Have you ever wondered why some teams gel and work, and some just can’t get it together to be a success? I’m not only talking about sports teams but organisational teams too.
I think I’ve discovered a few gems that can contribute to team development.
Over the last while I’ve watched two documentaries. The first one titled The Battered Bastards of Baseball, is about a minor league baseball team that became so successful that they were bought out for $206 000 as opposed to the normal $ 25 000.
The second one titled The Comeback, is about a professional baseball team that hadn’t won the world series tournament in 86 years, and who recently went on to do so.The fact that both are baseball teams is irrelevant, it’s the similarities in what they did and how they performed to become successful is what caught my attention.
To give a bit of context about each team without giving too much away about the movies, let’s begin with The Battered Bastards in Baseball.
Bing Russel, an ex-Hollywood actor and passionate lover of baseball, wanted to create an A level minor league Team in Portland Oregon and he went about doing so creating a team call Portland’s Mavericks. Instead of trying to get the professional teams to farm their young potential players to him, he had open tryouts where anyone and everyone who believed they could play baseball were welcome. And what he did was create a team with people who had nothing to lose and who just loved playing baseball. These players were from all walks of life and who were going to be playing against teams whose players were potentially good enough to be future players for big money, professional teams, like The New York Yankees, LA Dodgers etc.
The second documentary, The Comeback, is about the Boston Red Sox. The last time they won the World Series pennant was in 1918. Two years after that they sold Babe Ruth – one of the greatest batters of all times, and whose nickname was “The Babe.” Since selling him, and never having won another world series title since 1918, the club and its fans have always said that selling Babe Ruth, created a curse called “The Curse of the Bambino,” which hung over the club and resulted in them not winning the pennant for 86 years, and more importantly, consistently losing to their biggest rivals, the New York Yankees in the knock out stages of the playoffs even though they had come close to winning from time to time.
So now that we have the gist of the stories without giving too much away about the movies which I urge you to watch as they are both fun, here are the points that I picked up that I feel made them successful.
1. Leadership
The Maverick’s owner was a charismatic ex Hollywood star who was passionate about baseball. He created something different by having tryouts which created interest in the whole city and among the fans. He had a major connection with the players who loved and respected him, and the feelings were mutual.
He had a vision of creating a team that could win the league by playing entertaining baseball that the fans could enjoy, and he got the players and the fans to buy into it.
The Boston Red Sox – which is a well-funded major league baseball team had recently been sold to a new organisation who went on to employ the youngest general manager in the history of baseball. Theo Epstein was only 28 years old; he had bought into a new system of analysing and valuing a player’s potential which went totally against the “normal,” way players were recruited in the major league set up. He also had complete trust from the owners, and, as he mentioned in the documentary, he knew he needed to make bold decisions if he was to realise his and the club’s vision of winning the world series.
• Both leaders were Mavericks in their own right, bold, visionary, and not being afraid to be different.
2. Adversity
Both of these teams faced and overcame adversity. One team faced the curse of coming close to winning but just not getting over the hurdle. The other team faced the challenges of limited funds, being the only team in the league that wasn’t linked to a professional club, and a league organisation that wasn’t receptive to what they were doing.
• Both teams were considered the underdogs and had to overcome adversity which even though tough at the time brought them closer together.
3. They connected with their fanbase
In baseball, teams often play each other twice or more in succession calling it a double header or a series. When one team wins all the games in the double header or the series it’s called a Sweep. When the Mavericks won a sweep, one of the players – Jo Garza, jumped onto the roof of the dugout in front of all the fans and swept the roof. Shortly after that ritual began all the fans started to bring cut off brooms to the games so that they could sweep along with him.
The Boston Red Sox players who equate to sporting gods in their city, after winning a home game- still fully dressed in their uniforms- went into a local bar to have beers with their fans. Besides, it created fun- chaos in the streets outside of the bar, never before had a professional team ever done this, which resulted in the fans being able to have a drink with their superstars, creating a bond with the team.
• They broke the divide of, “them and us.” The fans felt closer to the team realizing that they were human.
4. They did things differently.
Before one series one of the Boston Red Sox players shaved off his and his whole team’s hair. For the Mavericks, their pre-game locker room rituals and warmups were nothing like any of the professional teams’ rituals. It was light, funny, playful, and orthodox.
• They played, kept it light, and had creative fun.
5. There was a higher purpose
For both teams they knew how much the fans wanted them to win. The Red Sox fans had 86 years of dashed hopes and frustrations. For the Maverick’s fans, the team had brought winning baseball back to the city and the fans were engaging and loving it.
• It was more than about the team – it included what they contributed to others.
6. They created a “buzz” word
The year before their first win in 86 years the Red Sox lost in the playoffs again. During a tv interview one of the players said, “we’ve just got to cowboy up, and go again.” Cowboy Up became a slogan that not only the fans, but the city of Boston used and was displayed on billboards, bumper stickers and on buses to remind everyone to keep on going.
Jo Garza – was the player who actioned the physical sweep on the Maverick’s dugout roof. Yet the action – of sweeping the dugout roof, where all the fans got involved, was called a Jogarza. When ever it was shouted out the fans new exactly what it meant and how to act.
• Both teams created something unique, meaningful, and fun that fans could engage in.
7. They played for each other.
If you watch the documentaries, you’ll notice that players from each team had a unique bond that went beyond what was expected of them on the field. They knew they were all in it together and they connected, collaborated, and experienced life other than just baseball. They were authentic, down-to-earth people who were there for each other. Both teams consisted of bands of brothers and each of them meant more than just being teammates.
• They were authentic.
Conclusion
Even though these were sports teams that had fan bases, I believe that we can learn from what, why, and how why they achieved what they did. There was
- the vision,
- the leadership,
- the authenticity,
- the human connection,
- the higher contribution,
- the playfulness, and
- the creativity
which contributed to success for themselves and their teams.
If you’d like to have a conversation on how to develop yourself or your team further, please conact me via gary@garyhirson.com
