In baseball, there exists an intangible called flow. It is imperceivable to many, but is the most important element of the game.

When flow is present, baseball’s majesty is revealed. Some people might say that this is when a team becomes greater than the collection of its individual players, and a game becomes greater than the two teams competing in it. (The whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.)

When flow is with you, the experience is better than anything—win or lose. It represents the prospect of becoming an unstoppable force and creates within a person the most powerful drive to perform.

When flow is with your opponent more than it is with you, defeat is inevitable but you improve and still savor the fight.

Baseball without flow—or without the potential for it—is a broken down machine that can be very difficult or even impossible to fix. Yet some people still continue to play with the hope that it may come to exist again.

This is why baseball is life.