THE BOY WHO WAS EXPECTED TO FLY
There once was a boy
who could hit a fast ball,
then pick up a glove
and pitch to them all.
He’d launch thirty homers
and throw from the mound,
a game of pure beauty
to truly astound
He’d run, he would hit,
he would pitch you an O
and somehow he’d make it
look easy to show.
The people all cheered him,
“Just look at that guy!
He’s changing the game!
He’s learning to fly!”
But here’s what can happen
when you’re always the ace
The things that once shocked us
become commonplace.
A miracle then,
ordinary today.
And if you don’t do it,
they mutter, “No way.”
He goes one-for-four,
and he strikes out twice
and suddenly someone’s
not feeling so nice.
“What’s happened to Shohei?”
“Where did he go?”
As if every night
“Hey, put on a show!”
Nobody will notice
that knee is still sore,
the innings still living
in the arm as before.
The body says, “Slow down.”
But the clock says, “No.”
And fans say, “Enough now…
we need you to go!”
Then De Paula arrived
like a spark in the night,
a kid full of thunder,
of speed and delight.
He brought them excitement.
He made people cheer.
For just long enough
to forget who was here.
Then down went the youngster.
And who did they see?
The unicorn waiting
where unicorns be.
Ohtani came back,
and the crowd looked around…
“The spark is gone now.
The kid’s out of town.”
And somehow the fellow
who’d carried them all
was expected to rise
every night when they call.
For that’s what can happen
when you’re always on top:
The higher you climb,
the more you can drop.
If you give them a hundred,
they ask for one more.
If you give them the moonlight,
they’ll ask for the shore.
They don’t see the innings.
They don’t see the strain.
They don’t see the miles
or the years or the pain.
They see what you didn’t.
They count what went wrong.
They forget all the nights
you were carrying on.
And that’s a strange burden
the best people bear
The more that you give them,
the less they think’s rare.
The pedestal rises.
The standard gets high.
And suddenly someone
expects you to fly.
But people aren’t rockets.
And people aren’t stone.
And even the strongest
Are just flesh and bone
So next time the boy
doesn’t light up the sky,
perhaps just don’t ask,
“Why didn’t he fly?”
Remember the nights
when he carried it all.
Remember the homers.
Remember the ball.
Remember the pitcher.
Remember the bat.
Remember the player
who did all of that.
For the person who gives you
the most every day
is often the person
you judge with dismay.
And maybe the greatest
thing that we can do
is give them the grace
that's been given to you.
Let miracles stumble.
Let superstars fall.
Let heroes be human
like us after all.
💙
@shoheidailylab@EmpireJeffTV@JeffSpiegel@Buzztrain2Alt@Dekopin_Koike