A Sad - and Magnificent Day for Baseball

A Sad - and Magnificent Day for Baseball

I am not a huge baseball fan.  I never have been, even though my husband and children are fanatic about the sport.  I have always preferred football and basketball – sports that don’t involve so much standing around, scratching and spitting on national television.  None-the-less, this week die-hard baseball fans and casual followers of the game had an opportunity to see High Road thinking played out on the diamond when Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga was denied what should have been only the 21st perfect game in baseball history.  Umpire Jim Joyce blew the critical call at first base, calling the runner safe when he was clearly out. 

The fans were in an uproar.  The Tigers’ manager, Jim Leland stormed the field to protest the call.  His teammates were outraged.  And yet what stands out in that moment of chaos is Galarraga’s response to having his place in the history books yanked out from under him.  With grace, professionalism, a wry smile and remarkable cool he climbed right back up on the mound.  The game was not over yet – he still had to get the final out.  What happens to you in your life is not as important as how you choose to respond to what happens to you in your life.  Galarraga’s response was the ultimate example of the High Road in action.

The astonishing thing is that it didn’t end there.

After the game, Joyce reviewed the play in the clubhouse and came to the conclusion that he had clearly been wrong.  Then… he admitted it – publicly.  To the press he said, “No, I did not get the call correct.  I absolutely missed the call.  I just cost that kid a perfect game.  I thought he beat the throw. I was convinced he beat the throw, until I saw the replay."  He went on to comment about the verbal beating he took from the team and the fans after the next play which ended the game. "I don't blame them a bit for anything that was said," Joyce said. "I would've said it myself.  If I had been Galarraga, I would've been the first person in my face, and he never said a word to me."  Joyce then asked to see Galarraga in the locker room and apologized to him.

Speaking to the Venezuelan press later, the pitcher showed only empathy for the umpire. "He really feel bad. He probably feel more bad than me.  Nobody's perfect, everybody's human. I understand. I give a lot of credit to the guy saying, 'Hey, I need to talk to you because I really say I'm sorry.' That don't happen. You don't see an umpire after the game say 'I'm sorry.[sic]'"

During the post-game press conferences, Jim Leland showed his High Road mentality saying, “This is, without question, one of the best umpires in the game.  I think how Jim Joyce handled it was key.  The guy was a shambles.  My heart goes out to him.  Obviously, it was a mistake.  It was a perfect game.  It's a shame for both of them – but I'm telling you he is the best baseball has, and a great guy.  It's just a shame.”

A day later the series between the two teams continued and the Detroit Tiger fans stepped up to join Galarraga, Joyce and Leland on the High Road.  Whereas it might have been expected for the fans to boo and razz the umpire as he was introduced for the final game against the Indians, they showed the better side of baseball fandom and gave Joyce a standing ovation for having admitted that he was wrong.

Galarraga was the one assigned to bring the batting line-up out to the umpire and the two had a very private moment that America was given the opportunity to watch – one that brought the veteran umpire to tears.  “I can not believe the outpouring of support I’ve gotten,” he said.  “This is probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to go through in my professional career – without a doubt.” 

In the midst of so much bad behavior and so few role models in professional sports these days, it is profoundly refreshing to see such sportsmanship exhibited by all parties involved in this unfortunate mishap. 

It is almost enough to make me watch baseball on a regular basis…almost.

What can we learn from the Amazing Race?

I am an addict – I admit it.  I am addicted to the television show The Amazing Race.  I am not a big fan of most reality shows, but I LOVE The Amazing Race.  I love seeing the different locations they travel to and the tasks teams are required to perform to get the next clue.  The “detours” and “roadblocks” are never degrading and usually tied into the culture of the country or city they are in.  I find it entertaining and educational simultaneously.  As I have watched this show over the last 11 seasons (I didn’t discover it until season 5), I have noticed certain characteristics that separate successful teams from those that fall early in the competition.  Furthermore, I believe these same characteristics are essential in our daily lives.  These are the lessons I have learned from watching The Amazing Race:

Respectful communication is critical – The ability to communicate effectively and respectfully with their partner and others is perhaps the most important characteristic of successful Race teams.  Every season there are a few teams that lack this essential element.  Under the stress of the race (which can be extreme) these teams often spiral into petty bickering (at best) or (at worst) name calling and screaming.  Forward progress usually stops until the bickering and name calling subsides.  Furthermore, teams that snipe at other teams often earn a target on their back which can have calamitous results.  Those teams that choose to communicate respectfully are able to avoid such delays and U-turns, and often end up in the top three, running for a million dollars. 

