Sarris: ‘You don’t rise to the occasion; the occasion rises to you’: The mysticism of Rich Hill
From SABR member Eno Sarris at The Athletic on October 16, 2018:
In between all the f-bombs, the flinging limbs, and the dirty looks, Rich Hill is actually having a good time on the mound. A cosmically good time.
“Playing this sport is something that I am very passionate about,” Hill said about his countenance on the mound to not a single surprised reporter at Dodger Stadium on Monday.
Talk to him long enough, though, and you’ll realize that Rich Hill is a sort of modern-day baseball Baba Ram Dass — a mystic in Dodger blue.
Born Richard Alpert, Dass is an American spiritual teacher famous for his work with Timothy Leary at Harvard University in the early 1960s, but also for his unique treatise on life, love, death and living in the present called Be Here Now. Put Dass quotes next to Hill’s and they make a lot of sense.
“If you can’t be yourself out there and you can’t really let yourself go, it’s very difficult to hold in a lot of the intensity that you might have,” Hill said Monday.
Read the full article here: https://theathletic.com/591703/2018/10/16/you-dont-rise-to-the-occasion-the-occasion-rises-to-you-the-mysticism-of-rich-hill/
Originally published: October 17, 2018. Last Updated: October 17, 2018.