For many years, I have been watching baseball with a friend. He’s become a close friend. He does most of the talking and I only see him occasionally. He doesn’t know me but I enjoy listening to him talk about baseball and life.

When this baseball season ends, Vin Scully will turn off his microphone. He has called the game for 65-plus years, first in Brooklyn and then with the Los Angeles Dodgers. I will miss him.

While never missing a play, Vin effortlessly worked into the conversations all those statistics for which baseball is known. He also shared with me the stories about the game of long ago and vignettes about the players of today that I did not hear anywhere else. He even shared with me his assumptions about the random thoughts running through the minds of managers. All this baseball was just for me – because I felt he was talking just to me — plus a little bit of history, philosophy, theology and commentary about life to put it all in perspective.

Vin is a New Yorker, though he has been in California since the Dodgers moved there for the 1958 season. He was born in The Bronx and raised in the Washington Heights section of northern Manhattan. Vin is a religious man. Brought up in an Irish Catholic family, he attended Fordham Prep and Fordham University with its Jesuit influences.

While at college, he was a student broadcaster on WFUV-FM, the school’s radio station that up until about 30 years ago predominantly was student-run. The roll call from its studios include names of entertainers, broadcasters and journalists you easily will recognize. The names span the pre-Vin years to his contemporaries to those who have followed. Hundreds of others have walked the same halls at Fordham and sat behind its radio microphone but those names will not be known to you. Be assured that they, too, have gone onto highly successful careers.

Vin learned valuable lessons at that station and when he worked with Red Barber on Brooklyn Dodgers broadcasts. Be yourself, Barber told him, because there is no one else like you. He also learned to allow the roar of the crowd to help him tell a story.

As he comes to his ninth inning and eventual postgame, I wonder how Vin plans to close out the game. Will he be philosophical? Possibly poetic? Maybe historical? Or will it be a simple “See you around the ballpark!”

Whatever he decides, he has had a fantastic life in and out of baseball. He has touched—and called—them all!

Now that we are in the middle of summer, the prominent sports talk around here is about baseball. (Okay, golf, too). While listening to all the baseball talk, I came to realize that so many common baseball expressions have been adapted by those of us in business. This probably goes all the way back in time to when the first pitch was thrown during an organized ballgame.

Here are just a few of the popular terms we use every day that I quickly jotted on my notepad –

• That came out of left field.
• Cover your bases.
• Give me a ballpark figure.
• Hit it out of the park!
• You’re batting 1,000.
• Step up to the plate.

I then wondered if the language of baseball — that lingo used by players and managers between the foul lines – had borrowed any words or terms from commerce. After a little digging, I quickly discovered that several expressions from America’s pastime can be traced to business.

• A “can of corn” refers to an easy catch of a fly ball by an outfielder.

During the 19th century, clerks at general stores were looking for an easy way to reach canned goods such as corn that had been stacked high on shelves. They used long sticks with hooks, pulling the cans from the shelves. They easily caught the cans in their aprons, similar to a fly ball nestling into a glove.

• When a player is in a difficult situation, such as a rundown between bases, he is caught in a “pickle.”

Shakespeare is thought to be the first to use the idiom “in a pickle” in The Tempest. But, in England, the meaning of the expression is different than our interpretation. “Pickle” refers to a food item similar to relish, and one who is “in a pickle” is “sauced” or “drunk.” On our side of the pond, to relate to our game of baseball, “in a pickle” did come from the food industry. It means “in a tough spot,” similar to a cucumber stuck sitting in vinegary brine for days.

• The term “butcher boy” refers to the strategy of a batter who draws in the infielders when he squares to bunt but then pulls back the bat to deliver a downward swing.

This term, if not the actual play, is attributed to legendary player and manager Casey Stengel. He was inspired by the motion a boy used in a butcher shop to cleave meat. Stengel ordered it whenever he wanted a player to hit a ground ball, especially when a runner was on third base during a close game and the team needed the run.

