"On Halloween, the parents sent their kids out looking like me."
Have a safe and scary Hallowe'en.
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« September 2007 | Main | November 2007 »
Rookie Dustin Pedroia, the Red Sox pint-sized second baseman, on teamwork
"The veteran guys instilled a belief in us."
Midnight's children will not be forgotten in New England lore. The Boston Red Sox have done it again, sweeping the final three games of the ALCS to advance to the 2007 World Series.
How have the Red Sox -- a team once identified by late-season disappointment -- transformed into the team that always seems to come back in October? What lessons can any organization in today's very competitive marketplace learn from this fun-loving, together bunch?
Leadership - "It's not about being the smartest baseball man any more," Curt
Schilling said about manager Terry Francona. "It's about surrounding yourself
with the right people and putting your players in the best position to
succeed. It has to do with people skills."
Optimism - "We said if the series came back to Boston, we would come out on top," said Red Sox reliever Manny Delcarmen, a Boston native who attended numerous games as a youth and who is well aware of the team's history of flops. "We were pretty sure it was going to happen here."
Level-headedness - "I just think when you're in this kind of pressure cooker, you can either fold and kind of implode, or you can relax and be yourself," said Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein. "That's what our guys do: they relax and stay themselves. None of the circumstances bother them." "I think Manny put it really well," said Sox right fielder J.D. Drew. "There was always next year in his mind. That just kind of shows you how relaxed we were, the worst case [being] we were going home and the best case, 'Hey, we're moving on to the World Series.'"
Cultural diversity (age, race, language, religion, et al)- Daisuke Matsuzaka, Julio Lugo, Jonathan Papelbon, Coco Crisp, Manny Ramirez, Kevin Youkilis, Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, Mike Lowell, Hideki Okajima, Tim Wakefield, etc.
Fun - From the fancy footwork of crazy closer Jonathan Papelbon to Manny being Manny, the Sox are just big kids having a good time with each
other and the game. The old Sox were known for 25 players, 25 cabs.
This group would choose to ride in an old, yellow school bus with Big
Papi at the wheel.
Passion - "This never, never, never, ever gets old," said relief pitcher Mike Timlin. "Ever!"
For us either, Mike. Go Sox!
Philippe Starck on his formula for creativity
"Every morning take Royal Jelly and Omega 3 oil, eat oysters and have a good sex life. Don't care about anything, and never listen to anybody. Be free."
I love it! You can read Linda Tischler's Fast Company article, Stark Raving, by clicking here.
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Seth Godin on the mediocre
"The mediocre . . . are struggling to stay in place. They're nervous that it all might fall apart. So they wait. They wait for 'proof' that this new idea is going to work, or at least won't prove fatal. (It's the impulse to wait that made them mediocre in the first place, of course)."
Seth nails it! Read his post. And then, for survival sake, go try something new!
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Sid Caesar on cavemen
"The guy who invented the first wheel was an idiot. The guy who invented the other three, he was a genius."
Did you watch the premiere episode of "Cavemen" Tuesday night? Unfortunately, I did. And I only have one question: What the hell was Geico thinking? Are they planning to open Geico outlets in Burger King restaurants? Because the show makes it clear that that's their intended audience by evidence of its taxing sophomoric humor.
I won't comment on the racial stereotyping nor the ridiculous makeup (I've seen folks at the ballgame that look like those guys). Suffice it to say that switching to Geico insurance may be "so easy, a caveman can do it," but creating modern day sitcom certainly is not.
"The guys who invented the Geico caveman commercials were geniuses. The guys who invented the 'Cavemen' sitcom are idiots." Oh, that's right. They're the same guys!
