Coach Bob Walpole - Meaning of Team

Okay, I was a coach for many years out in the Long Island area and I learned a lot coaching all that time but one incident really sticks out in my mind. I had gone to a clinic and heard a man say this and I carried it on when I was coaching.

My team was playing a team from Bethpage Long Island and it was a really big game. We had to win that particular game to get in the playoffs and if we had wanted it would have made everything simple. Otherwise, another team would have gotten into the playoffs that was in our league. The last play of the game was a ground ball to my second baseman. A ground ball that he could have picked up in front of first base and that would have been the end of the game and we would have won. 

The ball was sent to my second baseman. He picked it up. It was a routine ground ball and he threw it wild to first base. The runner who was on third base scored. The runner who was on second base scored. And we wound up losing eight to seven. 

On the way back in the bus, one of my players came up to me and said, “Coach, John is really struggling in the back of the bus. He's crying.” We're talking about high school kids here. So, I said, okay. So, I said to my fellow coach, “I'm going to do what we saw in that clinic.” And he goes, “Wow, that's powerful.” So, I walked to the back and I said, “John, you doing okay?” And he goes, “No coach, I'm not doing okay at all.” He says, “I cost us the season.” So, I left him and went to the front of the bus, turned around and said, “John, I sympathize with you. You think you cost us the game and you know what, you did cost us the game. What the hell are you doing? You threw the ball that you've taken 8 million times wild since you're in a little league. We've drilled on it and no, you picked it up and threw it wild and cost us this season. It's really hard to believe.” And then I sat down.

And the players looked at me like they couldn't believe what I had just said. I stood up 2 minutes later and said, “Okay, I want to say something here. And it's about the importance of teamwork. You know what? Fasano my catcher. Fasano, you cost us the game because in the second Inning on a steal, you threw it to center field and that guy that was still in the base tagged up from third later and scored. That's a run. No. You know what? Sona, I think you cost us the game. You didn't hit the cutoff man and the third inning and by not hitting him, they scored two runs. I think you cost us the game. No. Wait a second. Barbary, I think you cost us the game. You missed the signal to bunt and my guy was thrown out trying to get the second base. I think you cost us the game. You know what? Cosano, not only that, you failed to pick out a bunt in the sixth inning.”

And I said, “Listen. All I'm trying to get out is this: you've got to realize the meaning of the word team. No-one cost you a game in baseball. No-one. Everybody wins the game together or they lose the game together. If we had done the things that we could have done and we didn't, we would have won that game. If a guy gets up and hits a two-run homer in the last thing and we're losing by a run, we win. But if he hits a two-run homer in the fourth inning and we're losing by 7, that two-run homer is meaningless in the end score. Okay? So, you've got to realize that. John, you didn't cost us the game. We all cost us the game. 

Stay with that thought and whenever you have children or anything like that, implant that in them.”

To end the story, at a reunion 20 years later, I saw John. He came over to me and he says, “Coach.” I said, “Hey John, how you doing?” He says, “I'm doing fine. I'm living down south. I have a good job. I'm married. I have three children”. And he says, “I tell that story to the team that I coach every time we meet before the beginning of the season.”

No-one is responsible and everyone is responsible. Never put blame on yourself. There's a lot of people that exemplify the word team and they can honor that - they can honor that quote, okay? And I hope you are one of them. I hope you get something out of this and make kids feel like I'm part of a team. That's the value of being on the team. You're just part of something. You're not the be all and end all of anything. It's not an individual sport.