So, now that we have come to the end of this little “game,” I guess it is “safe” to say that baseball and business have “covered all the bases” for more than 150 years!

Few boys who dream of playing professional baseball actually end up competing in the country’s big ball yards. Millions of other boys must follow another path so they can touch all the bases.

Tim Mead’s passion for baseball landed him an internship more than 30 years ago with the Los Angeles Angels. Today, he is the team’s vice president of communications. He is the team’s spokesman and he oversees media relations, publicity and broadcast operations. Mead and his staff also provide beat writers and media with game notes and media guides, handle media requests and arrange interviews with players and team executives.

Mead realized early on that he did not have the talent to make a living at hitting a ball with a bat. So, during college, he looked for other opportunities to stay in the game that he loved. He focused on sports writing. He soon realized, though, that he could not write about failings and shortcomings of people who worked hard in an area where he did not achieve success. So, Mead slid into public relations.

The job is all about promoting and protecting the Angels brand. While some tasks are easy for Mead, he faces many challenges similar to a hitter figuring the best way to hit a knuckleball.

One example has involved social media, specifically Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. This medium does not allow PR people to control the flow of information. With the growth of instantaneous postings, the Angels communications team decided to employ a defensive shift. It increased online monitoring. The strategy has allowed the staff to respond quickly to address fan issues while it continues to proactively promote, publicize and reach out to media and fans with the many positive stories that occur within the organization.

As for advice about achieving success in sports communications or any business profession, Mead provided the following guidelines: prove yourself every day, be true to your personal brand, stay away from discussing politics, work hard and be ready for the ball to be hit to you when you least expect it.

- Jim

Some athletes just never measured up by height standards. But short players still have achieved considerable success in Major League Baseball and other professional sports.

While the shortest player in baseball history was a publicity stunt (43-inch Eddie Gaedel batted once and walked for the St. Louis Browns), many other players who were taller than Eddie but shorter than most other big leaguers have appeared since 1900. Five players were just 5-foot-3. One inch taller was Hall of Fame outfielder Wee Willie Keeler. At 5-foot-5, Hall of Fame shortstop Rabbit Maranville and three-time All-Star Freddie Patek made headlines. Then, just an inch taller were Hall of Famers Phil Rizzuto, Miller Huggins and Hack Wilson, and just one up from that were HOFs Yogi Berra and Joe Morgan.

Presently, 5-foot-5 Jose Altuve, the shortest player in the major leagues in more than 30 years, is an All-Star with the Houston Astros. Dustin Pedroia at 5-foot-9 and Jimmy Rollins at 5-foot-7 have had exceptional long careers in the game.

In hockey, a couple of height challenged players, Martin St. Louis and Mats Zuccarello, made a huge impact for the New York Rangers during the last couple of seasons. The recently retired St. Louis is on his way to the Hockey Hall of Fame while Zucc certainly will continue to improve his game and perform at the highest level that is the NHL.

At 5-foot-3, Tyrone “Muggsy” Bogues holds the record as the shortest player in NBA history. In the NFL, 5-foot-7 Maurice Jones-Drew led the league in rushing with 1,606 yards during the 2011 season while Brandon Banks, also 5-foot-7, lead the NFL in kick returns and kick return yards that same season with 1,174 yards on 52 returns.

So, as you can see, the height of an athlete sometimes has nothing to do with his or her personal achievements, the role the athlete will play on a team, or the impact each will have for a team. For each of the players mentioned here, and for the many more not mentioned or still working their way up, we must remember always to look first at the size of their hearts. That is the true measure of success.

- Jim

Sam Fuld’s family had no illusion that he would become a big league baseball player. Sam was a chubby kid. His parents called him “Sumo Sam.” When he grew out of what his dad called a husky phase, Sam didn’t get much taller. But, he dreamed about playing professional baseball. He was realistic, though, as he also knew the odds were against him.

