It’s that time again. Baseball is in the air! MLB Opening is an unofficial American holiday. Who’s excited?
I’ll confess, I haven’t been a baseball fan for that long. It’s only been a recent passion of mine. I didn’t really get into baseball until my son was born. And it seemed like he was born with a ball & glove in hand. Early on, he got one of those Fisher Price t-ball sets & from the time he could stand he was in the back yard hitting the ball off that tee.
His love for baseball led us right down the path of T-ball & Little League. And this Saturday he has his first game playing for the Texas Rangers!
Somewhere along the way I got involved in coaching. First as an assistant, then as head coach. This season I’m back to my assistant coaching role. And as a coach you learn a lot about these young players. My desire as a coach was to always coach in such a way that the boys loved the game more after the season than they did before. If they wanted to play again next season, I considered that a win. I wanted them to learn to play the game & their position better. And I wanted them to learn to play the game like a champion, with respect & character. Mot of all, I wanted them to have fun!
I’ll always be grateful for a good friend who introduced me to this book — The Matheny Manifesto by Mike Matheny, the manager for the St. Louis Cardinals. Even if you’re not a cardinals fans, there’s a lot of wisdom here — especially for parents of kids who are playing youth sports. I highly encourage every parent of a kid who plays baseball or any other sport to give it a read.
Here’s a few of my favorite quotes from The Matheny Manifesto:
1. “Our role as coaches is not just to build up the scoreboard but also to build up our players so that they become character-filled leaders who will have an impact on those around them.”
2. “… a transactional coach will do or say to his team whatever it takes to win. A transformational coach is one more interested in growing his players beyond their performance.” – Joe Ehrmann
3. “What separates the great players from the others is not just that they fail less frequently but how they handle it when they do. They see their shortfalls, figure out ways to fix them, and jump right back into the fight.”
4. “Parents on our first Wolverines team often asked me what they should do to help their child improve. I think they were eager for me to tell them where to take their son for pitching lessons or hitting lessons or strength training. My response usually surprised them, and I know it challenged them. I suggested they play catch with their child, hit him grounders and pop flies— just as my dad did with me. To develop skills, the younger player needs repetition. For life in general, he needs time with his parents. It’s a win-win.”
5. “(John) Wooden believed true success ought to be tied not to achievement, wealth, or fame but to how close a person came to their potential. He wanted his students to see success not in terms of results but in terms of effort.”
6. “Success is never final. Failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts.” – John Wooden
7. “Be very careful what you say to kids.”
8. “The right thing is seldom the easy thing.” – Derek Glanvill
9. “Bob Humphreys, the first director of player development I ever played under, liked to remind us, “Boys, it takes years to build a good reputation and one second to lose it.”
10. “I was raised in a Christian home, but an old saying puts that in perspective: being born in a Christian family doesn’t make you a Christian, any more than being born in a garage makes you a car.”
11. “Young people show signs of maturity when they begin to consider what they would like to be remembered for.”
12. “As Abraham Lincoln said, “Reputation is the shadow. Character is the tree.”
13. “The reality is that a lack of character in the stands tears teams apart and confuses the kids.”
14. “I’m a big believer in the idea that we learn more from hardship and failure than we do from success, which is a key aspect in developing character as well.”
15. “…character is forged not on the mountaintop but in the valley.”
[Tweet “Character is forged not on the mountaintop but in the valley. #mathenymanifesto #baseball”]Whether you’re a fan of the game, a parent of a little league player, a player yourself, a coach, or the team mom… I hope you have a great baseball season!
Play Ball!
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