@Jimfrombaseball
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Coach, Mentor, Motivator, Teacher. Master Coach, USA Baseball, SportAus, UK Coaching, Stanford Med, FSU Med School, BSAC Fellow, Proudly Nick`s Dad.
St. Catharines, Ontario
Joined May 2016
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Jim Koenigsberger retweeted
So, did the statuesque Ms. Newmar go her entire life to date with zero understanding of the MAIN thing we men want?
(Amazingly, she's 93 now!)
Unquestionable truth!!!!
Over 2,500 games from the dugout. 50+ years in baseball. 17 as an MLB manager.
I won Manager of the Year and also lost more games than I want to count.
I led teams through losing seasons and took a team to the World Series.
If I could go back to my first day as a leader, here are the 5 lessons I'd whisper in my own ear:
Lesson 1: Be a window when it's good, a mirror when it's bad.
The leaders I respected most shared every win and absorbed every hit.
What this looks like in practice:
• Wins: name the people who made it happen
• Losses: say "that's on me" before anyone asks
• Locker room: spotlight the effort before the outcome
Your team will fight harder for a leader who deflects credit and absorbs blame.
Lesson 2: Nobody hands you trust. You earn it before you coach it.
Early in my career, plenty of coaches tried to fix my swing.
I tuned out every one I didn't trust.
Get to know your people before you try to develop them.
Their hobbies, their family, what makes them tick.
Then the coaching lands.
Lesson 3: Shower well after every loss.
After a losing streak in Colorado, our team president asked me how I kept the clubhouse together.
This was my rule:
• Self-evaluate honestly, were we prepared, did we execute?
• Shower well, wash off the grit, grime, and angst before you walk out
• Be present for whoever you're going home to
Tomorrow is a new opportunity. Don't drag yesterday into it.
Lesson 4: Lead transformationally, not transactionally.
Transactional leaders ask: what can this person do for me?
Transformational leaders ask: how do I put this person in a position to win?
The first builds compliance.
The second builds careers.
When your people start chasing growth instead of your approval, you've crossed over.
Lesson 5: Stay humble before life humbles you.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those who are humble, and those who are about to be.
Discipline keeps you in the first group:
Skill gets you in the room. Humility keeps you there.
50 years taught me leadership isn't about you.
It's about the people you serve.
@rockies
"I had dinner with Mickey Mantle one night.
It was in January in New York, and it was really cold.
We were walking back to the Regency Hotel, where we both were staying, and I had noticed that Mickey had asked for a doggie bag for his dinner in the restaurant;
Which was sort of strange.
Anyway, Mickey asks me to take a walk with him.
Now this wasn't the kind of night where you wanted to take a stroll, but I went along, over to Madison Avenue, where he knew this homeless guy who was in a cardboard box.
Mickey Mantle knocks on the cardboard and suddenly this guy pops up his head.
He looks frightened--and frightening--not knowing who's there, and suddenly when he sees us, the guy's face softens.
He says:
"Oh, hi, Mick."
And Mantle hands him his dinner.
It was clear to me he had done this many times before.
Did it mean that Mickey Mantle was the greatest humanitarian in the world?
No, just that that was part of him, just as an hour later he could have been drunk in a bar and told some very nice autograph seeker to go f*** himself."
Bob Costas.
"He inspired awe without envy.....
Except perhaps for what he got away with."
"The Last Boy"
Jane Leavy.
"When you're talking about Brooks Robinson you are not only talking about one of the best third baseman that ever played the game of baseball, but about the man whose life came as close as possible to that of that man from Galilee.
Not only was he loved in Baltimore for his feats on the field, but he is loved for his affection towards the fans and the numerous contributions he made for the community.
A true HOF`er on the field and off."
Earl Weaver.
"Maybe I could fix you up with Robin....
Never mind, he’s too young.
At that age, all they’re interested in is baseball."
Catwoman (Julie Newmar) to Eenie (Sharyn Wynters).
