“I hit big or I miss big,” he once said. “I like to live as big as I can.”

Yet when it came time to give his Hall of Fame speech, Ruth showed a simple and profound eloquence. He began by acknowledging the game’s younger players, with the hope that they, too, would reach the Hall one day.

He mentioned his fellow Hall of Famers, and how hard they worked at their craft. He touched on the role of work in his own life, and expressed the hope that the younger players would work that hard, too.

Ruth even showed a reverence for history, by noting his own debut in the big leagues, which had come nearly 25 years to the day before his speech.

Yesterday’s post mentioned the role that New York Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter played in helping Giants quarterback Eli Manning ease into the pressure of New York. A few words of encouragement from his role model made all the difference to Manning, who has now led the Giants to a pair of Super Bowl wins.

Ruth, it turns out, was highly conscious of his status as a role model to many, and he took it seriously. He wasn’t always a model citizen, of course, and the press of the day gave him a  pass on many of his foibles.  Still, this speech, which I had never seen or heard of, shows me a side of Ruth to really appreciate.

*** *** *** ***

TotalGamePlan offers Winner’s Workshops for schools, sports teams and businesses. The emphasis is on motivation, skill-building and teamwork. To bring a Winner’s Workshop to your group, just email coachtully@totalgameplan.com or call (973) 800-5836. To order a copy of “Ten Things Great Coaches Know,” click here.

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.

As recounted inn a post on sports writer Dan Graziano’s ESPN blog, Manning said, “He just told me, ‘Keep your head up, keep doing what you’re doing and it’ll get better.’”

At the time, Jeter was an established New York superstar, and a role model for Manning.

“Derek’s a guy, from the time I first came (to New York), that I definitely have paid a lot of attention to,” Manning said after a recent practice.

With the Giants’ 21-17 victory over Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Sunday’s Super Bowl, Manning could well be headed to the Hall of Fame. Jeter one day will be enshrined in Cooperstown, with Canton a distinct possibility for Manning.

And it may never have happened without a kind word from a role model. Now, years later, Jeter returns the respect that Manning originally accorded him.

“I’ve always appreciated the way Eli has carried himself, not only on the football field but more importantly away from it,” Jeter said in an email through the Yankees’ media relations department. “He certainly seems to me to have the perfect demeanor to handle the spotlight that comes with playing in New York.”

Whether it’s the Yankees, Giants or high school sports, role models can make a big difference. I recently showed a young woman a practice session for some high-level high school athletes.

“Someday you can play at that level,” I said.

“I would love to play at that level,” she responded, her eyes wide.

Tyron Edwards, a 19th century American theologian, said, “People never improve unless they look to some standard or example higher and better than themselves.”

Looking up to someone certainly worked for Eli Manning.
*** *** *** ***
TotalGamePlan offers Winner’s Workshops for schools, sports teams and businesses. The emphasis is on motivation, skill-building and teamwork. To bring a Winner’s Workshop to your group, just email coachtully@totalgameplan.com or call (973) 800-5836. To order a copy of “Ten Things Great Coaches Know,” click here.

“Tell me,” Williams said. “When you swung and missed that ball, did your bat go over the ball or under it?”

“What difference does it make,” the teammate wanted to know. “Either way, I struck out.”

It makes all the difference in the world, Williams explained. Knowing how you missed was the first step in preparing for the next time.

Williams was an expert on the art of receiving feedback. He examined what happened and used the information in his next attempt.

Feedback is available everywhere. Often the result of our actions will tell us what we’re doing right or wrong. For instance, if a golfer consistently hits a slice, the ball is telling him something about his swing.

You can bet that both the New York Giants and New England Patriots will be using feedback to prepare for Sunday’s Super Bowl. They played each other during the regular season, and they’re in a race to see who learned the most from that game.

Herb Brooks, mastermind of the U.S. Olympic hockey team’s gold medal in 1980, used feedback to make history. After the Soviet Union trounced his team 10-3 in a pre-Olympic exhibition, Brooks simply said, “We learned some things.” Two weeks later, the teams met again, and this time the U.S. won!

So if you’d like to be a champion, you must first do what Brooks, Williams and other did — become experts at receiving feedback.

“He was an exceptional player,” said Mike Cameron, Larkin’s coach at Moeller High School in Cincinnati, quoted on the Reds’ blog. “I knew he would end up playing in the major leagues.”

No matter how good a player looks in high school, however, you never know what he will become. The art of projecting — trying to imagine how good a player will be down the road — is one of the toughest jobs for a talent evaluator. That fact is evident in the three players drafted ahead of Larkin in 1985.  B.J. Surhoff of the Milwaukee Brewers, Will Clark of the San Francisco Giants and Bobby Witt of the Texas Rangers all enjoyed some success in the big leagues, but none was even close to being a Hall of Famer.

