Part of the greatness of the game of baseball is its metaphors with life. It follows its own internal clock, moving through nine innings and each inning ending when the third out has been recorded. Sometimes it takes three hours; sometimes it takes four; and sometimes we go to extra innings and it takes five or more. In the end, someone always wins: like life, you never end up exactly even. And yet, no matter what the result, tomorrow you come back and you play again.

It's not surprising, then, that baseball has supplied the English language with some of its richest metaphors. Three strikes and you're out, for example, is the most common and widely spread. It's even used in countries which have little comprehension for the game. Hitting a home run is another.

It's also supplied some interesting metaphorical stories that mean to impart a moral, lesson or fable. One that I've always enjoyed is, People remember that Babe Ruth hit more home runs than anyone else in his time. What they don't remember is that he was also had more strikeouts than anyone else. If you don't swing at a pitch, you can't hit it. (I've paraphrased it from memory). The lesson is, of course, you can't succeed if you don't try.

Babe Ruth in his time hit more home runs than the rest of the league combined, and created a record that stood for decades. Yet just as his records have fallen, so too must we update our metaphors and motivational writings.

It's well known now that in baseball, batting average and home runs and less valued than how often a person gets on base, because that's the most important thing. It doesn't matter how you get there, whether by walking, getting hit by a pitch, or hitting a single. What matters is that you are getting on base. As such, the Greatest Hitter That Ever Lived, Ted Williams, is revered not just because of his phenomenal hitting, but also because he was so patient and focused at the plate that his career record On-Base Percentage of .482 is the best of all time (It means that everytime Ted went to the plate, 48.2% of the time he would get to first base- which is simply unbelievable).

As such, we should update our metaphor to incorporate patience. Instead of urging our friends to go up and swing for the fences, they should learn also to watch for the pitches that can actually be hit to the fences, and ignore the pitches which are so far out of the strike zone that they are unhittable.

So we end up with a new metaphor of, Ted Williams is remembered at the greatest ever hitter in baseball- but what people don't remember is that he also reached base more often than any other player in history. He patiently waited for a pitch he could hit, and if it didn't come then he ended up walking to first base. Either way, he reached base, which was the important thing. Like life, we need to remember to be patient and to keep in mind the big picture.

As times change, life's lessons must change with them.