Leadership...It is Up To You! (The Tommy John Story!)

Tommy John, one of baseball's most savvy and durable pitchers played twenty-six seasons in the majors. TWENTY-SIX Seasons!! His rookie year Kennedy was President. His final year, George H. W. Bush was President! He pitched to Mickey Mantle and Mark McGuire.

It's an almost superhuman accomplishment. But he was able to do it because he got really good at asking himself and others one question over and over again: Is there a chance? Do I have a shot? Is there something I can do?

All he ever looked for was a Yes, no matter how slight or tentative the chance. If there was a chance he was ready to take it and ready to give every ounce of effort he had to make it happen

The first time came during the middle of the 1974 season when Tommy John blew out his elbow permanently damaging the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching arm. Up until then when a pitcher blew out his elbow that was it. Game over.

John wouldn't accept that. Was there anything that could give him a shot to get back on the mound? It turns out there was. The surgeon suggested an experimental surgery in which they replace the ligament in his pitching elbow with a tendon from his other arm.

He could have retired, but there was a 1-in-100 chance if he did have the surgery and no chance if he didn't. He took it and WON 164 more games over the next 13 seasons. The procedure is now call the Tommy John surgery.

His baseball career seem to come to an end in 1988 when at age forty-five he was cut by the Yankees. Still he would not accept it. He called the coach and demanded - if he showed up at spring training as a walk-on, would he get a look? They replied you shouldn't be playing baseball at your age. He asked again if I came to spring training would I have a chance? The coaching staff said fine, yes we will give you a look.

He was the first player to report to training camp! He trained many hours a day and brought every lesson he learned for a quarter century and MADE the TEAM as the oldest player in the game! He started the season opener for the Yankees and WON, giving up a scant two runs in seven innings on the road at Minnesota.

The things that Tommy John could change - when he had a chance - got a full 100 percent of the effort - he could muster. He used to tell coaches that he would die on the mound before he quit.

Tommy John understood that as a professional athlete his job was to parse the difference between the unlikely and the impossible. Seeing that minuscule distinction was what made him who he was.

Tommy John is an example of what makes all leaders great!

(excerpt from...THE OSTACLE IS THE WAY by RYAN HOLIDAY) a great book!