In Larkin’s case, the job of projecting belonged to Gene Bennett, the Cincinnati Reds scout who recommended and signed Larkin.

“My part-time scout, Harry Steinride, and I watched Barry play a lot,” Bennett said. “We drafted him after his senior year at Moeller High School, but he and his family made the decision that he would attend the University of Michigan. We continued to follow him closely, got to know his parents very well and signed him after he became eligible again. I have always had the greatest respect for Barry and his family. I told his mother that she was my best scout.”

Often players begin to wash out the first time they face pro competition and find themselves surrounded by so much talent. They can either get intimidated by the competition or get inspired by it. Jack Lind, Larkin’s first pro manager, recalls what he saw.

“He came to Double-A in Vermont in the mid-1985 and made that adjustment to pro ball from major college baseball,” Lind said. “The following season in Triple-A, he showed more improvement in one season than many thought possible, garnering American Association Rookie of the Year and MVP awards. Both were well deserved. Then he was promoted to the Reds, never to look back.”

Now Larkin sits in Cooperstown, an honor so far denied to Jack Morris, Tim Raines and Edgar Martinez, among others.

“Barry had physical skills far superior to the average high school athlete, not only in baseball, but football as well,” Moeller Coach Cameron said. “He would make plays in the field that left you shaking your head and saying, ‘How did he do that?’”

According to former teammate Ken Griffey Jr., himself headed for the Hall of Fame, Larkin did more than excel on the field. He actually changed the course of the sport.

“He had a combination of speed and power that changed the way teams started drafting shortstops,” Griffey said. “As the first 30/30 (30 home run and 30 stolen bases in the same season) shortstop, Barry paved the way for guys like Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and Nomar Garciaparra.”

No way the first men to see Larkin projected all that!

Big-league players make appearances, either for money, as a favor or out of a sense of gratitude.

Whatever the reason, you never know what effect these visits can have. It’s like a stone thrown into a pond. No one can tell how the sight of a future Hall of Famer will ripple in someone’s life.

And so it was yesterday at Frozen Ropes training facility in Pine Brook, NJ. As detailed on Sideline Chatter, legendary New York Yankees reliever Mariano Rivera spoke to some 120 young baseball players about stretching, warm-ups, arm action, injury prevention and pitch counts.

Kids may or not remember his words years from now, but they will never forget his mere presence. Seeing Rivera in the flesh may motivate someone to achieve peak performance as a pitcher, trainer, doctor, sports announcer, whatever.

Rivera’s visit came only days before results of this year’s Hall of Fame election are announced. Most of the candidates seem borderline, though there is a feeling that former Cincinnati Reds shortstop Barry Larkin will gain admission.

With Rivera, there will be no doubt. In fact, when the time comes, he may come closer to anyone in history to a unanimous selection. Just ask the kids whose Hot Stove League included a visit from Rivera.

*** *** *** ***

TotalGamePlan offers Winner’s Workshops for schools, sports teams and businesses. The emphasis is on motivation, skill-building and teamwork. To bring a Winner’s Workshop to your group, just email coachtully@totalgameplan.com or call (973) 800-5836.

One evening, however, the teacher was waiting and waiting for someone to show up for a lesson. No one did. This puzzled the teacher, who couldn’t understand why anyone would skip a music lesson.

Finally, it dawned on the teacher why the student never arrived. It was New Year’s Eve!

It turns out that the teacher was Jerome Garcia, who would go on to fame as Jerry Garcia, the lead guitarist for the Grateful Dead. Garcia was so wrapped up in what he loved that he did not even know what day it was.

That’s my New Year‘ wish for you, that you’ve found something that completely absorbs you.

There’s a story (hopefully true) told about tennis legend Chris Evert, who once won a tournament in a venue so tight that she ran into a chair during one point. Later, when the organizers presented the trophy, they apologized for the chair.

“What chair?” Evert wanted to know.

I’m fascinated by people with this kind of laser focus.

In the 1980 World Series, in a showdown of Hall of Famers, Steve Carlton was pitching to George Brett. Years later, when asked what it felt like to pitch to such a dangerous batter, Carlton said, “I didn’t even know he was there. I just looked at the target that the catcher was giving me.”

“Your focus is your future,” a wise person once said.

“Forget being well-rounded,” said another. “Develop sharp edges.”

In forming your New Year’s Resolutions, look for a sharp edge.

