TROOP 787 SCOUTMASTER MINUTE

YOU'VE GOT TO GET IT OVER

(9-18-07)

You've probably seen a baseball pitcher who can throw a ball through a brick wall, but he can't throw strikes. In baseball, if you don't have control, you don't win.  That's true for all of us, not just pitchers. Self-control and self discipline are vital to any man. A man must be able to control his tongue, his appetite and his body and brain if he's going to get anywhere.  A long time ago, a sportswriter named Grantland Rice wrote a little poem that expresses the idea very well. The poem is called "Over the Plate" and it goes like this:

It counts not what you have, my friend,
When the story is told at the game's far end;
The greatest brawn and the greatest brain,
The world has known may be yours in vain;
The man with control is the one who counts,
And it's how you use what you've got that counts;
Have you got that bead? Are you aiming straight?
How much of your effort goes over the plate?

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