Everyone needs their own Jiminy Cricket

Jiminy Cricket

is the Walt Disney character who accompanies Pinocchio on his adventures, having been appointed by the Blue Fairy to serve as his official conscience.

Conscience is the mind's ability to distinguish between right from wrong. Commonly used metaphors include the "voice within" and the "inner light". There are moral, legal, ethical, medical, and social forms of conscience that all are based on integrity and acts for the public good. Conscience also plays a big role in Softball, and lately I have been questioning my own.

Example of Conscience Dilemmas:

1. Passing down a controversial league decision -  A team my team was playing a playoff game against couldn't field a team on Thursday after receiving 6 days notice that they were to play on that given date. They led the best of 3 series, 1 game to none, and game 2 was tied after 9 innings. The continuation and game 3 was scheduled for Thursday August 30th. No team will go to the Championship on a forfeit in this scenario, but at the same time the team in question had to respect the league. After deep thought, I have decided to give them a forfeit for the Game 2 continuation and reschedule game 3. This drama Sucks, but my conscious tells me it was the right thing to do.
2. Arguing With Umpires - I gone on some really bad tirades against umpires lately. Some justified. Some maybe not. Either way I lost it. My conscience is torn on this. There has to be more level handedness. Yelling like a lunatic can only go so far.
3. Inwood - 2 Leagues - Mornings and Afternoon.Mornings are fun. Afternoon cut-throat. It's not easy telling someone you should play in this league rather than the other. My conscience tells me to at least try b/c it is responsible.
4. Managing - Show loyalty or go with a better but less reliable player. I want to win but at what cost?
5. Fighting - I've been involved in my share of battles this year. Teammates, opponents, managers, fans, commissioners, etc. Some physical, some verbal, some psychological.  I probably can cut myself slack for some situations, but if the same person is involved in incident after incident, it can't always be the other sides fault.  I can't always blame the other side of the mirror. I have to take responsibility. This is embarrassing. 40 Year old man acting like a toddler and getting into multiple confrontations. My conscience tells me Passion is precious, but I really need to step back and think about why I really play the game and write this blog.  Violence is never the solution.

I may not have Jiminy in my life but I have some really good source of Conscience in my life

 

 

it's time I make them a bit more proud and keep their good conscience with me more often. Otherwise it is all just wasted spirit/talent, and like the quote from "Bronx tale", nothing is worse than that.