You never know where your career will take you. For a young voice actor named Mel Blanc, the road led to a pig farm. After months of trying, he had been offered an opportunity at the Warner Brothers studio, and Blanc wanted to do make sure he didn’t fumble it. It seems the studio was […]
Last night comedian Don Rickles was a guest on Craig Ferguson’s talk show. Rickles is a legend who gained fame through his good-natured insults. Sure enough, the minute he got on the stage, he jabbed everyone in sight: the host, the audience, everyone. Pretty soon everyone in the building was in stitches. Rickles’ comedy is […]
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 […]
Yesterday on sports radio, the talk turned to injuries in baseball. There seem to be many of them. One of the announcers made a point of saying that no matter how much care is given to pitchers, they break down. The subject made me wonder if the way teams handle the health of their pitchers […]
Perhaps you’ve seen the video of a recent daredevil stunt in which a kayaker plunged over a 180-foot waterfall. This extreme sport says everything about how much you accomplish in your life and career. Warning: I am not telling you to go out and ride over a waterfall. However, it is a good idea — […]
If your team is like most teams, it will win a few and lose a few. The secret of being successful is winning the tossup games. What are tossup games? Those are games in which the teams show equal skill and preparation. The score will depend on which team wants it the most. Ron Darling, […]
Yesterday, Mark Buehrle of the Chicago White Sox pitched a perfect game — only the 18th in the 133-year history of big-league baseball. This masterpiece added to lustre to a resume that seems to grow in stature every year. Buehrle pitched a no-hitter in 2007, won a World Series title, and was the winning pitcher […]
A friend of mind loves to recall his favorite example of a call to sports talk radio. He was driving on the New Jersey Turnpike at 3 o’clock on a Sunday morning, when someone called the radio station and asked this question: “How do you think the Portland Trail Blazers will do this season?” My […]
Last night my friend, Dr. Rob Gilbert, made a bit of a pilgrimage. He went to nearby Montclair, N.J., to walk past the childhood home of astronaut Buzz Aldrin. On the 40th anniversary of the day man first walked on the moon, Dr. Gilbert, a sports psychologist, stared at Aldrin’s home. “To look at the […]
Yesterday at the Gold Medal Squared coaching clinic, we received a sobering lesson in statistics. Why sobering? Because the talk reminded us that in trying to measure any performance, we face two challenges: First, we must measure the right thing. Second, we must measure the right thing in the right way. It brings to mind […]