In major league baseball the unwritten rules are known as “the code.”  Yesterday I reviewed the book The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America’s Pastime by Jason Turbow and Michael Duca.

In baseball, as in life, there are the written rules and the unwritten rules, but baseball is a piece of cake compared to “the code” we try to decode when we’re in relationships.

Code – “It’s not working out…”

She seemed so sweet.  We’d text one another all day, every day.  Now nothing.  I guess I didn’t make her happy.

In baseball, as in life, there are the written rules and the unwritten rules.  In major league baseball the unwritten rules are known as “the code.”

While I’d heard of “the code,” it’s even more complicated than I realized.

This week I finished reading The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America’s Pastime by Jason Turbow and Michael Duca.

As a lifelong baseball fan I found it valuable to understand how the game of baseball is actually played by major league players.

I live in Minnesota and recently a local baseball player, Scott Baker, required arm surgery.

Baker, according to TwinCities.com, “was scheduled for surgery to clean scar tissue off a flexor tendon, a procedure that would have required about six months of rehabilitation. Instead, he will miss at least 12 months.”

I love mysteries.  I love pondering mysteries.  I love trying to solve mysteries.  I wonder:

Why did two MRI exams failed to detect a tear in Baker’s ligament?
What causes baseball pitchers to have such a high rate of elbow injuries?  

Jim Thome signed with the MLB’s Philadelphia Phillies this off season.  I felt sad.  When he played with my local team, the Minnesota Twins, he was my favorite player.

Why?  Let me explain.

When Thome signed with the Twins before the 2010 season, the phone of (then) Twins general manager Bill Smith rang.

Smith recalled, “I got a call from someone with Philadelphia, telling me what a great guy we were getting…And then I got calls from the White Sox. And the Dodgers, even though he hadn’t been there a long time. And from Cleveland. They’d all say the same thing, about what a good guy he is.” 1

As Major League Baseball’s Spring Training ended each team made decisions about problem players.  They asked and answered:
“Do his assets exceed the sum total of his deficits?” 
“Do his strengths outweigh his weaknesses?” 

Your workplace has the same challenges.  Building a team of competent employees is a challenge.

You can’t change someone’s personality, but you can implement strategies to help them perform professionally and more competently while on the job.

Most Common Types Of Problem People And Strategies To Help Them Succeed: 1

The non-communicative person.
Ask open questions that force her to explain what she thinks.

“Of all the four-letter words that are taboo, nothing damages the reputation of an athlete like the word quit.” 1

Mike Schmidt

I am a life-long Chicago Cubs fan.

Throughout his career Philadelphia Phillies third baseman Mike Schmidt was called a “Cubbie Killer” because of his success against the Cubs.

So when Mike Schmidt retired abruptly a few years ago many Cubs fans felt relief. I felt sad.  He was a great adversary.

Injuries to Schmidt’s rotator cuff added to his collection of aches and pains. Then after a poor start to the season, Schmidt suddenly chose to announce his retirement.

As the MLB season begins, so does this series on priorities entitled “Winning Runs.”

Steve Garvey is a hall of fame baseball player. And, it seemed in many people’s eyes he was a hall of fame person. “He believed in doing the Right Thing. His parents smoked, but he never did. His teammates swore, but he never did.”

Rick Reilly explained in an article entitled, America’s Sweetheart that “For most of his nearly 41 years Garvey lived at the corner of Straight and Narrow.”

Then everything changed. Garvey explained, “Some people have a mid-life crisis,” he says. “I had a midlife disaster.”

Kobe Bryant is one of the best basketball players to ever play the game.  On the other hand, according to a recent ESPN article by Henry Abbott, Bryant’s fear of failure blinds him from experiencing even greater success.

After missing 22 shots in a New Year’s Day loss to Denver, Bryant scoffed at reporters who hinted that he should have passed the ball to teammates: “If you’re asking me if I’m going to shoot less,” he said, “the answer is no. It starts with me. I do what I do. We play off of that, and that’s not going to change.”

Each morning just before the dawn surfers wake up, grab their gear, paddle out and head out into the surf. There they look, listen, feel, notice, observe, calculate, analyze and determine based on all those factors what the surf will be like that day.

Water is a mighty force. The waves on the North Shore are among the mightiest. It’s important to acknowledge their power.

To fear the Lord means to acknowledge God’s great power, God’s complete authority over us, and all of creation, and God’s terrible hatred of the pollution of sin.

Pecky’s. I can barely remember that name, Pecky’s.

I googled it. In the gazillion possible places that google.com could find something it could only find two references to “Pecky’s” & “Schiller Park”, both on Facebook.

One was by a guy I graduated high school with. Having felt grateful that Paul Z kept the legacy of Pecky’s alive, I wrote him a thank you note.

Pecky’s & A “Player’s Coach”