Batman.
"The Cat’s Meow." 1966.
"The whole Yankee fandom, the whole Yankee organization, the whole country wanted Mickey Mantle to break Babe Ruth’s record, and said:
"Who the hell is this guy Roger Maris standing in his way?
Unlike the "lovable" Mantle, Roger Maris knew intuitively that he was never going to be accepted as one of the historic Yankees figures.
As for the team, Mickey bought them dinner, bought them drinks, gave them the goodies, and they wanted to experience the reflected glory Mantle brought.
Maris once said:
"Even the Yankee clubhouse attendants think I’m tough to live with."
Maury Allen.
"In a way, it was weird.
They sometimes booed Roger Maris for hitting a home run.
Mick actually tried to help him with the press and the public."
“A Hero All His Life”
Merlyn Mantle, Mickey`s wife.
Roger Maris played in seven World Series, more than anyone in the 1960`s decade, competing in five consecutive World Series with the Yankees from 1960 to 1964, and two with the Cardinals in 1967 and 1968.
He was on the winning team three times.
In my HOF!!!
"Pan American Airways’ new Boeing 377 Stratocruiser was just beginning its descent into Tokyo on February 1, 1954, when a high-ranking U.S. Army officer approached the plane’s most celebrated passengers:
Joe DiMaggio, the New York Yankees legend, and Marilyn Monroe, the famous Hollywood star and sex symbol, whom DiMaggio had married just weeks earlier. Major General Charles W. Christenberry, the assistant chief of staff at the army’s Far East Command, leaned over their seats to ask a question.
"How would you like to visit Korea for a few days and entertain the American troops currently stationed in Seoul as part of the UN occupation force?"
"I’d like to," DiMaggio replied.
"But I don’t think I’ll have time this trip."
"I wasn’t asking you, Mr. DiMaggio," the General said.
"My inquiry was directed at your wife."
Marilyn Monroe, a bit startled, looked up.
"I’d love to do it," she told Christenberry.
"What do you think, Joe?"
"Go ahead if you want,"
DiMaggio told Monroe.
"It’s your honeymoon."
Lefty O'Doul would say years later, that trip marked the first time Joe DiMaggio realized what a big star his wife had become, how she put DiMaggio in the shade, and that's when he turned surly.
In February 1954, Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio were newlyweds, on a trip in Japan, when the bride took a detour to Korea to entertain the troops.
Monroe performed ten shows in four days, in front of audiences that totalled more than 100,000 soldiers and marines.
Later Monroe recalled that the trip:
"Was the best thing that ever happened to me.
I never felt like a star before in my heart.
It was so wonderful to look down and see a fellow smiling at me."
"Now, all I can do is tell you what I wish for you.
May God give you;
For every storm, a rainbow;
For every tear, a smile;
For every care, a promise and a blessing in each trial.
For every problem life seems, a faithful friend to share;
For every sigh, a sweet song, and an answer for each prayer."
Vin Scully.
"A man so fiercely modest and private that while at the University of Cincinnati on a basketball scholarship, he didn't tell his parents back in Brooklyn that he was also on the baseball team.
The man whose mother requested one of the first copies of his 1966 autobiography, "Koufax", so she could find out something about her son.
"You never told me anything," she said to him.
The man who in 1968, two years after retiring with three Cy Young Awards, four no-hitters and five ERA titles, mentioned nothing of his baseball career upon meeting a pretty young woman named Anne who was redecorating her parents' Malibu beach house.
Koufax did offer to help her paint, though. It wasn't until several days later that she learned his identity;
And he learned hers:
She was the daughter of actor Richard Widmark.
They were married six months later in her father's West Los Angeles home in front of about a dozen people.
His elbow was shot full of cortisone several times a season.
His stomach was always queasy from the cocktail of anti-inflammatories he swallowed before and after games, which he once said made him:
"Half-high on the mound."
