. Fueled by lies that widespread voter fraud cost Donald Trump the 2020 election, Republicans have passed new voter suppression laws at the fastest pace in a decade. [HuffPost]
* Trump allies’ push for ballot reviews started quietly in Pa. -- In December, Republican state senators asked several counties in the state to allow a private company to scrutinize ballots cast last fall, a tactic that allies of former president Donald Trump are seeking to employ across the country. (WP)
* The Justice Department has recovered the majority of a multimillion-dollar ransom payment to hackers after a cyberattack that caused the operator of the nation's largest fuel pipeline to halt its operations last month, officials said Monday. (AP)
* C.I.A. Scrambles for New Approach in Afghanistan -- The rapid withdrawal of U.S. troops has left the agency seeking ways to maintain its intelligence-gathering, war-fighting and counterterrorism operations in the country. (NYT)
* Vaccination rates fall off, imperiling Biden’s July Fourth goal (WP)
* Polio: When vaccines and re-emergence were just as daunting (AP)
* Famed naturalist David Attenborough said climate change is a “crime” humanity has committed against the planet in an interview that aired Sunday, asking why society should have the prerogative to continue “poisoning life on earth” when there is still time for redemption. Attenborough has concluded that the problem has grown so large as to be beyond the burden of any one nation. [HuffPost]
* Despite pandemic, level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere hits historic levels (WP)
* Carbon dioxide levels hit 50% higher than preindustrial time (AP)
* Offshore Wind Farms Show What Biden’s Climate Plan Is Up Against -- The U.S. has fallen way behind Europe partly because of an old shipping law and opposition from homeowners and fishing groups. (NYT)
* G-7 should bear most of cost of vaccinating low-income countries, say former leaders (WP)
* We’re Finally Starting to Revolt Against the Cult of Ambition -- Naomi Osaka has given a public face to a growing, and long overdue, rebellion. (NYT)
* Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she believes U.S. officials made a mistake in initially dismissing the idea that COVID-19 was the result of a laboratory. Rice, who served as national security adviser during the SARS outbreak in 2003, said one early red flag was that U.S. officials had previously called safety practices “substandard” at a lab studying coronaviruses in bats in Wuhan, China. [HuffPost]
* FDA approves Biogen Alzheimer's drug, shares soar (Reuters)
* Democratic Report Raises 2022 Alarms on Messaging and Voter Outreach -- A new report, in perhaps the most thorough soul-searching done by either party this year, points to an urgent need for the party to present a positive economic agenda and rebut Republican misinformation. (NYT)
* California's insurance regulator endorsed proposals that would aggressively limit construction in fire-prone areas. If adopted, they could reshape the real estate market. (California Today)
* U.C.L.A. economists said California’s strict Covid restrictions protected its economy, and the state is now poised for one of the best years of economic growth “since World War II. (Los Angeles Times)
* Jeff Bezos announces he’ll be on first crewed spaceflight of Blue Origin rocket (WP)
* NASA Spacecraft Made A Flyby Visit To The Largest Moon In The Solar System (NPR)
* A microscopic animal has been revived after slumbering in the Arctic permafrost for 24,000 years. Bdelloid rotifers typically live in watery environments and have an incredible ability to survive. Russian scientists found the creatures in a core of frozen soil extracted from the Siberian permafrost using a drilling rig.Once the rotifer thawed, the creature was able to reproduce, the study said. The tiny invertebrates were also able to feed. (CNN)
* How Mickey Guyton Is Making Country Music Her Own -- The “Black Like Me” singer is taking on the overwhelming whiteness of the genre. (New Yorker)
* Biden Offers Infrastructure Concession By Partially Demolishing Brooklyn Bridge (The Onion)
***
Three strikes you're out
I thought I hit a love run
But to my surprise
I found I didn't hit none
She put me in a daze
Never knew that love
Could come so many ways
Strike two - Right in front of my eyes
Strike three - Oh, I was out without a doubt
Oh, I was out
Three strikes you're out
Whether you win or lose
Love is just like a baseball game
Three strikes you're out
Everybody's got to pay some due
I'm gonna try love one more time
I really love this girl
And I'm gonna make her mine
When I played a baseball game
Now it seems that love
And baseball are just the same
Strike two - Looks like I'm never gonna win
Strike three - Oh, I was out without a doubt
I was out
Three strikes you're out
Three strikes you're out whether you win or lose
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