The regularly scheduled Major League Baseball season, before the playoffs, is 162 games. Traditionally, any team that wins 100 or more games is considered the best team in baseball, not always the winner of the World Series, there are many other variables involved, but the best team overall.
That means that even very good professional baseball teams lose more than 62 games a year, which shows that losing is a huge part of baseball. Realizing that, it should be a natural assumption that “how to lose” would be taught as a normal part of learning baseball, not unlike practicing on the field.
However, as some of the coaching and parenting outbursts exemplify, after losses, especially disproportionate or critical ones, it tends to suggest that some sadly lack the skills to teach how to become a well-rounded ballplayer.
I was always impressed by Thomas Edison’s approach to defeat or failure, and paraphrasing, he said, “I didn’t fail 1000 times to make the invention work … I was successful 1000 times discovering how the invention wouldn’t work.” What a difference attitude makes.
There are many examples of great men and philosophers, much smarter than me, offering advice on how to handle defeat, but I would like to share some examples that I found successful as a baseball coach.
(1.) Take the team away from the chaos of departing fans or new arriving fans and teams, either under the shade of a tree in foul territory, or in the parking lot, for a “Team” discussion. .
(2.) Always start the talk with something positive. No matter how bad the game is, something good always happens.
(a.) “Today we hit the cap of the ball.” Needless to add, we also allow 20 runs, you know.
(b.) “Our outfield played a great game today.” Because the other team kept firing rockets at our launchers.
(3.) Mention a lesson … ready for this, the coach learned from the game.
(a.) “I learned that I have not done a good job teaching the executive base.” It doesn’t matter if you’ve talked until you’re sad about running bases. It is never the fault of the players per se. There is a lot of guilt for everyone.
(4.) If the defeat occurred in a tournament-type atmosphere against an unknown opponent, always overestimate the opponent’s abilities, even if you know better.
(a.) “I’m proud of you guys / girls for playing your best. That was a hand-picked traveling team and you gave them all they could.”
(5.) Lastly, just admit that you got your butt hit and it happens. One trick is to memorize a date when the city’s professional baseball team or a great historic team like the Yankees took a beating. Why not make an appointment? Because with today’s technology, a player will quickly Google the date and tell you that the team didn’t play that day, messing up the intention.
(a.) “On May 5, 2011, the Cubs beat the Cardinals 14-2. Now, if the Cardinals can lose to the Cubs like that, it happens to everyone.”
The key for a coach to remember is that a game is just glorified practice. You wouldn’t jump up and scream if a player missed an easy grounder during infield practice. (If you do … Stop training!) Either you would correct your mistake, stay under the ball, or maybe even take it lightly.
Baseball is a never-ending game of learning and learning how to handle defeat is a necessary skill.