Finding Your Niche

I could hear the crowd cheering wildly as I once again crossed home plate, a common event for me that summer, having hit a home run and driven in several runs to take the lead, becoming the hero of the team, the leading hitter, and the greatest over-achieving 8 year old in baseball history, at least for that day and perhaps for that entire season. It was a summer of success and monumental meaning for a skinny little kid without much talent.

I was an average player in many respects, a decent fielder, a good arm, good instincts, quick reflexes, alert intellect, knowledgeable on the rules, and a lover of the game with an analytical mind, but I could not seem to hit the ball. At age 6, I began a batting slump that lasted for many years and guaranteed a strike out for the opposing pitcher and the promise of an automatic out for the team with no hope of anything more. I could almost hear the groans from my teammates as I stepped up to the plate, hoping that the pitcher would hit me with the ball (not too hard), or would throw 4 straight balls out of the zone. I was kept on the team possibly for my fielding ability, but mostly because my dad was one of the coaches and besides, when has an 8 year old ever been fired from little league baseball?

The question in your mind should now be, how in the world could I, of average ability, be a successful hitter in an interminable batting slump? The answer is easy, the bunt. I was the bunt king. A slight shift of the body, the bat laid out parallel to the ground, a gentle touch of the wood on the ball, and I was off to first base. What followed was a fielding disaster of major proportions. It was a veritable error-fest to be experienced by all present--players, spectators, and umpires. First was the falling down by the fielder, next the overthrown balls, third the wild yells of different instructions from many people, and last the running into each other as the players scrambled for the ball. All in all a sad but comical display on the field as I ran around the bases to home plate.

The famous bunter, Robert Lee Tucker, continued his unbridled bunting success all season long and into the next year. Although teams did improve their fielding skills by working on throwing and fielding, it remained difficult to manage these skills in the heat of the battle. It seemed that when I squared off for the bunt and everyone ran forward to deal with the situation, once again the next set of events were worthy of the national baseball bloopers award. Unfortunately, as the players matured, the bunt became less successful and with that went my amazing but short-lived career as a professional bunter.

Yet for a time I had found my niche on the team as a valued member, and I belonged as an integral part of the unit, and it felt good. Maybe not respected by everyone, and not exactly the means I would have selected, and my success was mostly based on other people's flaws, and it is a little disconcerting to create humor in what should require a serious focus, nevertheless I found my niche, my role, and my purpose on the team at least for awhile! Out of weakness grew strength and out of flaws grew success.

What is your niche? What role do you play? It may not be what you intended or expected but I believe everyone fills a needed void either in an event, or a relationship, or an idea, or an institution. That niche may change and might be temporary or permanent, and it may be misunderstood or not appreciated, but whatever it is, it is valued by many, making you connected in so many special and vital ways. Find your niche and capitalize on it. Maybe you too will be the bunt king!