Balancing Act

I just returned home from playing baseball in the MSBL World Series Tournament in Phoenix. And for the first time ever, I wasn’t just a player, I was actually the manager of the team as well. Wow… did that ever change my perspective on the game!

I’ve played in two previous World Series Tournaments and done fairly well but being a team manager requires a whole different skill set than being a player and it’s definitely a balancing act. All game long, a manager has to take three different sets of criteria into account.

1.       Physical – What are the current physical skills of each player and how are they holding up?

2.       Mental – What is the best position for each player in order to produce maximum results?

3.       Emotional – What can I do to keep each player feeling positive about their place on the team?

So, since this was a brand-new 19 player team, it took me two full games before I could accurately judge the skills of each player and unfortunately by that time we had lost both games. By the third game, we were starting to gel as a team. Unfortunately, we faced one of the top ranked teams in the league and although it was a close game, we lost that game as well. The next day we were scheduled to play a double-header and with a record of 0-3 and several players unhappy because they were on the bench most of game 3, the morale of the team was pretty low. One more loss meant we would not make the play-offs, so that forced me to make a tough decision. Do I play only the best 9 players in order to increase our odds of winning? Or do I play everybody to show respect to my players and hopefully boost morale as well?

As I ran that question through my head, I remembered something I heard from one of the top guys in my league back home before I left for the World Series. He told a friend of mine, “Thrailkill doesn’t know how to manage to win. He’ll be a loser as a manager.” That criticism didn’t bother me because the guy who said it is a “win at all costs” type of manager. But when I remembered his criticism, it did force me to think about my decision. How badly do I want to win, and am I willing to throw guys under the bus (or in this case under the bench) in order to do it?

As I looked around at all my players in the dugout, the decision became perfectly clear… Win or lose, we’re going to do it as a team. By the end of the day, after using all 19 players, we now had 2 wins and I have to say our morale was pretty damn high. Granted, we still had one more game to win to secure a spot in the playoffs, but our confidence was soaring.

In the final game of the round robin play, we faced a team that had a better record and that looked really impressive during warm ups. This was a must win situation, so the question about who to play came up once again. I decided to speak to everyone on my team and let them know that we had to field our strongest players, but that I would do my best to get other players into the game as well. I think they all understood the situation and appreciated my honest communication.

At first things looked really promising. We jumped out to a 7-1 lead, but by the 7^th inning, things started to fall apart. The other team kept pounding ground balls at us and my third baseman kept making errors. My assistant coach suggested I pull him, and I fully intended to do that as soon as the inning was over, but I couldn’t pull him out in the middle of an inning. It’s one of those unwritten rules that you just don’t do that to a ballplayer. Then he made a fourth error and my heart sunk for him. I’ve been in his shoes and it’s a terrible feeling, but eventually we got out of that inning. The bottom line is that you don’t lose a game based on the performance of any one player… and you don’t win a game based on any one player.

Even though we put out a very strong effort, we ended up losing that game and failed to make the play offs. So that league guy back home could easily gloat that he was right, “Thrailkill is a loser!” But in my opinion, none of the guys on my team went home feeling like a loser. They played hard, showed a lot of respect for each other, and won two games against veteran teams that were ranked much higher than us. In our team meeting after the final game, there wasn’t a single person moaning or complaining, just a bunch of guys shaking hands and sharing hugs after a hard-fought battle that included 6 tough games over 4 hot days in the Phoenix suburbs.  

I guess you could say my new perspective is that you don’t have to win a ring… to feel like a winner!

Respect your fellow human beings, treat them fairly, disagree with them honestly, 

enjoy their friendship, and work together with them for a common goal. 

You won’t believe what you can achieve… together.

~ Bill Bradley