"Experts are People, too"

I received the following recently from Coach Ron Wolforth. Take a look, let it soak in ... do some thinking perhaps about the "experts" in and around your life. There are a lot of these in the baseball world, you know, and they are certain that if you just fix this one thing, hold your elbow just so, do it exactly as they did, pay them by the hour, of course, well, you know the rest ... I've told a number of you my thoughts regarding our over-reliance upon instructors and "professionals." Well, fasten your seat belts (Coach is blunt, okay?) and check this out:

"'Life support turned off and expected to die, teen makes remarkable recovery

'NEW ZEALAND -- Kimberly McNeill, 18, was expected to die following a serious car accident she was in last December, but she shocked doctors when she made a remarkable recovery and was able to leave the hospital Monday.

"'A team of doctors forecasted the New Zealand teen would never survive her injuries and took her off life support against her family's wishes.

"'Kimberly crashed not far from her home in late December. Her parents, both acupuncturists, would not accept that their daughter could die.

"'It was doctors at Auckland City Hospital who switched off Kimberly's life support machine 15 days after being transferred to their hospital.

"'Kimberly defied all the odds when she not only was able to return home this week, two months after her wreck, but she was walking and talking.

"'The accident nearly claimed her life. Her father James McNeill said, 'To have her home so early is another outstanding milestone ... Kimberly has a long way to go but the sky's the limit.'
McNeill said both he and Kimberly's mother, Jackie Kiddle, would not accept the doctors' prognosis. Instead they drew on specialist acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine practitioners for support during the critical period when life support was withdrawn.'

"#1. This is what happens when we acquiesce most or all of our responsibility to think and decide to 'EXPERTS'. If you don't think this is our future in the USA ... I believe you are naive. That's what many elitists already believe should be the role of the EXPERT...to decide things for us silly, stupid, uneducated NON experts. This should rarely happen in my opinion. Experts should be used as our counselors ... not our rulers.

"#2. Exactly who is an EXPERT? In a Socialist society like New Zealand...an expert is ANYONE the government claims is an expert. I absolutely and completely reject such a notion. In my opinion, #1. I choose my expert(s). #2. I choose what part of the expert's advice I wish to follow and what advice I reject. #3. Then I'm held accountable for that decision.

"#3. Experts are people too. Very, very few people in the world ... are as expert as I am in pitching, yet I honestly don't view myself as an 'expert'. I know many people who know half as much as I do ... who are absolutely certain they know twice as much and relish in being an 'expert' disseminating their advice as if it were Gospel from the good Lord. They aren't cautious or hesitant what so ever about the possible fallibility of their thoughts or ideas. Some are even incredibly bright and capable and really have done their homework ... and then ... because they THOUGHT it ... it therefore must be correct. These people are possibly the MOST dangerous.
Don't believe me? I take my lead here from one of the premier cancer specialists in the world today ... Bernie Seigel. Here is what Dr. Seigel suggests you do if a doctor tells you or a loved one that a particular patient has X months to live.

"You tell the Doctor that you are going to make him a wager. If said patient passes away within twice the estimated time this doctor said the patient had remaining ... you will make a significant contribution to a charity of his choice. If the patient lasts one day longer than twice his prediction, the doctor will pay $100,000 to a charity of the patient's choice.

"Dr. Seigel says that NO doctor will EVER take that wager ... even with doubling the amount of time he said the patient has left. DOUBLING the amount of time! Yet they are so certain of it that they actually pass this information on to you as if it is TRUTH?

"Really? That is true unbridled arrogance.

"These experts in New Zealand made that same assumption regarding the young woman. So much so that they actually decided to turn her life support OFF ... Yet they couldn't have possibly been more wrong regarding the most important question this young woman will EVER face.

"What if that was YOUR daughter, son, husband or wife?

"Sarah Palin gets brutalized by the Left in this country regarding her take on so called 'death panels'. I'm not a big fan of Palin, but on this topic she is a lot closer than most believe she is. This NZ group truly acted as a 'death panel' for this young girl. They decided. They were wrong even when they were absolutely CERTAIN they were right.

"Please don't write me and tell me what happened in NZ would NEVER happen in the USA. Arrogance and experts deciding what's best for others knows no borders nor political affiliation...and I believe its pure evil and tyranny.

"What will happen to the group that blew this decision? Will the group be reprimanded? Disbanded? Decertified?

"You already know what will happen. Nothing. It will be glossed over as 'just one of those things that was unexplainable'. They just didn't see this coming. I would contend that these 'experts' should NEVER be dictating into areas where 'some things are unexplainable and things occur that they just couldn't see coming. Either THEY are not the right experts for this situation or NO expert can decide definitively in this specific case.

"#4. There is only ONE expert in what's REALLY important in YOUR life ... YOU. Don't let 'experts' run your life.

"Ask Lawrence Peter Berra. As a young man 'Yogi' worried his parents because of his obsession with a sport called baseball. They pleaded with him to be practical and to get an education and a real job. Finally Yogi went to a tryout in his home town of St. Louis and was told by Branch Ricky, considered at the time to be the preeminent judge of baseball talent in the MLB at the time, that he wasn't Major League material. His parents were relieved. Finally Yogi could now concentrate on getting and keeping a new job.

"Yogi had a different idea. Yogi proudly proclaimed, 'Mr. Ricky really doesn't know the real me. I know that because he didn't pick me."

"Which may possibly be the very first of many famous 'Yogisms'.

"The only expert Yogi considered listening to about matters so important ... was Yogi.

"But don't be too hard on experts ... experts are people too."

There is a lot there to ponder about what Coach Wolforth has said above. I am reminded of how some have said we have no chance here at the Mustangs because we lack "experts," no paid coaches, no staff instructors, no baseball "academy," etc., blah, blah, blah. Funny, but I think one of the things that has helped us is teaching players how to train and coach themselves on a number of levels. But, you be the judge.

Of course, there is a time and a place to seek help and additional guidance. I have my thoughts on this as it applies to baseball, but I am no "expert," if you know what I mean.

And as Coach Wolforth points out, the most important person to be making decisions about the direction of your life is you. You players, of course, are to do this within the confines of the authority of your parents and the Lord Himself. But you get the point.

Be responsible for your thoughts and actions. Make ways rather than excuses. And then see how far God can take you.