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On MLB's opening day, Ken Davidoff, sports journalist and former New York Post baseball columnist, and Harley Rotbart, MD, pediatrician, former Parents Magazine columnist and little league coach, talk about baseball's lessons for success in life beyond the game. Rotbart and Davidoff are co-authors of the new book 101 Lessons from the Dugout: What Baseball and Softball Can Teach Us About the Game of Life (Bloomsbury, 2026).
Photo: Cover art for 101 Lessons from the Dugout. (Credit: Bloomsbury)
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And to end the show today, we'll mark major league baseball's opening day
with a sports writer and a pediatrician who've co-authored a book for parents and kids.
And a question for you listeners, have lessons from your sport
ever inform more serious things in your life
or a way for you to teach a life lesson to a kid.
Again, have lessons from your sport
ever inform more serious things in your life
or a way for you to teach a life lesson to a kid.
212-433-WNYC call a text.
212-433-9692.
Our guests are longtime New York sports writer Ken Davidoff
and Dr. Harley wrote part pediatrician and a middle and high school coach
on their new book 101 Lessons from the Dugout.
What baseball and softball can teach us about the game of life.
It's also got a forward by former New York Met's great David Wright.
And listeners don't tell Ken but there may be a question
before the end of this segment about the Met's
and the Yankees here on opening day.
Ken and Dr. Rothbard congratulations on the book.
Welcome to WNYC.
Thank you so much for having us.
So Dr. Rothbard, I see this as Ken's first book
but you've written many previous books like No Regrets Parenting,
Germ Proof Your Kids, and 940 Saturdays.
What made you want to team up with a sports writer?
Legitimacy.
Ken has brought to this book project,
which really I started 15 years ago.
Ken has brought a street cred and a dugout
cred to the book and a professionalism that
being on dirt fields with kids for 10 years could never have brought for me.
So I am grateful to Ken for upping my game.
A doctor tells a sports writer that he adds legitimacy.
That's a real one.
But Ken, I'll let you model this for our callers
with a really easy example from the book.
Lesson number 19, The Sacrifice.
And for people who don't know that's a play in baseball,
where a batter intentionally makes an out for himself
to help a teammate move up a base.
So talk about The Sacrifice Lesson 19 as you have it in the book.
Sure, Brian, this is one or more literal lessons,
because just like in baseball, you give yourself up,
you make an out to move your teammate over,
to move your teammate closer to scoring position.
There are many times in life where you give up your
immediate good, if you will, to help someone else
on your team, reading from the book,
sometimes being generous and helping others may set you back.
But you'll feel good about your sacrifice,
even though you may be out, out of the time you spent
or the money or stuff you generously gave away.
Dr. Ropart, in a way, the whole concept is a cliche, right?
Life lessons from sports.
But sports, for most kids, is play time.
The life lessons you listen in the book are serious things,
though, like admitting your mistakes,
overcoming hard times, standing up for what you believe.
Can sports really help kids do well at things like those
in the rest of their lives?
Well, I'll tell you, I have real world experience
with exactly that.
And after the years of the dugout where I watch kids go through
some really dire circumstances at home,
where it's school, and oftentimes more minor
circumstances that they had to overcome.
I was able to use the analogies from sports,
which I did my best to categorize in the book.
To help the kids, but it went further than that.
I was able to apply the lessons from sports to my clinic.
And the example that I give is a mom who brought her teenage son
into see me.
He had been a ball player in the past,
but now was getting in trouble.
He was hanging out with the wrong kids.
He was hanging out doing the wrong things.
He was trying desperately to be popular.
And I reminded him of what the first baseman goes through
when he is stretching to receive the throw from the infield.
You can stretch too far.
Try to help your infielders.
Try to help your friends.
Try to help your classmates.
But when the stretch is too far,
you've got to take your foot off the base and catch the ball.
So more damage is not done.
I think that these lessons apply not just on the baseball field
when you see troubled kids,
but off the baseball field wherever you are.
Huh.
Mark and Clifton has one, I think.
Mark, your on WNYC.
Hello.
Hi, I love the show and I love the sport of baseball.
I'm so happy to be on.
Playing baseball the league as a kid
and hitting taught me so many things that I apply to my entire life.
And the one I think about all the time is that a 300 hitter
who's, you know, at the top of the league does nothing seven out of 10 times
that they come to the to the plate.
And so much of of being a great athlete
and then connecting with whatever your work is
and whatever your goal is,
is keeping your head together
those seven times that nothing happens
to make those three possible.
And it's a wonderful perspective
that I was able to pick up early
from trying my best to hit as a kid.
Nice Mark.
Thank you very much.
Here's one, Ken,
that that maybe is a little bit intriguing
compared to some of the others.
You have one about lying,
less than 22,
fake buns.
Where do you go with that?
Yeah, that's an interesting one.