Maintain emotional control – If you are not in emotional control, you are completely ineffective.  Every season there are some classic emotional meltdowns.  Again, any forward progress stops until the contestant can “pull it together” and focus back on task.  This evening’s episode is a prime example.  While teams were assembling a very large, 96-piece puzzle in Shanghai, China, the wind kicked up and blew puzzle pieces everywhere.  While the model-team’s Brent stormed and fumed about how he had almost completed the puzzle before the wind messed it up – the cowboy-team’s, Cord went to work anchoring the remaining pieces down with folding chairs.  In the “confessional” shot that aired at that moment he said, “Throwing a fit and kicking and screaming wasn’t gonna get my puzzle done.”  That calm demeanor has served this cowboy team very well, as they have arrived first at the pit-stop more than any other team this season – even going from last place to first, which was the only time that has happened thus far in race history.

Pay attention to detail – Every season there are turning points when, in their haste, a team has missed an important part of their clue or instruction.  Maybe they took a taxi to the pit-stop when the clue said to take the bus; or having completed the detour or road-block they have grabbed their clue and ran, forgetting their back-packs and their passports.  Each time one of these teams misses an instruction they are assessed a time penalty that must be waited out before they can be checked in at the pit-stop.  Many times this results in the team being eliminated.  The aforementioned cowboy-team’s last place finish in leg 7 of this season happened for that reason  They missed a key part of the clue and had to go back to complete the task before being checked in.  Luckily for them it was a non-elimination round. The old adage of “haste makes waste” is viable here. Teams that take the time to fully read the clue over to make sure they understand all facets of the instructions do not end up with time penalties.

Maintain a positive attitude and never quit – Rarely do teams know exactly where they stand in relation to other teams during any particular leg of the race.  Even if a team believes they are in last place at the time, there could very possibly be extenuating circumstances are “great equalizers” that they are not aware of.  Therefore being willing to stick-to-it with a positive attitude is essential.  Last season one of the strongest teams was the Harlem Globetrotter team of “Flight Time” and “Big Easy.”  They were fan favorites until one of the last episodes when they made a decision to give up on a roadblock and not complete the task.  This caused them to incur a 4 hour penalty and subsequently be eliminated from the race.  Many times teams have worked long hours to complete a task and been retrieved from the field by the host, Phil Koeghan.  The fact that they did not give up on the task until it was obvious that they were last, and therefore eliminated is admirable.  Just as often teams have run to the finish line, certain that they are the last to arrive, to find out that there are other teams still behind them.  The only certain way to lose the race is to quit.

Keep it all in perspective – Every season has several tasks or moments that my family refers to as “great equalizers.”  Perhaps, regardless of when they leave the pit-stop (the first team to arrive is the first team to leave and therefore has a time advantage), all teams end up on the same flight to their new destination.  This makes it a brand new race when the plane lands.  Maybe the clue is located inside a museum that doesn’t open until 10:00 a.m.  That means that whether teams arrive at the museum at midnight or 9:58 a.m. they all have to wait until the museum opens and again it is a brand new race.  Great equalizers might be tasks that, for whatever reason, are incredibly difficult for the first place team, but the last place team breezes through it and catapults themselves into first.  Sometimes the strongest teams have fallen to a great equalizer and there is nothing that can be done about it.  As each team falls, they lose a chance to race on the final leg for a million dollars.  None-the-less, they got a chance to travel the world and experience things that some of us only dream about – things that perhaps they would never have had an opportunity to experience.  That is a blessing in itself.   It is important to keep all things in perspective.


High Road Challenge for the Week: Our daily lives are not as adrenaline packed as the 12-15 days the teams experience on The Amazing Race.  Still, these characteristics are just as critical to our daily success as they are to the Amazing Race teams.  My challenge to you this week is to communicate respectfully, maintain emotional control, pay attention to detail, maintain a positive attitude, never quit and keep it all in perspective.

There are Three Sides to Every Story

Because of my speaking business, I travel a great deal.  Sometimes it is pleasant and exciting, sometimes it is not.  I have learned over the years to go with the flow and not get too stressed about any “travel hiccups” that may occur.  My traveling actually gives me an incredible opportunity to watch people.

This past week I observed a situation that brought to mind my belief that there are three sides to every story: yours, mine and the truth.  While waiting to board a plane in Philadelphia I struck up a conversation with a man whose flight itinerary was identical to mine.  We were both heading home to Kansas City, through Cleveland.  We exchanged the pleasantries of what we each do for a living and surface level discussions of our favorite (or least favorite) sports teams.  He boarded the plane before I did as I was seated in the very first row.

Once in Cleveland we ended up in step with each other again, heading for our connecting gate and he was eager to get my opinion of the flight attendant on the previous flight.

“Boy, that gal sure could have used some of your communication training, eh?”

I thought I knew what he probably meant, but I wanted to be sure.  “How so?”

“Well she sure wouldn’t get a tip in a restaurant.  In fact, she was a down right (expletive deleted).”

Now, this gal was not in anyway soft and cuddly to begin with.  She had a heavy Brooklyn accent and her speech patterns were fast and clipped.  Being farther back on the plane, though, he did not have the benefit of the knowledge I had. 

