Playing to Win

As was pointed out not too long ago in a scoop from our friendly Fridley folks, there's no "i" in the word team. I like to point out there isn't an "i" in the word abalone either. So I ask you, between the two "i" less words, which has a harder time seeing? Do we see better functioning teams than we do abalones?

We're (and when I say "we're" I'm including I) coming to the close of another softball season, and this is the perfect time to look back, reflect, and evaluate all the lessons that were learned. Playing for two different teams, won/losswise it was far from a successful season. The combined records of those two teams was five wins and nineteen losses. That's a winning percentage even lower than our lovable Minnesota Twins. During a long and difficult season, there were a couple of feats pulled off that I for one never thought I'd see on a slowpitch softball field- getting shutout, and watching an opposing pitcher strike out the side on us one inning.

The lack of success in the win/loss category made me have even more sympathy for our local baseball lads. As a player, I realized it's a lot more difficult to play well when the team is struggling as a whole, and you constantly find yourself behind and trying to catch up. It's hard to remain focused when everyone on the team is making those little mistakes that add up to another loss. Mistakes breed upon themselves. You find yourself making mental and physical errors you have never made in your life.

Losing is an unhappy attitude that is contagious. You begin to question your teammates' abilities and they look back at you and wonder when will be the next time you make a blunder. The little things all seemed magnified, and whatever enjoyment just playing the game once held, doesn't seem to bring any satisfaction anymore. Everyone is just sort of going through the motions, waiting for the mistakes to happen and knowing the outcome of the game before it is even played.

To develop a winning team, there are several things you have to learn and practice every week. Attitude is more important than ability. My Wednesday night team has played together for several years. The last few seasons we were clearly playing teams with more ability (not to mention youth) but we won as much as we lost. The only way we managed that was because we played exceedingly well as a team. We knew what each other was and was not capable of doing. When that key hit was needed, it always seemed we had the right guy at the plate. When we needed an out in the field, it always seemed the batter would hit it to a sure pair of hands.

This season has been a different story. It's the same group of guys, but early season mistakes, and games kicked away built a different attitude. Instead of expecting to stay close and win our share of games, we began to play as if we were afraid of losing. Almost every week one of us would make a mistake at a crucial moment of the game, and then the rest of us would follow by not being able to overcome the errors.

My Thursday night team is a fairly new team. It took us a while to get to know one and other so the first few weeks we struggled. But come the third or fourth game of the season we began to gel. The team wasn't blessed with a lot of talented players (bit player, journeyman David was perhaps the best overall player on the team, more of a comment on the lack of talent than any glowing scouting report on David's alarming deterioration as a useful player). But we hit a little winning streak simply because it was a team that didn't make a lot of mistakes to beat ourselves. Then the wheels fell off. We stopped playing as a team and while individuals were hitting better, we never were able to string hits together for a big inning. Someone would make a nice play in the field but it was negated because a teammate wasn't ready for the throw. The last few games were sheer torture as none of us played particularly well together. We expected to get beat, and we seriously did.

Thus the lesson learned this summer was to succeed, a team has to be able to play together and pick each other up. The attitude brought into a game was perhaps the most important thing that got away from us. When both of the teams started looking for ways we were going to lose, we were very successful in finding them. Individuals might play well, but the teams as a whole lost their focus and we no longer played trying to win, instead we played trying to avoid losing. There is a big difference.