And I have to admit, Brian,
that's one where I actually asked my son
who played literally because, you know,
Harley came up with the idea of
equipment, you know, the fake bun with,
with lying and my son confirmed that
happens a lot at the youth level.
But the idea, you know,
a fake bun is sort of a white lie,
especially at the youth level, right?
You, you, you kind of flash bun
like you're going to bun
and you're trying to fake out
the defense and throw them off guard.
And the idea of being,
it seems harmless,
but, you know, it's,
it has a little,
it can cause a little bit of damage.
You know, white lies are life's fake buns,
sneaky and a little dishonest.
People who tell white lies usually
mean to protect someone's feeling,
to hide bad news,
you know, but, you know,
instead white lies often backfire
hurting others by causing false hope
and disappointment
and losing their trust.
So that was an interesting one.
There was a big segment there somewhere
on white lies versus radical transparency.
Mark and Norwalk,
you and WNYC.
Hi, Mark.
Hello, Brad.
How are you?
Good. What's good?
Uh, okay.
So, um, I'm a sailor
and sailing is the perfect,
perfect metaphor for life.
Uh,
choosing between strategic goals
and tactical goals
or longer term thinking versus short term.
And it also like letting somebody
ahead in this one instance,
but then getting ahead in the long run.
Uh, also just the discipline
that is required to, you know,
the, you know, practice and,
and study and everything.
And you just get better
and it's the same thing of life.
You have to practice the things
and work hard.
Mark, thank you very much.
Dr. Oakbart, the frame of the book
is life lessons from baseball
and softball.
A generation to go softball
wouldn't even have been in there.
But I imagine it's your way
of being gender inclusive
in a modern book for kids
because that's what girls play
on their teams, obviously.
Um, do you have anything
gender specific
that some of these lessons,
you know, apply especially
to softball or to girls
because of their position in sports
or society as a whole?
Well, I think that, um,
the issues of self-image
really they apply
their non-
not gender specific.
They apply to everyone,
but, but maybe, uh,
forgive me if I'm stereotyping.
Maybe girls are more conscious
of self-image.
And, uh, there is a lot
in, um, in softball
and in baseball,
uh, to teach us about self-image.
And I think that one of the
most, um, telling of the lessons
is the batting order.
And that is where you put the batting order
oftentimes says to you
what the coach thinks of you
or what your teammates think of you
or what the fans think of you.
And the lead-off hitter
has has a great self-image
because their thought of
is the best hitter.
And the number nine hitter
has maybe the worst self-image.
But the reality is
that the batting order
only matters in the first inning
because after that,
anybody can be can be lead-off.
And so I think we have to emphasize
for girls, but for boys, of course,
also that the image that others
cast upon you
should not be binded.
That you need to see yourself
as a number one hitter.
As the lead-off hitter,
regardless of how others
may see you,
that image of yourself
has to be paramount.
By the way, Ken, for you as a sports writer,
why softball for girls
if I can digress?
They can play baseball, too.
Why isn't their girls baseball
like there's girls soccer
and basketball and tennis,
et cetera,
rather than a different sport?
Well, when his baseball is actually
on the rise brine,
so much so there's a league,
a professional league
starting this year.
But yeah, to answer your question,
I think there's just history.
Obviously, there's the movie,
which, of course, now I'm
the penny marshal.
Thank you, penny marshal,
a league of their own,
which documented the professional
women's baseball during World War II.
And I think in recent years,
there has been a rise.
Be it to answer your question simply,
I think it's just the history of
whenever I happen,
girls play softball, boys baseball.
But I do think that is evolving.
And Brian, the best picture
on my 12-year-old theme
was a girl.
Ken, as we run,
that is great to know.
Yeah, a little league is becoming,
at least a little league is becoming co-ed.
Absolutely.
And then up from there, maybe over time.
Well, almost at a time,
Ken, for you as a sports writer,
for more than 30 years,
with the post-newsday,
Bergen record.
I see you grew up as a Yankee fan.
Do you still watch?
Do you have anything you think will be
interesting and fun to watch
for this year,
with either the Yankees or the Mets?
20 seconds or so?
Yeah, I watch now unburdened, Brian,
because I used to be focused.
What's the story?
What's the calm?
What's the angle?
Now I just watch.
And I think this will be a fascinating season
and for your Mets,
I think they're going to make the playoffs.
I think they're going to be a lot better than last year.
And anything on the Yankees?
In particular, just fun to watch for.
I don't need a prediction.
Fun to watch this young picture.
They just sent to the minors.
Carlos Legrande,
throws about 102 miles per hour.
He will come up at some point,
and then I can't wait to see him.
Sports writer, Ken David off.
And pediatrician,
Dr. Harley Roadback,
have written 101 lessons from the dugout,
what baseball and softball can teach us about the game of life.
Thank you for sharing some of it with us.
Thank you so much, Brian.
Brian, thank you very much.
On WNYC,
we're going to end the show with sports too
about St. John's Basketball tomorrow.
But for now, stay tuned for Alison.
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