The undiscovere'd country

Arguably Shakespeare's greatest, most famous quote was proclaimed in Hamlet by Hamlet :

"To be, or not to be, that is the question:Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,Or to take arms against a sea of troubles And by opposing end them. To die—to sleep,No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there's the rub:For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause—there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life. For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,Th'oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of dispriz'd love, the law's delay,The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of th'unworthy takes,When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscovere'd country, from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, And thus the native hue of resolutionIs sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pitch and moment With this regard their currents turn awry And lose the name of action."

That's some deep shit. My man Hamlet is contemplating suicide - the pros, the cons, the conflict.

Well today I contemplate a softball conflict along the same lines : "To Swing or Not to Swing at the 1st Pitch, that is the question"

There are Pros and Cons on each side of this question that leads to conflict:

Pros

1. Your aggressive. Don't worry about going wrong. Go Strong. If your on fire as a hitter and the 1st one is in your zone then hit it. On the flip, if your in a slump being aggressive will get you to stop thinking and start hitting, and as Yogi brilliantly said : You can't hit and think at the same time"

2. You know what's coming. The pitcher is predictable.

3. Zone in - Pretend the count is 3-1 and look for that one pitch, if its there bang it, if not let it go

4. The pitcher your facing is around the zone and walks no one

5. The pitcher your facing is dominant, so the first one you see hit it b/c it might be the only one you get

6. The game moves faster - not productive but maybe your bored and just want to swing

7. You suck and just want to get your out out of the way

8. Your more comfortable swinging early in counts.

Cons

1. Let the Pitcher throw. Make him work. Try and get into favorable hitter counts like 2-0 and 3-1.

2. Your manager forbids you to swing and makes you take a strike

3. The pitcher is weak and you know he can't beat you, so just be patient.

4. You suck and are better off looking for walks.

5. The pitcher is wild, swinging at the 1st pitch would be stupid especially after he just walked a batter

6. Your team will be really mad at you if you swing at the 1st pitch

7. Your leading off an inning.

8. You trailing by a lot of runs

The bottom line is that it all depends on variety of factors like:

(1) You

(2) The opposing pitcher

(3) The game situation

(4) The umpire

The Choice is yours. You decide if its right for you and your team. It is an Undiscovere'd country, where conscience does make cowards of us all ..