[May 03, 2015] The famous Vince Lombardi once said that “winners never quit and quitters never win.” While there is hardly a more well-known quote about sports, we find that it’s the development of sportsmanship and teamwork that are the real successes behind any winning game. Yet for children, their development is much more precarious than for us adults and that is why Mike Matheny developed a few rules to help … and wrote it all down in the Matheny Manifesto.
As children and as adults, we play for the challenge and for the thrill of victory. Sometimes however the victory seems to be the end rather than simply a fortunate result of good sportsmanship, teamwork, and fun. Very few in my generation grew up without playing baseball; either on the Little League field or sandlot ball with our friends. This is where we learned about working together as a team.
Mike Matheny, current St. Louis Cardinals manager and former professional baseball catcher, was asked to coach Little League baseball in the St. Louis area.1 As a veteran of youth sports, he had been witness to events that disturbed him. He saw plenty of overbearing coaches and conflict with aggressive parents. On a flight home he opened his laptop computer and started to write his terms for being a Little League coach.
“…teach these young men how to play the game of baseball the right way, to be a positive impact on them as young men, and do all of this with class.” – Mike Matheny
His “manifesto” was about his philosophy and the basic rules for his way of improving the ballgame experience for the young men playing it. It was to be a team without parental intrusion, without a guarantee of winning, but with a faith-inspired building block of character development. Initially many parents were reluctant to join but soon Mike’s method proved to be successful at character development and winning.2
A summary of his manifesto main points:
- Parents are the problem and the solution.
- Officiating will be bad, but it’s okay.
- Focus on the mental aspect just as much as the physical aspect.
- Parents must trust the coaches and coaches must be trustworthy.
- Family events outweigh sports events.
As a parent of a young man playing baseball, you need to read this. As a leader you also need to read it. This is truly leadership in action at the point it can truly make a difference … at the level of a young man. Of course it also applies to young ladies too.
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[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Matheny