He soaked his elbow in an ice bath for 30 minutes after each game, his arm encased in an inner tube to protect against frostbite.
And even then his arm would swell an inch.
He couldn't go on like this, not when his doctors could not rule out the possibility that he was risking permanent damage to his arm."
Tom Verducci.
"The Naugatuck Nugget."
Missed 3 years serving in WWII, was among the thousands who went ashore in Normandy.
He was carrying two cans of gasoline when a sniper’s bullet hit one of the canisters.
Scorched virtually from head to toe, recovered, and was in a Army hospital for months.
"No Purple Heart, though, because it wasn’t enemy action. I always wondered, though, if they called it friendly action."
Frank "Spec" Shea.
The telephone rang in the Shea household one day, and Spec asked his daughter to answer it.
"May I ask who’s calling, please," said Barbara Shea, then nineteen years old.
"It was Robert Redford.
I think he said, "Bob Redford."
Indeed, Robert Redford was preparing for the role of Roy Hobbs in the acclaimed 1984 film, "The Natural", and he asked Spec Shea to teach him how to pitch and hit 1930's style.
"I don’t want to embarrass myself,"
Redford told the retired pitcher.
Shea taught Redford how to pitch in an old-time style.
"People were walking by Breen Field in Naugatuck, saying:
"Is that Robert Redford?"
Frank "Spec" Shea.
Game 1, 1947 World Series.
Who is that young catcher, playing his first World Series game for the Yankees??
"Babe Ruth could have lived to be 150 and could have tottered into Yankee Stadium or down a street in any city or hamlet in the country on age-tortured legs, and there always would have been quick glances, the gleam of recognition and whispered words, relayed as a smoke signal:
"Babe Ruth – Babe Ruth – Babe Ruth.
The 'Bambino' was that kind of a guy:
Unique, picturesque in his misshapen bulk and vast expanse of swarthy countenance, utterly unforgettable.
He was more than a man.
He was a symbol.
Baseball players might come and baseball players might go.
But, regardless of their achievements, none ever could supplant Ruth in the public mind as the personification of everything that was great and spectacular in the game.
Truly a veritable Paul Bunyan character in performance and with a physique to match, Ruth had that indefinable something called color.
Other players might be huge, others might hit even more home runs during a season.
But the "Bambino" had that inborn instinct to make every deed and move exciting." "Word Picture of Babe Ruth."
Whitney Martin, 1947.
Babe Ruth makes his final appearance at Yankee Stadium as the franchise retires his number, just two months before his death.
"Ten-Man Team Rule."
"Pitchers are absolutely useless as batters nowadays.
The average pitcher not only is helpless at bat, but when they happen to get to base they are not inclined to run.
They want to conserve their energy for pitching purposes.
The change will liven up the game and put more initiative in it."
National League President John Heydler proposed the Designated Hitter at the Winter Meetings in 1928.
Was originally referred to as, "Ten-Man Team Rule."
His motivations seem clear.
Capture some of the excitement the homer-happy American League with the Babe Ruth.
"Putting lights in Wrigley Field is like putting aluminum siding on the Sistine Chapel."
Roger Simon.
"Wrigley Field"
Art by Graig Kreindler.
"I wanted to finish my career with one team, one city, one park, one owner.
I did that.
We played all of our home games at Wrigley Field during the daytime.
So my career was very unique, and I am proud of it."
Ernie Banks.
"Wrigley Field, Chicago"
Art by Franklin McMahon.
"It is played everywhere.
In parks, playgrounds and prison yards.
In back alleys and farmers' fields.
By small children and old men.
Raw amateurs and millionaire professionals.
It is a leisurely game that demands blinding speed.
The only game in which the defence has the ball.
It follows the seasons, beginning each year with the fond expectancy of springtime, ending with the hard facts of autumn.
Americans have played baseball for more than 200 years.
While they conquered a continent, warred with one another and with enemies abroad, struggled over labor and civil rights, and the meaning of freedom.