Sam doesn’t fit the mold of a major league baseball player. He is listed at 5-foot-10, but he is closer to 5-foot-9. He hails from chilly New Hampshire, where baseball gets a late start each year. Sam also is a type 1 diabetic and he must monitor his blood sugar between innings.

Sam was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 10. At first, he was puzzled by the constant testing and the related factors that affected his health. But, the medical issue became a family matter. Everyone focused on eating healthy food and they all got involved in the hourly obsession with blood sugar.

Through all this, Sam never gave up playing baseball. He finally made it to the majors with the Chicago Cubs during 2007. He then moved on to the Tampa Bay Rays, where he made some outstanding plays that frustrated New York Yankees fans. His defense became popular YouTube viewing and teammates started to wear “Super Sam” capes.

While in Tampa, Sam jumped at the chance to oversee sports camps for children with type 1 diabetes. He collaborated with the University of South Florida Diabetes Center. More than 100 boys and girls from all over the country have attended the camps during the past four years.

Back on the field, Sam today is playing for the Oakland Athletics. Jim “Catfish” Hunter once pitched for the A’s. He also was a diabetic. So was Ron Santo, who played third base with Sam’s first MLB team, the Chicago Cubs. Among his contemporaries who also have been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes are pitchers Brandon Morrow of the San Diego Padres and Dustin McGowan in the Philadelphia Phillies organization.

From “Sumo Sam” to “Super Sam,” Sam Fuld has realized a dream despite the obstacle of diabetes. He said the journey has been a huge rollercoaster ride, but that he has enjoyed every bump and turn. Most of all, he doesn’t have any regrets.

- Jim

Many of us remember receiving our first, or even second, baseball glove. It got packed daily with our school books. It had a place of reverence in our bedrooms. For some of us, it was our most cherished possession.

Whether a child who plays Saturday little league, a teenager who is playing high school or college baseball, or a 20-something who is paid to play, each of us has had a distinct way to break in and maintain a baseball glove. Some players place their gloves in freezers while others fold it before sticking it under the mattress, or even under one of the legs of the bed. Other methods to break in a mitt to ensure that it literally fits like a glove include dunking it in water, placing it in the microwave, lathering it with shaving cream, soaking it with oil, beating it with a mallet, or placing a ball or two in it and then binding with twine.

For a baseball player, nothing is more personal than tailoring a glove to fit the hand. The process can take a few days, a few weeks, or even an entire season so that the glove is ready to use next year. It must feel right and it must hold its shape. The pocket must easily grasp and secure the ball while allowing the player, quickly and easily, to pull that ball from the glove.

The same attention to personal equipment also is common in the other sports. Quarterbacks like the footballs to be probably inflated, but let’s not go down that road. Hockey players fuss over their sticks, making sure the curves are at the right angles and the lengths suit their skating abilities. Lacrosse players, too, have specific requirements for their sticks. I should know!

At the office, many of us have adapted these sports equipment routines that have been with us since we first picked up a ball. Instead of a glove, or a stick, we now ensure that our computers are set up in a certain way, that our voice mail messages are professional and engaging, and that our smartphones contain everything we need to get through the day.

While all this attention to equipment is important, even more critical, whether on the field or in business, is the focus on teamwork. Without a team of talented people striving for the same goal, it really doesn’t matter how well any equipment serves our individual talents. Without teamwork, individual success will be much more difficult to achieve. Team, or company, success will be just about impossible.

Jim

All the players, along with the manager and coaches, were introduced to the fans at this year’s opening day at Yankee Stadium. Danilo Valiente received polite applause. But, for the many fans who were at the park or watched the ceremonies on television, Danilo Valiente was an unknown wearing a pinstripe uniform.

Was he a new player? A new coach?

“It was just like a dream,” he told reporters later. “I was standing there thinking: How could I be here? What am I doing in this place? I could feel the tears coming down my face. It was the biggest thing that ever happened to me.”

