Comedian W.C. Fields, while riding in an air balloon, yelled to the ground to ask, “Is this Kansas City, Kansas?” When told he must be lost, Fields replied, “Kansas City is lost. I am here.” Not many people go through life with the certainty that Fields did. Fear of the unknown and the fear of […]
Years ago, in my sports writing days, a softball coach told me something that changed my life. “If someone is lazy on the field, they’ll be lazy in the office, too,” he said. “If someone is a team player on the field, they’ll be a team player in the office as well.” Those words came […]
To hear some people react to the Hall of Fame voting, you would think that the writers had attacked all that is pure and good. Not so, said my friend and mentor, Fred Down. Fred saw lots of baseball in his time, including Babe Ruth in the flesh, and survived long enough to regale young […]
For the second time in four years, the New York Giants have won the Super Bowl. And they couldn’t have done it without a great shortstop. Shortstop? Yes, back when Eli Manning was going through a rough stretch as a rookie quarterback with the Giants, he received a phone call from Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter. […]
Getting drafted by a pro team guarantees nothing. History is filled with people who are picked high but who never live up to their potential. No one can ever say that about Barry Larkin. If anything, he went beyond expectations. Taken as the fourth overall pick in the 1985 draft, Larkin has landed in the […]
Hollywood’s version of “True Grit” came out in 1969 and starred John Wayne. You can remake this movie today, put yourself in the starring role, and have it run in your home every day. A recent article in the Boston Globe takes a look at success and concludes that it comes from something it calls […]
Has anyone ever told you to be well-rounded? Many people, from parents to guidance counselors, offer these well-intentioned words of wisdom. The trouble is that being well-rounded is not the best way to achieve extraordinary things. In fact, the two are opposite. Just think. If you spend your time becoming pretty good at lots of […]
Teammates love to tell stories of Rickey Henderson, a superstar character who is to be inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame today in Cooperstown, N.Y. Henderson, for instance, once neglected to cash a $1 million check. Instead, he had it framed. But one incident makes perfect sense. It came one day after he struck […]