It is a haunted game, in which every player is measured against the ghosts of all who have gone before.
Most of all, it is about time and timelessness.
Speed and grace.
Failure and loss.
Imperishable hope.
And coming home."
"Baseball"
Ken Burns.
"Coming Home"
James Daly.
Jim Koenigsberger retweeted
I’ve been asked a handful of times the sporting event I most regret not seeing in person or on TV, whether it was a matter of simply missing it or it was before my time. My answer comes back real quick, in four words: Harvey Haddix, Hard Luck. #Pirates #MLB
"My main aim was to win.
I was more tired than nervous.
All I know is that we lost.
What's so historic about that?
Didn't anyone else ever lose a thirteen inning shutout?
Not a day goes by that somebody doesn’t ask me about that game.
I think I got more notoriety from it because I lost."
Harvey “The Kitten” Haddix.
"I called Harvey that night in the visiting clubhouse.
I told him:
"I realize I got what I wanted, a win, but I'd really give it up because you pitched the greatest game that's ever been pitched in the history of baseball.
It was a damned shame you had to lose."
Lew Burdette.
Most famous in baseball history for the game he pitched for the Pirates against the Milwaukee Braves on May 29, 1959.
In that game he threw 12 perfect no-hit, no walk, no run innings, only to lose the game in the 13th inning.
Haddix retired 36 consecutive batters in 12 innings.
Considered by many to be the best pitching performance in MLB history.
First pitcher in MLB history to take a perfect game beyond nine innings.
Braves lead-off batter Felix Mantilla reached on a throwing error by Pirates 3B Don Hoak, Eddie Mathews sacrificed Mantilla to 2nd, Hank Aaron was walked intentionally and Joe Adcock hit a 3-run home run.
Joe Adcock, however, passed Aaron on the bases and was only credited with a 1-run double.
The Braves were stealing signs from catcher Smokey Burgess.
Haddix was told later that the Brewers had stolen the Pirates' signs and were tipping off their hitters from the bullpen.
All of Milwaukee's hitters except for Hank Aaron, who refused to look for the bullpen's signals, knew what was coming and still couldn't hit it.
Gil Carter had been scouted and signed by the legendary Buck O'Neil!!!
Jim Koenigsberger retweeted
I have always thought Vada was HOF caliber..
You had:
Mays
Mantle
Flood
F. Alou
Agee
M. Alou
Gonzalez
W. Davis
Cedeno
Pinson fits where?
As Mays and Mantle were ending their careers. I think he belongs top 3 until 66?
Then maybe #1..Him or Flood
If Russell could only hit..
Vada Pinson, a graduate of Oakland's McClymonds High School along with Frank Robinson, Curt Flood and Bill Russell, and was so quiet in his first Spring Training, that coach Jimmy Dykes believed he was Hispanic.
Jimmy Dykes spoke to him in gestures and broken English until Pinson finally said:
"Mr. Dykes, if there is something you want me to do with my stance, please tell just me."
"I finally made a close friend in baseball when Vada Pinson joined the Reds in 1959.
We were always together, Vada and I.
We roomed together, lockered and dressed side by side.
We usually ate breakfast and dinner together.
I had never been very close to anyone before, and it felt good."
Frank Robinson.
Vada Pinson had 2,757 hits, 485 doubles, 127 triples, 256 HR, 1,169 RBI, 305 stolen bases.
Four 200-plus hit seasons;
Led the league in doubles and triples twice;
Won a gold glove;
Once played in 508 consecutive games. Vada Pinson is just ONE of TWO players in baseball history with at least 2,700 hits, 450 doubles, 250 home runs, 100 triples, and 300 stolen bases.
The other one is Willie Mays.
With Frank Robinson.
Vida Pinson is in my HOF!!!
"My father's enduring wait for recognition has been a testament to his perseverance, but one thing that will forever remain unshaken is the unwavering love and admiration of his devoted fans."
Vada Pinson Jr.
