I’ve been meaning to share this article with you for a little while now. Fortunately, it was re-posted and jogged my memory to post it here.
The article is about the trials and tribulations of Jose Bautista… where he started to where he is right now.
It’s a pretty impressive story, and definitely not the run-of-the-mill path to success that many superstars in the game have followed.
Because my Dad loves to highlight articles for me (and fill me in on the key points before I get a chance to read them) here’s a few points that struck a chord with me:
- Being a top prospect is no guarantee for immediate success. After being tabbed as a Pirates prospect, Bautista bounced between FIVE different teams… in ONE year!
- You have to learn how to fail AND react to failure. Even though on the surface, there’s nothing wrong with expecting to get a hit every time up, Bautista needed to learn the difference between getting hits and having great At Bats. He also had to learn not SHOWING how much he “cared,” after “bad” At Bats. ( He punched a trash can after an at bat that didn’t go his way… and broke his hand. (I covered this topic with another player HERE.)
- You have to believe in yourself even when nobody else seems to be in your corner. After being let go by the one team that thought he could eventually hit 30 dingers in The Show, every other team had serious doubts about Bautista’s bat, and whether or not he would ever hit for power. Bautista knew his strengths, (i.e. turning on just about every pitch over the plate) and stuck with them.
- Great things happen when you find a coach that knows what they’re talking about…and knows how to explain what they’re teaching in a way you can understand them and put them to good use! Bautista knew how to hit, but without the guidance of Cito Gaston and Dwayne Murphy, you wouldn’t be reading this!
- It’s a shame that in today’s game, any player that becomes successful “overnight,” is automatically accused of doing something illegal. Believe it or not, you actually can become great by working hard and persevering!
There are several great quotes in this article, but this one is just flat-out great:
Baseball is one of the sports where it’s hardest to make adjustments and trust in changes. Your results immediately are affected by making a change, and at least at the beginning, in the short term, it affects them negatively. Your production goes down when you make a change. It might help you in the long run, but it’s really tough to trust in yourself. You feel like your role gets affected, and maybe negatively. I knew I needed to make changes to become successful in the future. But if I did them and didn’t pick it up in one or two months, I might’ve been out of a job anyway. It’s hard for guys to do that, and I know because I went through it.” – Jose Bautista
Shockingly, there’s a lot more to this article. It really is a great read with a boat-load of priceless information.
Click Here to read the full article
Coach Bones
