With my dad’s influence I grew up a baseball fan.  We played catch on the sidewalks.  We played wiffle ball in the front yard.  We listened to games in the car.  We watched games in the living room.  I still have some baseball cards from 1970 the first season I bought my own baseball cards.

The Chicago Cubs were then and still are my favorite team.  My dad had been a Cubs fan and Milwaukee Braves fan growing up.

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.

Jamie Moyer is 49 years old, like me.  Like me Jamie Moyer is the oldest active “player” doing his job at his workplace.

On the other hand, Moyer is a Major Leagues Baseball pitcher.  In fact, his next win will be the oldest victory for a pitcher in MLB history. 1

Moyer and wife Karen live with their eight children in Florida.  There the Moyers promote the nonprofit Moyer Foundation.  Their mission is “to empower children in distress by providing education and support – helping them to live healthy and inspired lives.” 1

“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.”

I love baseball.  Love it!  In fact, I am watching the Ken Burns Baseball series right now.

I have loved baseball since I was seven years old.  I love baseball, and my love includes a sentimental affection.  I even know one of the players I found in the very first pack of baseball cards I ever bought. 1

Scott, the Baseball Player

My parents, and especially my dad, supported my desire to play baseball.  I played a couple of positions, but I primarily played catcher.

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”

I’ve made many mistakes in my life.
Many of them could easily have been avoided.

Fortunately, not one of my mistakes has ended in the headlines.

Headlines

Dallas Morning News reported today that Major League baseball player, “Rangers’ Josh Hamilton has relapse with alcohol at area bar.”  USA Today, Washington Post, Fox Sports, it’s on the news, it’s filling the headlines.

“Someone went to a bar” is hardly news. “Someone had a few drinks” isn’t either.  Unless that someone is, as Jeff Passan described him, the “most famous addict in sports.”  Then, everyone who knows about you knows that that’s a problem.  Josh Hamilton’s story of self-destruction, sobriety, redemption and success have been well-documented including his autobiographical Beyond Belief: Finding the Strength to Come Back.