Just now on TV, hockey expert Stan Fischler did a piece on “Diamonds in the Rough,” a look at the top five players who reached the National Hockey League despite not being drafted.

Each player represents a story that is hard to believe. NHL teams are so hungry for talent, and scout the amateur leagues so thoroughly, you can barely comprehend how any decent player could escape their eye.

And yet it happens. And how do these players zoom past others who are perceived to have more ability?

Mike Schmidt, a Hall of Fame baseball player, once said, “The ability to put everything together is itself an ability.” In other words, some people are better than others at getting better. One thing to keep in mind. The ability to get better, like any ability, is not innate. You can improve your improvement skills.

A noted motivational psychologist, Dr. Heidi Grant Halvorson, is author of “Success: How We Can Reach Our Goals.” She says that some people — no matter how smart they may be — are clueless on why they succeed or fail.

In an article titled “9 Things Successful People Do Differently,” Dr. Halvorson tries to take some of the mystery out of that question. My favorite of the nine is: Focus on getting better rather than being good.

This sounds very much like the advice of former LSU baseball coach Skip Bertman, who produced a video called “Winning the Big One.” Bertman says that winning the big one is the result of constant, daily improvement. If you find a way to improve every day, you will gain an edge on your competition.

*** *** *** *** ***

Mike Tully speaks to sports, business and educational groups. He also works with coaches, athletes and teams to make their practice time more productive and efficient. He and Gary Pritchard are co-authors of “Ten Things Great Coaches Know.” To see Coach Tully and Coach Pritchard discuss “Seven Ways to Prepare for Adversity,” go here.

Yet it happened. Through 12 rounds of the 1999 draft, every single franchise looked at Pujols and decided there was someone better to pick. It wasn’t until the 13th round when the St. Louis Cardinals finally called his name. Now, just 12 years later, Pujols has already put up enough stats to land him in the Hall of Fame.

Pujols’ case just underlines the nine most important words in coaching (and in life): Initial ability and final ability are not closely related. Put those words in your coaching toolbox. The player, the employee, the person, the student you see today is not the same one you will see five years from now.

This article by Jeff Gordon discusses the extreme difficulty of scouting and evaluating athletic prospects. Some players, like Pujols, develop beautifully. Others become less than the sum of their parts.

Why? What accounts for the change between initial ability and final ability? Practice. The quality and quantity of your practice determines how much or how little you will improve. Effective practice — deliberate practice — must be well-designed, with accurate and immediate feedback and lots of meaningful repetitions. It’s a difficult pracess. Some people are willing to go through it. Some are not.

This is not just theory. It’s real-world stuff, as Pujols shows. You never know who will develop. You may think you do. but you don’t. So if you can possibly help it, never cut anyone from your team.

Last night I heard a veteran coach make a judgement on a young athlete. “She can’t play,” the coach said. This coach was talking about a fourth-grader!

It reminds me of an evaluation made more than a century ago. It went like this: “I’m sorry, Mr. Einstein, but your son will never amount to anything.”

Initial ability and final ability are not closely related!

*** *** *** *** ***

Mike Tully speaks to sports, business and educational groups. He also works with coaches, athletes and teams to make their practice time more productive and efficient. He and Gary Pritchard are co-authors of “Ten Things Great Coaches Know.” To see Coach Tully and Coach Pritchard discuss “Seven Ways to Prepare for Adversity,” go here.

Snider, a Hall of Famer who died last month at age 84, was playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers when Vecsey, then in seventh or eighth grade, went to a game.

You can read the details here, but the short version is that Vecsey entered Ebbets Field with Snider as his hero, and came out with a different opinion. Somewhere in between, Snider had given him an obscene gesture.

The point here is not whether Snider was a good or bad guy; I never met him,and he received many glowing tributes. The point is not whether young people should worship ballplayers. The point for all coaches, employers, teachers, parents and everyone is that Vecsey never forgot that day. It’s what he remembered when he heard that Snider had passed on.

It’s a vital lesson. People may forget what you say or do, but they will never forget how you made them feel. You must choose your words carefully. And remember that words carry only a small percentage of the message you transmit. Tone, body language and facial expression account for much more.

Snider retired in 1964 with 407 homers. Eight times he was a member of the All-Star team. And yet when he died, Vecsey thought of a day more than 50 years ago when Snider made him feel small.

*** *** *** ***

Mike Tully speaks to sports, business and educational groups. He also works with coaches, athletes and teams to make their practice time more productive and efficient. He and Gary Pritchard are co-authors of “Ten Things Great Coaches Know.” To see Coach Tully and Coach Pritchard discuss “Seven Ways to Prepare for Adversity,” go here.