Here’s the story about how the 47-year-old Danilo got to that place, how he heard his name on the public address system at Yankee Stadium and how he found himself standing along the first base line with the manager, coaches and players.

Danilo played ball in Cuba until he was 25 years old, reaching the equivalent of that country’s Class AAA league. He was told that too many good players were ahead of him, so he decided to become a coach. He also managed, leading the Boyeros club to the 1996 championship. One of his pitchers on Boyeros would become a Yankee—Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez. Danilo then coached for an even more prestigious club but had to supplement his meager earnings by working at a hospital. During all this time, he learned the art of throwing batting practice.

He married an American woman and moved to Tampa. Soon after, his wife died and Danilo needed to become more immersed in baseball to address his grief. He even found the nerve to approach Mark Newman, a senior Yankees official, during one of Newman’s morning walks around the Yankees spring training and minor league complex in Tampa. He requested a position with the Yankees organization. It took a while, but Danilo eventually was hired. He worked in Tampa and with three of the Yankees minor league teams. The players raved about his ability to throw batting practice, which has become a highly-prized specialty, and he was promoted to the big league team last September.

So, you ask, how was a batting practice pitcher selected to be introduced at Yankee Stadium prior to the home opener?

A day earlier, the Yankees were flying to New York when one of the players called Danilo to the back of the airplane for a brief discussion. The player told Danilo that not only did he deserve the promotion but that he also deserved to be acknowledged. The player said that he had informed management that Danilo should be introduced at Yankee Stadium. Danilo was told to be ready for the opening day ceremonies.

Derek Jeter was that Yankees player who made it happen for Danilo to be introduced before 48,000 fans at Yankee Stadium. Upon hearing the story, one longtime baseball fan repeated what many people have said about the Yankees shortstop for 20 years: “He gets it!”

Perseverance by Danilo and leadership by Derek led to an experience of a lifetime. These are two great lessons for you to follow each time you begin your workday.

- Jim

Watching a baseball game has become a bit confusing. With some exceptions, the game has not changed for more than 150 years. But, now, I can’t always find the third baseman!

If you are having the same trouble, then you will need to adjust how you watch the game. Sometimes I have found the third baseman in shallow right field. The second baseman has moved, too. He frequently appears on the left side of the infield, closer to the shortstop, whom, by the way, has moved deeper into the hole on some batters.

This new infield alignment developed gradually over the last few years but it has exploded across the diamond this season. The strategy is based on statistical analysis of where batted balls are put into play. Now, players often are repositioned far from familiar territory. Shifting also is a little psychological game that opposing teams impose on batters—that game within a game competition.

Last season in Major League Baseball, 8,134 shifts were recorded when balls were hit into play. Already through mid-May, teams had shifted 3,213 times. If this keeps up, MLB will implement about 14,000 shifts this season. Many batters will see their season averages plummet 30 or 40 points.

While everyone is chatting about the effects of the infield shift, the concept really is not new. When looking back at baseball’s infancy and then its dead ball era and its golden years, the game’s historians found evidence that extreme shifts, at times, had been used by teams. Baseball artwork from the 1880s indicates that basemen stood on top of their respective bases. During more modern times, but still before many of us were fans, teams shifted drastically for Ted Williams.

“Shifting” travels farther back in time for business, occurring long before it became fashionable for a baseball player from Cincinnati to wear a red stocking. More recently, though, we have become accustomed to hearing about the latest version of the business plan in the form of the “paradigm shift.” That phrase is just a contemporary term for looking at something from a different angle, or obtaining new information to create a successful strategy. Put simply, it is no different than “thinking outside the box” or implementing best practices.

At the end of each day, whether we are involved in business or baseball, results often get summarized in quick recaps. Diamond shifts, paradigm shifts and other plans and strategies are not included in the box scores reserved to report just the wins and losses. So, should you decide to implement a “shift” or another plan from your business strategy that cuts against conventional thinking, be sure that it is well researched and strategically managed. When it is, you will enjoy reading your business box scores again on the following morning.

