CHARACTER - The Golden Rule!

(this is an excerpt from Mark Gola’s forthcoming book, Baseball’s Sixth Tool)

Do unto others as you would like others to do unto you.

You have been there and you will be there again. Remember what a lonely place it can be. You have struck out looking. You have thrown a ball away that allowed runs to score. You have missed the cutoff man. You have missed a sign. You have been picked off. You have had trouble finding the strike zone. You have taken a swing at a high fastball.

When you've committed one of these acts of error, you have felt the emptiness of personal failure. You have also felt that you have hurt or endangered your team’s chances of winning. It doesn't help or make you feel any better when a teammate lays into you. You feel bad enough already and now you feel worse.

When one of these common mistakes happen to a teammate, keep the golden rule in mind. Do not yell at them, do not ostracize them, and do not make comments to another teammate about them. It will make that player feel worse and with that, heighten the chances of them making afollow-up mistake. If anything, make eye contact with them and tell them to forget about it.”Hey, get the next one. Don't worry about it. We need you to get the next one.” Make their future play seem valuable. That will give them a sense for a chance at redemption.

People often ask why baseball players pat each other on the rear end so often. The answer is because there is so much failure involved in the game. A tap can be a show of support when things go wrong and can also be a sign of congratulations when something goes right.

You have been there and will be there again. Remember what a lonely place it can be.