Today is May 29 and the Navigate the Chaos question to consider is “How often do you let what you can’t do get in the way of what you can do?”
Major League Baseball player Kyle Schwarber of the Chicago Cubs didn’t let his inability to swing the bat during a rehab assignment stop him from doing what he could do to get ready to play for the Cubs in the 2016 World Series.
On April 7, 2016 Schwarber and teammate Dexter Fowler collided. Schwarber was removed from the game with a torn anterior cruciate ligament and lateral collateral ligament in his left knee, and would miss the rest of the 2016 season; just his second season in the major leagues.
As the Cubs advanced further into the postseason, an unexpectedly fast recovery made the return of Schwarber increasingly more of a possibility. His doctors told him that he could not swing a bat more than 60 times a day. Professional baseball players need to swing a bat a few hundred times to get their batting eye finely tuned.
Schwarber decided to just stand at home plate and train his eye on the pitching machine as it sent fastballs, sliders, and curveballs his way. He did not know if watching hundreds of pitches for two hours at a time would work but it was all he could do to help train his eyes without swinging a bat. It worked.
The Cubs added Schwarber to their roster for the 2016 World Series, and started him in Game 1 as their designated hitter.
Schwarber's addition to the Cubs' starting line-up was surprising given he had not played since his injury in April. He was not medically cleared to play on defense, and only made appearances as a pinch or designated hitter. Schwarber had a batting average over .400 and the Cubs defeated the Indians in seven games to claim the Cubs' first World Series championship in 108 years. Schwarber didn’t let what he couldn’t do get in the way of what he could do.
How often do you let what you can’t do get in the way of what you can do?