By Coach Ron Wolforth –
Here is an age-old set of questions:
- Who am I?
- What is my story?
- What is my purpose?
- What do I believe?
- How do I interact with the world around me?
- How do I react and respond to failure, challenges, obstacles, and hardships?
- How do I react and respond to success and accolades?
I realize I will sound like an old history teacher, but you can’t really answer those questions very well unless and until you are well-versed in your history.
- How Steeped Are You in Your Family History? For example, do you know what your grandparents and great-grandparents did for a living and where they came from? Do you know the maiden name of your grandmothers and great-grandmothers? Many young men struggle to even tell me what their parents do for a living. This is unacceptable in my book. Who you are is directly connected to those who came before you.
- What About Your Country’s History? Many young people can’t name 5 of the Founding Fathers… three Amendments to the Constitution… express the role of Lincoln in ending slavery… or how the U.S. entered WWI, WWII, The Korean War, The Vietnam War, or Desert Storm. This is mind-blowing to me. These elements are literally the glue that connects us as people.
- What About the History of the Sport That You Say You Love? Do you know who Cy Young was? Walter Johnson? Christy Mathewson? Bob Feller? Sandy Koufax? Bob Gibson? What was Nolan Ryan’s career record? How many more strikeouts does he have than his closest rival? What about walks? What happened in 1968 that forever changed pitching a baseball? 1968 was the 5-year culmination of the ____ ______ (fill in the blank) Era, in which pitching had become too dominant. After the season, the Lords of Baseball did what to the strike zone and the mound? Which current MLB pitcher(s) do you move like most and use to model your movement pattern after? Far too often, young people today are NOT students of the game and its history. Again, this is simply unacceptable to me. We must be active students in the area in which we wish to excel.
- What About the History of Your Faith? It doesn’t matter if you are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, or something else. Your Faith leads how you ask, interpret, and then answer questions. The Paragons of your Faith guide you in how you react and respond to the world at large. Far too many young people today are agnostic and cynical by default. They have no road map, no higher purpose. Their lives frequently devolve into exercises and interactions dominated by narcissism and egocentricity. There is no “Golden Rule” for these people… only I, me, and mine. As Pierre Teilhard de Chardin once wrote, “We are not physical beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a physical experience.” If you are not well-steeped into the history of your and/or your family’s Faith, you are often going to feel incomplete and muddled.
- What About the History of Your Fellow Man, Behavior, and Psychology? This one may be a little tough, deep, or involved. Let me help.
I’m currently reading three books simultaneously. I do this quite often. I do this because it helps me to broaden my perspective while reading and assists me in connecting the dots, and better apply the lessons garnered from my reading.
These three may seem incredibly complex but I assure you, they are not. The best way I can describe them is a deep dive into the history of what makes us tick as leaders and where we can go horribly wrong.
The first book looks at the leadership styles of chimpanzees. The second book is a first-hand look at the horrors of Soviet Communism by one of the most amazing men to ever live on the planet, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who survived those atrocities. The third book is a study of tyranny and totalitarianism from the French Revolution to the current vaccine mandates.
Knowing and constantly working on those 5 examples of MY history and lineage makes me a far more empathetic, humble, and compassionate leader and thinker.
I’m not saying you MUST go to those depths to be an effective leader. However, if leadership truly matters and, in my opinion, honorable, competent, and compassionate leadership is extremely important and lacking today, then this constant search is never in vain.
Until next week,
Stay Curious and Keep Fighting the Good Fight.
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Important TBR Updates
- The TBR staff will be making our annual trek to Minnesota February 3-5 for our “Ranch on the Road” event in conjunction with the Minnesota Blizzard. For more details and/or to register, contact Adam Barta at abarta@minnesotabaseballacademy.com.
- Summer Intensive Program information will be available in the next two weeks. Watch for updates.
