It’s that time of the year again. The annual rite of baseball season has finally arrived. The sounds of the cheering crowd are only challenged by the crack of the bat and the shrill voices of the beer vendors and hecklers. The smell of cut grass blends ever so slightly with the aromas of mustard-laden hot dogs and roasted peanuts. Yes, baseball season is finally here.

There are a lot of people out there who think watching paint dry is more exciting than being at a baseball game. Yes, there are times while watching a 14-2 blowout in the third inning that I contemplate going to the hardware store, picking up a can of semi-gloss and doing some needed touchup on my room.

It’s exactly at those times, though, that baseball is probably one of the most accurate depictions of what life is really like, and it can teach us all some valuable, albeit simple, lessons.

Hitting a pitched baseball is one of the toughest things to do in all of sports. Statistically, players hit rather poorly. If you can hit safely two out of every 10 times, you’re average. If you hit three out of 10, you’re an all-star. If you hit four out of 10, you’re a legend.

Success comes about as readily for most people. Sure, there are those who will be able to succeed easily in their life endeavors, just as Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams and Tony Gwynn made hitting look easy. For most people though, success comes rarely, and then only after the frequent and bitter taste of defeat. For every Mickey Mantle of the world, there’s a Joe Blow kicking around in the minor leagues hitting only .200.

There are millions of fans out there who follow their teams doggedly throughout the grueling 162 game season. There are some fans who will still be rooting for their teams in October, but most other fans will see their team “mathematically eliminated from playoff contention” well before Labor Day (some are even unlucky enough to cheer for teams that are out of it by Memorial Day — like me). Even those teams who do end up winning the World Series win barely more than 50 percent to 60 percent of their games.

People’s lives are even more grueling than the 162 game baseball season. They have their own 300-plus “game” season, going to class and going to work every day. They also will face many days that are far less perfect than a particular team’s victory.

I don’t want you to think that baseball and its lessons are so depressing. It can be a very exciting game to watch, and it can give us some quite dramatic moments. Those of you who watched Kirk Gibson’s and Joe Carter’s home runs in the World Series, or those who have watched a team come back from a nine-run deficit will agree with that. Cal Ripken’s record-breaking 2,131st game in a row was one of the most exciting moments in baseball history, even more so when he hit a home run during that game. It goes to show that there are those little moments, though rare, that make life special. We all get our home runs from time to time.

The game also tells us that even though we’re going to fail a lot, we still shouldn’t give up fighting and trying to win and succeed. The fans of the Chicago Cubs are the most telling example of that lesson. Long the doormat of the National League and the constant butt of jokes, the Cubs haven’t won a World Series since 1908 and haven’t even played in a Series in 53 years.

The fans don’t care about that; Cub fans have long been the most loyal of any sport, proudly following the team even when they aren’t in contention. There will be that one day, when those years of despair will pay off, and those hapless and pathetic Cubs will finally win the big game. The rest of us should learn never to give up on anything or anyone.

This may all sound very clich‚ to some of you; indeed the sports metaphor is one of the most overused comparisons in life. Call me old-fashioned, I guess.

If you do get the chance, and you’ve never been, go to a baseball game. Even if it’s a Cyclone game or an Iowa Cubs game in Des Moines, just go and take it all in. There’s nothing more peaceful and relaxing than a baseball game on a sunny spring day; and who knows, you just might learn something.

Robert Zeis is a senior in finance from Des Moines.