Finding Leadership Between The Baselines

You can find examples of leadership in many different places. From your supervisors and bosses. From coworkers. From just being observant and watching people on a general basis. But I never thought I would find a lingering memory of leadership on a baseball field during a moment of fan chaos.

Back in 2001 I was working my first season with the Brooklyn Cyclones minor league baseball team. I was very excited. I had always had a love for baseball and this is was first experience of working for a team, having volunteered with both National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association and also the World Cup tournaments.?

That evening I was behind a customer service table. My job was to address any fan issues in addition to help manage and facilitate the promotions that we had scheduled between innings on the field. This table was set up directly behind home plate on our concourse. I had a great view of the fans and of the action on the field.

Late in the game, a fan decided to run onto the field. Now this is the first home stand that the team ever had. The team launched in 2001 on the road in Ohio and only two days earlier had experienced their first home game, which was also the return of baseball to Brooklyn after 44 years!?

I was aware how much training I had received in preparation for this game, which was minimal, but I was unsure of how much training our security staff, made up of off-duty police officers, had been given. While they were all exceptional officers, it seems the fan running on the field caught each of them off guard. And it was quite a delayed reaction to address him, as if everyone thought that someone else was going to run on the field to try and catch him.

After moments of chaotically running around the outfield, our fan finally made the decision for his final destination……he wanted to come home. So he reached the area around second base and started off the third, eventually two police officers following him. As he turned home he saw a path that was wide open for him. That’s because in preparation, our catcher, Mike Jacobs , was ready to show his leadership and get this situation taken care of. Having already dropped his mask and glove, Mike, unbeknownst to our fan and everyone else in attendance that night, was in the perfect position to grab him just before reaching home and bring him down to the ground in advance of the police officers scooping him up and taking him off the field. Mike took charge of the situation, one that was interrupting the experience of 7500+ fans and the business two teams had been focused on as part of a baseball game

The crowd went wild and gave Mike a standing ovation. They had their first hero to cheer for on the field and a clear impression was made to Mike’s teammates as well. We watched over the next week and a half as Mike clearly displayed his leadership abilities with his teammates off the field and with his bat and glove on it. The cheers were slightly louder for him as he approached the plate for his at bats and his results were noticed by the Mets minor-league department as he became the Cyclones’ first notable call up to the next level

Some might say that Mike took a lot of risk while taking down that fan. And they would not be wrong. He clearly could have hurt himself and affected his career. But Mike also was able to see opportunity and readied to himself for the next steps that may take place. As a catcher you were prepared for collisions at the plate (or at least this used to be the rule). So he was ready and had a direction that he knew this event needed to go in.

This leadership ability took him through his major league career and now as a minor league manager and coach.?This event still remains one of my fondest memories of working in Minor League Baseball?but, as I addressed earlier, a clear indication of how someone can take a leadership role in some of the most unique circumstances.

#leadership #decisionmaking #milb #baseball #lifeexperiences