Okay. I wasn’t the best in the little league, though I thought I was better than the coach thought I was. One thing I will say, I never missed a ball during a game while I played first base. It was because of something my brother taught me. First, catch the ball.

That is to say, no matter what you plan to do after you catch it, make sure to catch it. It seems so obvious but I have seen even the pros start to throw someone out at first before he caught the ball. That is embarrassing. Even more, it can cost the game. Not only can’t you not make the play without the ball, but if that ball goes on out into the field, it can cost runs. Worse, it allows that other batter to come to the plate and hit the little pill over the fence.

To be sure, it takes determination. The instant that hard hit grounder starts in your direction, you must make the determination to catch, or at least stop that ball. No matter what else you did before or will do after, that is the number one concern.

Strange as it might seem, I saw first one football player, then the other a short time later drop an almost perfect pass. They had both their hands on the ball and it was very catchable. In both cases, they started making their plans for what they were going to do after getting the ball… then they dropped the ball.

Excuse me, but aren’t these guys getting at least 6 figures a year. Perhaps I have it wrong, but I would think the coach would really want a receiver who would first catch the ball. I mean I’m not one of those high paid coaches, but as I have said before, I am available. I mean, I do understand the basics, like catching the ball.

It is really nice to be the fastest on the field. However, it won’t do you a bit of good if you can’t put your hands around that ball and secure it firmly. Then you can run. Then you can go through all those elusive moves. But first catch it. As I said, I learned that in Little League. My guess is that most of the football players learned the importance of holding onto the ball in high school. I am sure it has been stressed repeatedly in college.

It is as that architectural engineer wrote, “The most important thing, is to keep the most important thing, the most important thing.”

It is important in baseball. It is important in football. Actually, it is the most important thing in just almost everything. This means, it is really difficult to keep a nation a representative republic when you can’t even keep the elections honest. I mean, it is sort of the most important thing.