I think when I first started, I tried to make believe I was in the ballpark, sitting next to somebody and just talking. And if you go to a ballgame, and you sit there, you're not going to talk pitches for three hours.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of natural conversation and connection in storytelling rather than technical details.
Vin Scully, a legendary sports broadcaster, reflects on his early approach to commentary, suggesting that effective storytelling is more about creating a relatable and friendly atmosphere, much like conversing with a friend at a ballgame, rather than getting bogged down by technical jargon. This highlights the value of personal connection and engaging communication in any narrative, allowing the audience to feel included and immersed in the experience.
In practice
During a workshop on public speaking, this quote could encourage participants to focus on engaging with their audience personally.
The game is just one long conversation, and I'm anticipating that, and I will say things like 'Did you know that?' or 'You're probably wondering why.' I'm really just conversing rather than just doing play-by-play. I never thought of myself as having a style. I don't use key words. And the best thing I do? I shut up.
That really is my trademark. Day to day, week in, week out. If something happens and the crowd roars, I shut up.
Don't let the winds blow your dreams away... or steal your faith in God.
As long as you live keep smiling because it brightens everybody's day.
In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened…
Almost all of us growing up have played baseball on some level. It has an inside track with people. It has a unifying effect.
What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
Christian living means dying with Christ and rising again. That, as we saw, is part of the meaning of baptism, the starting point of the Christian pilgrimage.
A thought may arise: 'It's okay now, but it's going to be different when I step out the door'. Already you are anticipating your downfall. Recognise these as just thoughts. You can just watch them, feel their pull yet observe them as a movement in consciousness. Stay put as formless awareness.
Virtue is its own reward, and brings with it the truest and highest pleasure; but if we cultivate it only for pleasure's sake, we are selfish, not religious, and will never gain the pleasure, because we can never have the virtue.
No single event can awaken within us a stranger whose existence we had never suspected. To live is to be slowly born.
The exhilaration was hard to explain. It was a lonely feeling — a somehow melancholy feeling. He was outside; he passed on the wings of the wind, and none of the people beyond the brightly lighted squares of their windows saw him. They were inside, inside where there was light and warmth. They didn't know he had passed them; only he knew. It was a secret thing.
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