Sitting as I was in the very first row, I overheard a telephone conversation the flight attendant had just before closing the cabin door.  Her 16 year old son had called her – it appeared that this was his first faux pas.  The conversation went downhill from there.  He apparently had taken their only car to run an errand that day and something had happened to it.  I am not clear on those details.  The point of the conversation though was that this young man had called a friend to pick him up and left the car on the side of the road from where it was apparently towed.  He had gone back with his friend to retrieve something from the vehicle and it was no longer there.  He had no idea where the car was at that point.

The flight attendant was beside herself.  “Do you have any IDEA what towing in the city costs?  I don’t have that kind of money and neither do you.”  She expressed to him, quite forcefully, that he had better find out where the car had been towed and what it was going to take to get the car back.  She would call him when we landed in Cleveland and he had better have some answers by then.  We commiserated a bit, she and I, about how our kids “just don’t get it” and about how tight finances are for all of us.

I shared this information with the man as we walked to our connecting gate.  I said, “Can you imagine having to focus on taking care of us, while worrying about how much the towing and citation is going to cost her?  I think that may have something to do with her clipped tone.”

“Wow,” he said, “I had no idea.  I’d kill the kid.”  (I’m sure he wasn’t serious.)  “I sure hope it doesn’t cost her an arm and a leg.”

Suddenly the man had empathy for the flight attendant, rather than being so quick to label her derogatorily.

There is an old Hopi adage that my mother used to share with me: “One can’t truly know a man until he has walked a mile in that man’s moccasins.”  My spontaneous traveling partner for the trip simply needed to step into the flight attendant’s shoes for a moment to be able to forgive her seemingly poor customer service.

Several of the blogs I subscribe to have recently been bemoaning poor customer service.  Without a doubt, customer service is important.  I would be eager to share with my colleagues (and indeed have to two of them) that the cause of that customer service may be deeper than a perceived lack of work ethic.  Perhaps walking a mile in their shoes would reveal that.

There are three sides to every story.  The man’s side: he received service on the flight that was surly at best.  The flight attendant’s side: she was totally overwhelmed by the thought of the impending expense and her son’s incredible lack of responsibility.  The truth of the matter during that flight lays somewhere between these two realities.

High Road Challenge for the Day:  The next time you receive poor customer service, ask yourself the question, “What might have happened just before I arrived, that would cause this poor service?”  It may need to be a hypothetical question.  If convenient and appropriate, you might ask, in a respectful manner.  “You know, the service I received today is not up to the standard that I have come to expect from you (this establishment).  Tell me, is there something distracting you today?”  Endeavor to walk a mile in their shoes so you can see the other two sides of the story.

Brett Favre - Leadership Stumble

Now that a week has passed since the Minnesota Vikings lost the NFC championship game to the New Orleans Saints, all the foot stomping, grumble-muttering and door-slamming has dissipated at my house.  I look back on that game and I realize that it was an amazing example of leadership that stumbled. 

There is no question that Brett Favre (not only one of my favorite arms of all time) is one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game.  That having been said, it was a fundamental hiccup in Favre’s leadership that lost that game.  Now, hear me out.  I understand that there were irritating fumbles (the football seemed to be greased on critical Vikings’ possessions in the last quarter).  I’ve heard whining about the officiating in the last quarter and in overtime.  I understand that the offensive line should have taken better care of their star quarterback and not let him take such a beating. I also understand that the New Orleans Saints are one heck of a great football team this year and deserved to go to the big bowl just as much as the Vikings did. 

Putting all that aside, leadership involves making the right decisions for the team – every time.  With seconds left to play, all Favre had to do was run through the gaping hole that had been plowed open for him to gain an additional five to eight yards and then give Longwell the opportunity to win the game for them with a field goal.  Instead he chose to pass across his blind side, a maneuver that not only turns out badly traditionally for all quarterbacks, but more often turns out badly for Favre.  Yes, I’ve heard that he didn’t want to win the game on a field goal -  he wanted one more chance to put it into the end zone.  It was a split second decision – a split second decision that ended the season for his entire team.   Leadership-wise, it was a poor choice that ultimately let the team down.

Sometimes being a leader involves doing what needs to be done to allow your team to shine.  Sometimes it means taking the simple over the eloquent.  With all his amazing accomplishments already this season, Favre could have given Longwell that spotlight moment to kick a field goal and win the game sending the team to the Superbowl.  That would have been the right leadership choice.

All great leaders stumble.  Dr. John C. Maxwell calls it “failing forward to success.”  Fortunately for the rest of us, our leadership stumbles are not broadcast on national television for the entire nation to pick apart and discuss ad-nauseum.  Unfortunately for Favre, this was a nationally broadcast stumble that he will have to live with for the rest of his life, whether he returns to the game or not.

Leadership involves always putting the best interests of the team primary in all decision making.