The Texas Rangers are the 2023 World Series Champions for the first time in franchise history. The long, grueling season ended last week as the Rangers defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks in five games. Baseball is a sport that makes grown men cry because every player has been dreaming about the moment since they first stepped on a Little League field.
In 1997, I was in my off-campus apartment in college watching the Florida Marlins win Game 7 of the World Series. Edgar Renteria’s base hit up the middle gave the Marlins their first World Series title. Jim Leyland, the rough and gruff manager of the Marlins, was in tears in his post-game interview. He spent time reminiscing about his decades in the minor leagues and how he never gave up his dream of managing in the Major Leagues and winning a World Series. He had reached the pinnacle, and he implored those dreaming to follow in his footsteps and to never give up.
I was a 20-year Sport Management major hoping to work in baseball and it felt like Leyland was talking to me. It was as if he was telling me through the screen, “if you can dream it, you can make it happen.”
I decided that night that I was going to make my dream of working in professional baseball a reality one way or another. In March of 1999, two months before graduation, I got my first job in minor league baseball. It ended up being a 22-year career that took me to places like Asheville, NC, Davenport, IA, Modesto, CA and Mobile, AL. I dreamt it and I made it happen just like Leyland told me.
Some say baseball is a kid’s game and I couldn’t agree more. Seeing the Rangers players jump around like kids following the last out in Game 5 hammers the point home. Most people do not feel that level of excitement after childhood.
Baseball, like business, is a team sport made up of individuals. Individuals working together, making adjustments, and overcoming adversity for a common goal. The traits of a successful baseball team: perseverance, teamwork, sacrifice, talent, dedication, and commitment are the same as a successful business. The equivalent to the World Series in your profession depends on the industry and the company. It could be a product launch, a successful IPO, or a merger/acquisition. It’s important that everyone on the team knows the singular goal for the company and works together to achieve it. While your business may not celebrate in front of 50,000 cheering fans when the goal is reached, the celebration should be just as meaningful. One of my favorite memories was when I surprised the front office staff with a champagne celebration in an empty ballpark after we broke our franchise attendance record. We won our World Series, and we celebrated as such.
I was fortunate to receive five championship rings in my career. The first one was as the General Manager of the Modesto A’s in 2004. An intense championship series capped off a memorable first year as a General Manager.
In 2007, the Colorado Rockies, the parent club of the Modesto Nuts, won 21 out of 22 games at the end of the season en route to their first National League pennant. In an extremely generous gesture, the Rockies gifted a National League championship ring to each General Manager in their minor league system. This is by far the most valuable of the five rings with approximately 70 small diamonds.
As Vice President of the Mobile BayBears, the Diamondbacks affiliate won back-to-back Southern League championships in 2011 and 2012. Future Major Leaguers from those teams included Paul Goldschmidt, Patrick Corbin, and Adam Eaton.
My favorite ring in the collection is from the 2017 Modesto Nuts championship season. To share that experience with manager Mitch Canham, pitching coach Pete Woodworth and an amazing front office staff was as great a memory as I have in my career.
Thank you, Jim Leyland for speaking to me 26 years ago and demanding that I follow my dream. It led me to places I never thought I would go, people I never would have met, and memories I will never forget.
I hope you live out your dream every day and when the time is right, be the inspiration for someone to live out their dream!
It’s only fitting that the video is Queen whose song “We are the Champions” is played after every championship. The video is the entire 20-minute set from Queen’s performance at Live Aid in 1985. Many believe this is the best live performance of all time.
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