Swing Hard

The other day on Bluesky, someone posted:

Joaquín Andújar died. One of my favorite pitchers ever to watch to hit ("swing hard in case you make contact").

Joajuín andújar, houston astros, 1976

I’m not in any way a baseball fan, so I had no clue as to who Joaquín Andújar was or why he might have been someone’s favorite pitcher to watch hit, but the quote hit home, to coin a phrase.

There are many versions of the sentiment. Oscar Wilde said, “You should always aim for the moon; even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”

Our own Georg Christoph Lichtenberg said, “If you are going to build something in the air it is always better to build castles than houses of cards.”

And as I put it when a then-young director told me he wanted his first show with the Newnan Community Theatre Company to be Waiting for Godot: “What’s the worse that could happen — a bunch of confused old ladies in Newnan, GA?”

Or when my amateur casts got nervous about ‘doing Shakespeare’ or similar: “Look, no one is going to lose a million dollars if we get this wrong, so just go for it.”

The point — to bring it back to baseball — is to swing for the fences. Because, as Mr. Andújar said, if you don’t swing hard enough to hit a home run, you’re not going to hit a home run.

If you don’t try to write a fantasy novel, you’re not going to write a fantasy novel.

If you don’t try to compose a symphony, you’re not going to compose a symphony.

If you don’t schedule Macbeth for your theatre, you’re not going to stage Macbeth.

You get the point. Here endeth the lesson.