Learning leadership through baseball Published Oct. 20, 2008 By Colonel Carey Tucker 52nd Munitions Maintenance Group Commander SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany -- As a 23-year Air Force veteran, I thought I had learned almost everything there is to know about leadership. Then I volunteered to coach 16 teenagers in the American pastime of baseball. I found out there is still a lot to learn about leadership. Though time was scarce, this past spring was the last chance for me to coach the youngest of my three sons in a sport. From the time my oldest -- now a 28-year old father of three boys himself -- was 6-years-old, I coached a variety of sports. This ability is one character trait handed down by my father, who was always coaching me and my brother in a sport -- mostly baseball. My family and I were stationed at Ramstein Air Base in the spring and I cleared my calendar as best I could for the short six-week season. The team started out with 15 players, representing each class at Ramstein High School. We later added a senior from Baumholder for our 16th player. I could tell from the first practice this would be an interesting season. We had a wide range of talent and attitudes on the team, ranging from experienced baseball players to first-timers. With seven teams sharing one field, practice time was limited to two-to-four hours a week -- not the two-to-four hour practices this age group would get stateside. My first leadership challenge was learning to plan ahead. Getting 16 players on the field at once for about an hour at a time was a challenge. Though I tried to keep all of them busy, there were times when team members were standing around -- young men standing around with nothing to do is not a good thing. Spirited conversations of daily events and general tomfoolery often took over. I now understand the meaning of "herding cats." New plans were designed on the fly when players were absent or late. Applying this to my Air Force life, following a thorough plan and adhering to a schedule keeps your folks active, but keeping your plan flexible is the key to success. In this case, success was finishing practice without injuries and getting one or two baseball objectives accomplished. During our first game on the road, I was reminded of another important leadership lesson. At the meeting with the umpires, they reminded the coaches that all players needed to wear their athletic cups -- an essential part of baseball. I turned and yelled at my team to make sure they had their cups and continued talking to the umpires. Unbeknownst to me because I was not paying attention, not all of my players had the proper equipment. One player who didn't have a cup borrowed an extra one from another player -- certainly a "yuck factor" in itself -- and he was wearing boxers. For those that may not be aware, a baseball player's protection must be held in place by a jock strap, special sliding shorts, or at least something tight to hold the cup in place. Boxers do not meet the requirement. I didn't know this was a problem until the player got a great base hit down the line that had extra bases written all over it. While I was yelling for him to run, I noticed he stopped at first. I was about to yell again when I realized he stopped because his cup was now protecting the inside of his right knee. Make sure your players (troops) have all of the proper equipment to get the job done. Appropriately, the player in question is now in the Army and I am sure he is better equipped for his new duties. Another aspect of leadership that struck me suddenly was that not all players are motivated by the same thing -- winning was important to some, playing time important to others. Some were there for fun, while others took things more seriously. Through it all, the coaching staff worked hard to equalize playing time and to teach the finer aspects of the game. It is often seen as a coach's or leader's role to motivate the team or the unit, but I soon discovered I had to motivate team members individually at times. As a leader, it is a tenant of situational leadership to recognize when to be tough, when to hold back, and when to address people in a group setting or individually. Some of our troops are motivated by patriotism, others by putting in a hard day's work and still others by a steady pay check. I don't always get it right, but seeking out motivation is a continuous process in leadership. Each of us needs to have the ability to laugh at ourselves and with our teammates (co-workers). The team laughed together when the one playing for the first time didn't know how to wear a cup and purchased an XXL because the medium, he thought, didn't fit. Come to find out, he was trying to put it on upside down. We laughed on the three-hour ride home after a loss when one of our American Idol rejects decided he could sing. We laughed at the player who left our caravan for a new practice field because he "knew where it was" and showed up thirty minutes late. Laughing at new and different situations keeps you grounded. So how did the baseball season go? We won the European Championship in exciting fashion. We made it to the finals on the strength of a freshman's walk-off home run in the semi-final game. In the championship game, three of the returners played huge roles. One caught the best game of his life, a second pitched the best game of his life and a third hit a game-winning home run in the last inning and earned the trophy as the tournament MVP. I keep the team trophy in my office not as a reminder of winning the championship, but as a reminder of the leadership tools I learned -- (or re-learned) -- coaching my favorite baseball team.