Baseball - Shadow Ball, 1930 -1940 (Inning 5)

Customer Review: Inning 5 - Shadow Ball (The Negro Leagues): 1930-1940
In many ways "Shadow Ball" is my favorite episode in Ken Burns' celebrated documentary mini-series on "Baseball." From the very first "inning," Burns has been intent on setting up the greatest moment in the history of the game, when Jackie Robinson stepped on the field in 1942. "Shadow Ball" fully sets the stage for that pivotal moment, looking at the great players of the Negro Leagues: Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, Judy Johnson, and Buck Leonard. Meanwhile, back in the Major Leagues, Lou Gehrig begins the decade playing with Babe Ruth and ends up with Joe DiMaggio while the Yankees take on Dizzy Dean and the Gas House Gang St. Louis Cardinals, but you wonder how either team would have done against the Pittsburgh Crawfords. The impact of the Great Depression also comes into play, inspiring the first All-Star game among other things. Also, this is the episode that makes Buck O'Neill a star. More than any other former star who talks about the old days on these tapes, Buck is the one who becomes baseball's beloved Dutch Uncle and the game's best good will ambassador. Hearing him talk about baseball is an absolute joy. "Shadow Ball" captures both the triumph and the tragedy of Negro League Baseball.

(5) They're tough. Leadership comes easily to them because the buck stops at home plate. If another team wants to score, first, its players have to get past THEM.

The man who took over for departing Yankee manager Joe Torre, Joe Girardi, was a catcher.

I don't know what my manager saw in me, but in Little League, he converted me from being an infielder to a catcher. Possibly, more than anything else, the training and experience I got, then and at higher levels of baseball, enabled me to become and effective corporate manager and independent consultant.

It may be too late for you to change your Little League position, but it's never too late to study catchers and the managers they become, and above all, to learn to think as they do.

They strategize, incessantly, and with every pitch and nuance they detect, their game plans adjust.

So was Joe Torre, as I recall.

It's easy to think of catchers as the samurai of baseball.

They don armor before going into combat and they withstand a pummeling by opponent after opponent, without expressing a hint of discomfort.

Managers - Think Like A Catcher!

But they, like most catchers, were adroit students of the game.

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(3) Constantly, they see the big picture. Only catchers can eyeball every other player on the field, simultaneously.

(1) They take total responsibility for the game, suggesting pitches to pitchers, those that are most calculated to retire hitters. They even position fielders, because they sense where the ball is most likely to be hit.

And they are constantly WATCHING, whether it is a slight change in the orientation of their pitcher's throwing arm or the warm-up swings of an unknown adversary in the on deck circle.

Managers should emulate catchers, if only because catchers, as a general rule, become great managers.

(4) Their heads are always in the game because they're part of every play. They're alert and always vigilant.

Why do catchers make such fine managers? Five reasons:

Managers - Think Like A Catcher!

(2) They're good communicators, especially under pressure. It is often the catcher who calms his erratic or fading pitchers by calling for a quick conference on the mound. Knowing when to call the time out, and what to say during it, are really important skills. Corporate managers who know when to give their people an impromptu break, or who sense when something subtle is askew, are some of the most effective mentors.