When All Else Fails...Adjust

They know how and when to adjust their gameplan

With the start of another Major League Baseball season on the horizon, I figured I'd toss this month's dialogue of Greatness around Atlanta Braves legend John Smoltz. Throughout a 21-year career, his talent and drive as a pitcher created Hall of Fame worthy statistics, but he's far from the typical success story. He challenged himself in ways that the average player (or person, for that matter) probably wouldn't dare.

Smoltz was part of an Atlanta Braves era that featured 14 straight Division Championships and even a World Series title. He teamed up with pitchers Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and Steve Avery to form a pitching rotation that made opposing hitters tremble in the on-deck circle. They each embraced the craft of being a dominant starting pitcher and their mental approach created an abundance of victories and a huge fanbase. But as great as Smoltz was, success was far from a simple stroll to the pitcher's mound.

Each week, it seems the sports world captures our attention and sends us on an emotional rollercoaster worth the price of admission. But this week’s thrill ride inspired me to focus on perspective. Under what lens would you view emotional moments of failure, tragedy or triumph? If you were Baylor’s 6-foot-8 women’s basketball sensation Brittney Griner, would you focus on losing to 5-seed Louisville and not being able to win back-to-back National Championships, or would you reflect proudly about a college career that finishes with you as the 2nd leading scorer all-time in NCAA history and the inevitable reality that you’ll be the first pick overall in the upcoming WNBA Draft? If you were Texas ace pitcher Yu Darvish, would your outlook be a complaint about your rare perfect game bid being ruined by a basehit up the middle in the ninth inning with two outs? Or would you allow the sensational start and a first victory of a long season motivate you to your next game? If you were Louisville guard Kevin Ware, how would you view your circumstance after a gruesome compound break of the right leg during the Elite Eight of a tournament run that your team is favored to win?

I must admit it was remarkable to see that despite being in excruciating pain, Ware visibly urged his teammates to win their tournament game. Two days after arguably the worst leg injury during a nationally televised sporting event since Joe Theismann, Ware was seen on crutches and intent on making the trip to Atlanta to watch his teammates compete for a National Title. It’s that kind of attitude that already has him working on a comeback story. That kind of resilience is a pathway to Greatness.

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Retired Major League manager Tony La Russa proves that in baseball (as in business), preparation and personal relationships give you a winning edge.

Tony La Russa is considered among the best in his business. Yet nearly half the time he led his organizations into competition, they were defeated—2,728 wins, 2,365 losses. That’s one of the great oddities of baseball: Success is relative. A hitter who fails 70 percent of the time at the plate is a potential member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and many World Championship teams lose more than 70 games during their title-winning seasons.

In that quirky world, the reclusive La Russa’s 33 years as a Major League manager have all but guaranteed him a place in the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was named manager of the year four times and won three World Series Championships, including the St. Louis Cardinals’ 2011 title. Then, with acclaim for that achievement still rolling in, La Russa stunned the sports world by retiring.

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