I like this time of year. There’s a chill in the air in the morning that often gives way to warm sunshine through the day. The leaves are starting to change. The humidity is down, and it smells fresh.
It’s fall, which means high school and college football. Raking leaves on a Saturday afternoon with the football game on the radio is a simple pleasure that I enjoy each fall.
But baseball is the bigger part of the reason I like it. Changing leaves means baseball playoffs. I grew up in Minnesota and live in Wisconsin. The Minnesota Twins are my favorite pro team, but since moving to Wisconsin 15 years ago the Brewers, especially in 2011, have been a team I enjoy following as well. For many of the years in the first decade of the twenty-first century my Twins made the playoffs (though most often made a quick exit, too). This year the Twins were dismal, but the Brew Crew put together a fun playoff run.
On the last day of the MLB season this year, there were eight games that had playoff implications. I watched several of these games with some Northland employees at a local eating establishment with many large screen TVs. We felt like we were there during March Madness, except the games moved slightly more slowly. That was a very enjoyable evening for me.
People make sports analogies to compare to business all the time (“it’s a marathon, not a sprint,” “develop a game plan,” etc), but I have always thought the baseball season epitomizes business is more ways than other sports.
· While it is a team game, each individual gets his/her time at the plate with the chance to succeed.
· The fundamentals of each position are important to overall team success, yet most often the detail work doesn’t get recognized by the casual observer, or even some of the teammates.
· There is a strong focus on numbers (the statistics), made more apparent by the recent new Brad Pitt movie Moneyball.
· The most successful hitters in the game are unsuccessful most of the time, getting hits 3 times out of 10 attempts.
· The season is long, and some days it is difficult to get up and go back to the grind, often with irritating and aggravating minor inconveniences.
· No matter how bad a given day is, tomorrow is a new day, and the score is reset to 0-0. Likewise, no matter how good a given day is, tomorrow is a new day, and the score is reset to 0-0.
· There is no time clock to run out. You can keep playing until you run out of outs.
I might be stretching a bit, but I believe over the course of a season, just as a baseball team will have streaks of success, and streaks of failure, any business will have good days, weeks or months, and days, weeks or months that are a struggle. But the key is to come back to work tomorrow, because each new day uncovers new opportunity. Some seasons might find you enjoying a playoff run, some seasons might have you saying “wait ‘til next year!” and some seasons might have you planning reorganizing and rebuilding.
As the days get shorter, eventually a different sports analogy will carry the day. But through October, it is time to enjoy the baseball playoffs and World Series. Next year maybe I can watch a game in Target Field, or better yet, Target Field and Miller Park.
Enjoy your fall, and good luck Brewers!
Written by Pete Marsnik, CEO, Northland Buildings, Inc.
It’s fall, which means high school and college football. Raking leaves on a Saturday afternoon with the football game on the radio is a simple pleasure that I enjoy each fall.
But baseball is the bigger part of the reason I like it. Changing leaves means baseball playoffs. I grew up in Minnesota and live in Wisconsin. The Minnesota Twins are my favorite pro team, but since moving to Wisconsin 15 years ago the Brewers, especially in 2011, have been a team I enjoy following as well. For many of the years in the first decade of the twenty-first century my Twins made the playoffs (though most often made a quick exit, too). This year the Twins were dismal, but the Brew Crew put together a fun playoff run.
On the last day of the MLB season this year, there were eight games that had playoff implications. I watched several of these games with some Northland employees at a local eating establishment with many large screen TVs. We felt like we were there during March Madness, except the games moved slightly more slowly. That was a very enjoyable evening for me.
People make sports analogies to compare to business all the time (“it’s a marathon, not a sprint,” “develop a game plan,” etc), but I have always thought the baseball season epitomizes business is more ways than other sports.
· While it is a team game, each individual gets his/her time at the plate with the chance to succeed.
· The fundamentals of each position are important to overall team success, yet most often the detail work doesn’t get recognized by the casual observer, or even some of the teammates.
· There is a strong focus on numbers (the statistics), made more apparent by the recent new Brad Pitt movie Moneyball.
· The most successful hitters in the game are unsuccessful most of the time, getting hits 3 times out of 10 attempts.
· The season is long, and some days it is difficult to get up and go back to the grind, often with irritating and aggravating minor inconveniences.
· No matter how bad a given day is, tomorrow is a new day, and the score is reset to 0-0. Likewise, no matter how good a given day is, tomorrow is a new day, and the score is reset to 0-0.
· There is no time clock to run out. You can keep playing until you run out of outs.
I might be stretching a bit, but I believe over the course of a season, just as a baseball team will have streaks of success, and streaks of failure, any business will have good days, weeks or months, and days, weeks or months that are a struggle. But the key is to come back to work tomorrow, because each new day uncovers new opportunity. Some seasons might find you enjoying a playoff run, some seasons might have you saying “wait ‘til next year!” and some seasons might have you planning reorganizing and rebuilding.
As the days get shorter, eventually a different sports analogy will carry the day. But through October, it is time to enjoy the baseball playoffs and World Series. Next year maybe I can watch a game in Target Field, or better yet, Target Field and Miller Park.
Enjoy your fall, and good luck Brewers!
Written by Pete Marsnik, CEO, Northland Buildings, Inc.
