Skip to main content

Jake Arrieta and whether it's okay to publicly chastise your teammate

Baseball is funny.  A sport that is seemingly rooted in structure, order, and rules.  The shorthand for all of this is etiquette and there is a lot of baseball etiquette.  There is a certain way that baseball players are supposed to handle themselves and as a youth coach, I've fallen into this myself.  I require my players to respect their uniforms, work as a team, and slowly, I teach them the many unwritten customs of the game.  Lately, the boundaries of baseball etiquette have been pushed, particularly as the league has been set on fire with the controversy of the bat flip. 

 But more recently, and something we see more often, is the post-game interview gone rogue.  There are more than a few infamous examples of this (see, e.g., Allen Iverson bemoan the idea of practice.  But what Jake Arrieta did recently warrants asking: how far is too far?

 The problem with that is pretty simple: it does not bode well for the team as a whole.  Do the players feel like they can communicate with one another and work on these issues?  Or do they feel like the only way to get their voice heard is to do it indirectly through a different medium?

 We are barely a few weeks into the system and already we're seeing that the Philadelphia Phillies may not be as cohesive of a unit as they first appeared.  Everything looked great for the first few games, but as baseball does, the slumps and droughts kick in and the resolve of this newly-crafted has been tested.

 Jake Arrieta aired the dirty laundry.  Jake Arrieta made a decision to publicly announce his disapproval with Bryce Harper (also known as the highest paid player this side of the Mississippi river).  Jake Arrieta probably wasn't wrong for doing so.

 Bryce Harper has a history of getting thrown out of games.  In fact, he has been ejected 12 times.  In Arrieta's mind, that's 12 times that Harper has disappointed his team by not being on the field.  And you know what?  He's exactly right.  The Phillies won't win many games without their best player.  

The words were pretty simple and to-the-point:  "We need him in right field. I don't care how bad the umpire is. He wasn't great for either side. I'm out there, trying to make pitches, he misses some calls, so what? We need [Bryce] out there."

 How far is too far when you want to prove a point to your team and your teammates?  The answer to that question depends, to some degree, on whether the team has discussed the issue at hand.  But the overarching question is this: what kind of family are you?  Are you the family that keeps everything in house, even if the fights are knockdown, drag-out style fights?  Or, are you the type of family to passively complain to the neighbors about what your wife is doing?  Here, in this particular instance, Bryce Harper's teammates were not particularly happy with Bryce and they effectively outed him in public.  Personally, I'd hope that we can keep this issues in-house.

Popular posts from this blog

The Power of Allowing Yourself to Fail

I don't know about you, but I really hate to fail.  I am willing to do almost anything to avoid failing.  I hate it.  I am willing to do things I otherwise wouldn't want to do, only if it means I can avoid failing at something.   It's not so much about not getting what I want, however.  I think, in isolation, I can grapple with that outcome and figure out what to do next. The thing we seem to be afraid of is failing in front of others.  We worry about what they'll think of us and our reputation.  Our reputation is our brand, after all. But maybe instead of thinking about this in terms of a binary "pass, fail" set of options, what if the reputation is a set of options surrounding what you do about failure.  And maybe you were putting entirely too much pressure on yourself to achieve one outcome over another.   And so that  is our struggle, our call to action.  Fail - fail to allow yourself to grow.  Fail - fail out of ...
Read more

When you create something bigger, your failures are given context

The first chunk of my life was dictated for me.  I went to school and I was told what to do in school.  I got a job and I was told what to do at that job.  I went to college and I was told what to do in college.  I found a better job and I was told to do in that job.   My success in those different contexts was some milestone, goal, or achievement that was given to me by those different contexts.  I didn't have to think about what the goal was - it was merely given to me.  In some sense, that's great - I appreciate that someone was training me. But the problem is that no one told me that I was merely being trained.  Without necessary communication and context, I kept drifting through the days thinking another goal or milestone would magically appear. Well, it didn't.  And it took me a few years to figure this out - more than I'd like.   What did I learn in the process? That you must set those goals for yourself - even if those ...
Read more

The happenstance of failure - there is a rhyme and reason to the universe

Diagnosing the intersection of time and failure -  Failure comes in many forms. It can be the result of poor choices, lack of effort, or simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It can be a small setback, like a missed deadline, or a major catastrophe, like a failed business venture. Regardless of its scale, failure often carries a heavy emotional burden, bringing with it feelings of disappointment, regret, and even shame.    However, failure is not an end point. It is an opportunity for growth and learning. When we examine our failures with honesty and self-reflection, we can identify our mistakes, understand our weaknesses, and develop strategies for improvement. In this way, failure can be a catalyst for personal transformation, pushing us to become more resilient, resourceful, and ultimately, more successful.    What even is happenstance? - Happenstance, also known as serendipity or chance, is the occurrence of events by accident rather than design...
Read more