Baseball's Home Run Derby Sends A Unique Leadership Message

Forbes

4 days ago

Well-trained leaders will always leap over the fence to prevent the home run.
One of the most popular of events at Major League Baseball's annual 'All-Start Week' is the Home Run Derby, held the night before the actual game. It's intended to be a showcase for the game's greatest sluggers, but this year's star turned out to be a 17 year old kid and his admirable intuition.
The essence of the Derby is pretty simple ‒ whoever hits the most home runs, wins. Yet the actual rules of the Derby are pretty complex. It involves eight players having to navigate three rounds of escalating requirements, decreasing time frames and diminishing numbers of participants. Every swing counts.
A quaint tradition of the Derby is that a number of youngsters are selected as on-field 'ball kids', with the opportunity to shag flies falling short of the outfield fence. It's an exciting opportunity to briefly share the national stage with the players, in what is assumed to be a behind-the-scenes role, unrelated to the actual competition. This year, in Atlanta, one of those ball kids was 17 year old Sam Musterer, the son of an Atlanta Braves official scorer.
Fast forward to the final round, between the Rays' Junior Caminero and the Mariners' Cal Raleigh. At one point Caminero drove a ball deep to left, that was still in the air as it began to cross over the outfield fence.
'I wasn't quite aware of where I was on the fence. I thought the fence was a little taller there. I kind of just reached up and grabbed it.' And grab it he did, unwittingly creating a controversy and becoming an asterisk in Home Run Derby history. A homer, or an out? Since numbers are all that counts in the Derby, it created momentary controversy, but after huddling the umpires ruled it a home run. (Caminero ultimately lost to Raleigh)
Call Musterer's play what you will: 'Intuition'; 'Gut Call'; 'Following Your Instincts'. It's the visceral sense of knowing what do without thought or reasoning. If you're sent to the outfield with a mitt, no matter the circumstances, you have one job-field the ball. And if the ball's in the air, you catch it. And if it's headed over the fence, you jump as high as you can to try to snag it. And young Musterer did what came naturally; what just about any kid would do in the same situation. Why else would he be out there?
You're taught to do that by every coach you've ever had. It's a direction reinforced by the evening highlight reels of great catches by the great outfielders; Pete Crow Armstrong, Brian Buxton and the rest. Could there be consequences? Sure; you might miss it; you might hurt yourself; by your effort you might even help the ball over the fence. But there's no time for a risk analysis. You don't think, you just do.
Whatever you do, it's likely to be a game changer; a momentum shifter.
And it's the same with organizations as it is with baseball. Leaders will periodically be confronted with the business equivalent of a ball headed over the fence. It's likely to be a situation for which they have received some form of education; if not for the exact situation, then certainly enough to have absorbed the basic guidelines, the principles, the core values.
There's an awareness of the underlying mission and what's necessary to achieve it. But just like with the fly ball streaking for the wall, there's no time for reasoning; no time to check notes, no time for a meeting to discuss. You're in charge, you've been trained on the principles, and you react as you've been trained. You try to catch it.
It's often said that baseball is a metaphor for life, particularly as it relates to the importance of training, effort and preparation. Of being prepared for unexpected plays, or circumstances, that can change the outcome of a game.
And that's the Home Run Derby's unexpected lesson for business leaders. Like young Sam Musterer, it's about knowing enough about the 'rules of the game', its ethics and its traditions to react intuitively when the ball finds you. Because it most always will.