The Brian Lehrer Show Baseball & Life
Mar 25, 2026
Dr. Harley Rotbart, pediatrician, former Parents Magazine columnist and little league coach, and Ken Davidoff, veteran New York sports writer and baseball columnist, discuss how baseball teaches life skills. They talk about teamwork and sacrifice, using sports as tools for resilience, tricky ethics like white lies, gender and softball, and how the game shapes self-image and persistence.
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Teach Sacrifice With The Bunt
- Do teach kids the value of sacrifice by explaining how making an out can help the team score.
- Use the baseball sacrifice bunt example to show that short-term loss can create collective long-term gain.
Sports Metaphors Make Tough Lessons Concrete
- Sports provide concrete metaphors that help kids facing real-life crises understand choices like peer pressure and boundaries.
- Rotbart observed these analogies worked both on the field and in his clinic with troubled youth.
First Baseman Stretch To Curb Risky Behavior
- Harley Rotbart used a first baseman stretching analogy to counsel a troubled teen drifting toward bad peers.
- He told the teen you can stretch to help others but must pull back your foot to avoid being taken off the base.
