Don't let your teammates down, check your thoughts

Baseball is a team game.  I have always told players that it is more of a team game than any other sport.  When the game is on the line, you can't just put the ball into your best pitcher's hand; he may have thrown all his bullets for the week.  You can't just put your best hitter in the batter's box; it may not be his turn in the batting order. In all the other team sports, the coaches have the opportunity to get the ball in control of their best scorers and playmakers when the situation is critical.

In baseball, a pitcher relies on his teammates playing defense.  He tries to get the opposing hitters to hit the ball to them so that they can do their jobs.  It is a 9-against-1 situation.  Hitters sacrifice themselves for the team, so that their teammates on the bases can advance and score runs to help the team to victory.

Baseball players have to understand that baseball is often a game of failure.  A great hitter fails in his at bats approximately 70% of the time.

If any player (hitter, pitcher, fielder) makes a mistake or has an instance of failure, bad execution, bad luck, he has a choice.  He can choose to hang his head and feel bad about it, appearing to be selfishly thinking of his own misfortune, or he can choose to stick his chest out and fill his mind with positive thoughts.  A player can replace negative thinking with positive thinking by choice;  it doesn't happen accidentally.

All of our thoughts are consciously chosen thoughts, and we have to check them constantly when we are out there playing for our teammates.  Teammates deserve to have peers who have their backs, and great teammates pick each other up with words, body language, and positive energy.

The best team doesn't always win the game, but the team who has players who believe in themselves and in each other has a better chance of winning than the team who doesn't have those characteristics, regardless of the talent level.

On the field, a player must focus on the immediate task at hand, not on the results.  Focusing on the task at hand, one pitch at a time, and maintaining a positive mental approach, with positive body language, unselfish energy, and the attitude of not letting his teammates down.........will allow the results to take care of themselves.

Playing baseball is an emotional game in the sense that an athlete must control his emotions no matter what is happening around him.  He must not let a negative event reveal any negative thinking nor body language.  Players should show happiness when a big play is made, and then get ready for the next task to accomplish successfully.  A game is played by performing and completing the task at hand 250-300 times per game.  Each time, a player must have a goal that he will not let his teammates down.

In baseball you don't play with a sense of urgency, you play with the idea of completing a specific task, one pitch at a time.  Accomplish the task at hand on each pitch, and the results will take care of themselves.  A coaching staff or a teammate can't ask anything more.