Owning Cardinal Perceptions

If you've read our blog before, particularly posts from me, you know that I'm a gi-normous baseball fan and even bigger St. Louis Cardinals fan. On Tuesday of this week, the New York Times published a story about my beloved Cardinals. The Cardinals are known in baseball for the 'Cardinal Way', but the allegations in the NY Times' story shed light on a different Cardinal Way. It is such a big story that it was on Today, NPR, Wired.com, bizjournals.com, fortune.com, Politico, and even the BBC across the pond.

The Houston Astros have alleged that members of the St. Louis Cardinals organization 'hacked' the Astros' database of player personnel files containing trade talk memos, scouting reports, and proprietary statistics. They were alerted to this by the appearance of closely-held information anonymously posted to a website last year. They began working with the FBI and Department of Justice to find the culprits and bring them to justice.

This is bad for the Cardinals, and bad for baseball. The Cardinals currently boast the best record in Major League Baseball. Rob Manfred, current MLB Commissioner, is in his first season as commissioner, and prior to the All-Star break is in the midst of a corporate espionage scandal courtesy of a federal law from 1986 regarding computers. Yeah...not much has changed since then. I'll spare you a lot of the mundane details, but Cardinal employees allegedly accessed a database from a Jupiter, FL home (site of their Spring Training) using a list of passwords left in a former employee's office. You can't make this stuff up. It reeks of jilted junior high romance, and revenge.

However, what I really want to talk about is what happened on Thursday. Bill DeWitt, Chairman of the St. Louis Cardinals issued a statement regarding the allegations against his organization. In it he said, "These are serious allegations that don't reflect who we are as an organization." Blah blah blah! "We hold ourselves to the highest standards in every facet of our organization. It has been that way forever, and is certainly true today." Blah Blah Blah!

I could've written this statement with boiler-plate language that would've fit any number of scandals - political, academic, religious, collegiate, or personal. I have one request in these situations. Like it or not - own it!

I know that my beloved Cardinals are in damage control, but what can demonstrate higher standards than saying, "I'm ashamed of what has happened, and we will work to change,"? Nothing! Perception management and damage control only prolong reconciliation and healing. Yes, this does reflect the Cardinals organization right now. It may not have a week ago, but it does right now. It is part of the history of the organization from now on. Just own it already! More than that - this translates to all areas of life.

Years ago, I would've been in denial about many of my own issues, and this just delayed my ability and willingness to deal with them. If I was lying, admit it and change. If I was hurtful, admit it and change. If I was an addict, admit it and change. On the eve of my second Father's Day, this is one lesson that I will teach my children. Don't lie to yourself, and meet your faults directly.

Managing perception is tiresome, and delays progress, more often than not. I don't care if I live in a mountain town, and it's only hot and humid 3-4 months out of the year. The Egyptians came up with a concept of cooling residences in ancient times. In 1902, air-conditioning was mechanized. Then it was further developed and installed, for the first time, in a private residence in North Carolina. Air conditioning is great! Granted this is a silly example, but I want steady, reliable air-conditioning. Boone A/C rant over.

 I don't care if your team only had four players arrested this weekend. It does say something about your school or organization and it's standards. I don't care if only a few people committed fraud. It is a part of your team's, school's, government's, or business's standard of operation. I don't care if only one crazy person did one insane thing, it does say something about your society as a whole.

I never progressed personally by saying, "Well Adam that was just one mistake at a given time. That was just one accident. That was just one poor choice. That doesn't define me." I only made progress when I owned and admitted my failures and short comings.

Go Cardinals and Happy Father's Day!

MLB Opening Week

"The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time."

- "Field of Dreams": Adapted from Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella

The 2014 Major League Baseball season began this week, and a season of hope sprung for 30 franchises chasing the dream of playing a summer game on a cold October night for the World Series Championship.

This is the one sporting time of year that our house is divided...me being a St. Louis Cardinals fan and Katy being an Atlanta Braves fan. It helps our relationship that our teams play in different divisions, but it can make for a tricky week or 2 at points during the season, especially if our teams make the playoffs. Soon, we will have another member of our family...will she choose the Braves, the Cardinals, another team or no team at all?

As I write this, there are 156 games to go in this regular season.

I love baseball for many reasons: memories of St. Louis, keeping a scorecard, ice cream in mini-helmets, the smell of a grass field, the anticipation of action before a pitch, hot dogs, playing catch, the crack of a bat, statistics, family; but mainly I love it because perfection in baseball is borne out of struggle.

Consider this...the 20 best hitters in the history of a game that pre-dates the Civil War succeeded only in 1/3 of their plate appearances. In any other sport an average success rate near 30% passing, shooting or scoring would be unacceptable, at least, and cause for never playing the game again. However, hitting in baseball is arguably the most difficult feat in sport.

The history of the game is littered with stories of trial, error and ultimately success. Imagine playing your entire life as a pitcher, earning a roster sport on a major league team, earning an 11-7 record in your first full season, and following that up with one of the worst performances ever in baseball. This is the story of Rick Ankiel, but it doesn't end there. He would reform his career in baseball as an outfielder, and play for 6 more seasons in the big leagues.

The seasons come and go. Seasons have begun to leave indelible marks on my life as the seasons roll on. Fans fill ballparks and witness all of the outs until 1 champion is crowned.

Who knows what the 2014 season holds? Not me...but I know that I will watch it.