FanNation - The Republic of Sport

The right way to build a team

If mankind could get by without “It”, very few would concede an actual desire to depend upon others for any part of their livelihood or existence. Independence and individuality seem inherently at odds with the concepts of mutual acceptance of and tolerance for one another’s pre-dispositions. However, the climb of civilization out of the miry depths of chaos into its current state of universal integration was predicated on Man’s ability to function as co-inhabitants and world wide “team players”.

Certainly those individuals who participate in team sports should be considered prime prospects for espousing the concept of working together for a common good. Teamwork in sports can be construed as a strategy by which team members try to unify their individual efforts to promote a higher and collective goal of winning a particular prize that all players must share.

The real essence of teamwork is a factor of compatibility from which any challenging situation may be reduced to a solution through cooperative endeavor. Compatibility is a substantive alliance between two or more distinct entities to promote harmony. Cooperation is the only feasible means to procure and establish an effective sense of Teamwork! Uncooperative participants are incompatible and diminish the high goal of achieving a unified sense of teamwork. Inability to cooperate with high moral and ethical standards and practices would jeopardize the foundational structure of the “Team.”

As certainly as universal harmony would be an aspiring goal of worldwide teamwork, so it could be instigated by the examples set at any of the simple and modest levels of current athletic competition. Be creative and think about what it would take to establish a team of such remarkably cooperative individuals that the spirit of love, camaraderie, and success would no doubt permeate the entire environment and eliminate any hostile element of personal or communal dissent.

Let’s see! What would it take to begin such a revolutionary entrepreneurial venture? First it would take the philanthropic concern of an enterprising executive (owner) whose love of the game supercedes the traditional “bottom-line” mentality of most “Entertainment Czars”. This unusual breed of “Benevolent Benefactor” would probably have to be a multi-billionaire whose livelihood didn’t depend upon receipts garnered at the turnstiles. Or he’d have to be a person of enormous faith in the unworldly, intangible concept of “… what blesses one, blesses all, and vice-versa.” His investment would be based completely on the sound and unwavering belief that “Good” is the source and emanation of an honorable and worthwhile endeavor – the “seed within itself”. His intent would have to embody the thinking of a certain nineteenth century visionary whose every project enlisted the contemplation of her original textbook words, “… right motives give pinions to thought and strength and freedom to speech and action.”

So this prospective “Man-of-Vision” would first have to set his sights on providing to the community a team of ballplayers whose exemplary character and athletic abilities could instill pride and comfort on and off the ball field into the hearts and minds of its adoring fans.

Secondly, the General Managerial position, Field Manager, Farm-Director, and other administrative assistants would have to incorporate the astute personnel-profiling tools that would enlist only those individuals whose aims and goals were compatible with those of the administrative web (not hierarchy), and whose athletic talents warranted their being part of the big-league “Team”.

Thirdly, since selfishness, greed, and flagrant unseemly behavior on and off the field are counter-productive to meritorious service and community well-being, ballplayers should be drafted, chosen, or solicited first on the basis of their character, then on athletic ability. This standard would almost seem too radical for contemporary agencies for scouting talent. However, character-building credentials could easily translate to skill development, if the instructional aspect of the Organization is under the supervision of an administrator with impeccable understanding of the mechanical principles applicable to the game. Therefore optimal physical skills would not be essential at first, but strong moral and ethical character would be a “must”. The rationale for this revolutionary presumption is that, since (righteous) thought precedes (controlled) action, technique for superlative functioning is easier taught to one with a sound and principled work ethic.

Team unity in professional sports must incorporate a mutually caring and considerate relationship between the players and administrative personnel and the executive administrators. Each has at least an indirect influence on the success and well being of the others. However the executive branch of the Organization wishes to handle the varying accommodations, acknowledgment of this subtle fact must always be under consideration, namely, “You are only as strong as your weakest link”. Bible references from Paul’s epistles confirm that not a single part of the body should be taken for granted, abused, or in anyway not cared for as the rest, even those commonly considered inferior or “less honorable”. One verse states, “… if the foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? The head cannot say of the feet, I have no need of thee.”

The “Web” of organizational tactics, discipline, and dissimulation starts from the center where the executive offices feed outwardly in concentric order to those who carry out essential duties according to their respective positions within the network. The ballplayers hold the enviable position at the peripheral end of the web, where most attention is paid by outside observers. The glamour aspect of professional sports is augmented by the high-profile notoriety of prominent personalities and the extreme celebrity status of “star” performers.

Although an individual’s salary should be commensurate with the actual relative value he provides to the team, no one should be paid such an exorbitant amount so as to create an unnecessary dissention among personnel of slightly inferior ability. One person does not a team make. And, once it is established that the secret of success (even in sports) is not predicated on the predisposed, abundant abilities of the so-called “natural ballplayer”, but in learned and assimilated techniques taught to those receptive and humble minds willing to expand current horizons, public scrutiny will no longer have to cater to the egotistical whims of selfish non-compliant players, and ego-centric lives of arrogant “glory-hounds”.