- Jim

Ed Petrazzolo never attended Notre Dame University. But, a few months ago, he was overjoyed to meet Brian Kelly, the head coach of the Irish, during the Notre Dame Club of Staten Island’s 25th anniversary celebration.

That night, Kelly and many others honored Ed for his commitment to his family, his faith, his country and his community. The club presented its highest honor to the 90-year-old one-time athlete and war veteran for “devotion to the ideals and spirit” of the university and for a life that “clearly reflects the values and mission of Our Lady’s University.”

Instead of attending college, Brooklyn-raised Ed fought his way across Europe during World War II as part of the 371st Ordinance Battalion of the First Army. He landed at Utah Beach a few days after D-Day, participated in the liberation of France, fought in the Battle of the Bulge, crossed the Rhine River and helped liberate survivors at the Nordhausen concentration camp.

Before the war, Ed had been a pretty good and promising baseball player. He was a lefty pitcher who signed with the rival Yankees, but his sports career, as with so many at the time, was placed on hold for the war. So were his plans for higher education. When he returned from Europe, he made it to the AAA Newark Bears. But, with a first child on the way soon after, baseball at that time would not have been the best career choice to support his family.

So, Ed became a proofreader and he worked with the New York Journal-American for 25 years. Then, he switched careers to enter, of all things, the insurance business. By then, Ed and his wife had moved from Brooklyn to Staten Island. He became active immediately in that borough’s community affairs, supporting veterans groups, youth baseball camps and activities at his local church. Somewhere during all of this he became involved with the Notre Dame Club.

One of Ed’s fondest memories is not of baseball, his newspaper work, or even his success in insurance. Instead, he remembered a chance meeting with a young Belgian student during the war. The student had been deported for civil unrest and then liberated from a camp. Ed assisted him with clothes and a pistol for protection as the student had to walk miles upon miles to his home.
“I went back again 60 years later in 2005,” Ed told a local newspaper, “and located him and spent some time discussing things. He said he had me always in his mind.”

During his travels through baseball, war, the newspaper business and insurance, a commitment to support others became deeply imbedded within the soul of Ed Petrazzalo. It is fitting that such an institution as Notre Dame has recognized Ed for his life-long contributions to so many people.

Jim

Last year, Willie Gabay’s season seemed, finally, to get back on track. Then, boom! Bad fortune struck again.

He had just been promoted to the Hudson Valley Renegades, the short season minor league team of the Tampa Bay Rays that plays in Dutchess County, when he was struck in the face with a ball during batting practice.

This was minor setback for Willie. A few years earlier, he had been cut from his high school team. When asked about it now, he just shrugs it off, feeling the high school experience helped to shape his character and make him a better player. After all, now he is playing professional ball.

Willie did play for his community college team. He pitched well enough to get selected in the 15th round (482nd overall) in the 2012 major League Baseball amateur draft. He throws 90+ miles per hour.

The first season in pro ball on the Rays’ rookie team did not go well. Command issues, especially with off-speed pitches, led to an ERA over seven. Willie worked on his mechanics at an instructional league, where he found a familiar face. A fellow graduate from his high school was a top pitching prospect in the Rays organization. He frequently offered Willie encouragement.

As Willie mastered his pitching mechanics, he improved the command of his pitches. Then, he developed a rotator-cuff injury that slowed his progress. Once that was addressed, he debuted in the Gulf Coast League and quickly was promoted to the Single-A Renegades.

During his first outing, after pitching three strong innings, a circulation problem in his throwing arm sidelined him. Right after that, the ball broke his nose. A little later, some good news came his way—the tests on his arm came back negative.

As we get into shape for another baseball season, I haven’t heard anything more about Willie Gabay. I just hope his 2014 spring training and regular season go smoothly. He sure has the determination to succeed.

Jim