MEMO TO GIANTS STAFF: Subject - WTH is going on out here?

http://youtu.be/4V0TYIO6yv4

Vince Lombardi - What the hell's going on out here?

There should be more calls into the principals (Bruce Bochy) office aside from Brandon Crawford. Perhaps prior to calling the individuals players in for a pep talk, management should also call in the hitting coaches throughout the organization and ask them why prospects and guys that get significant playing time like:

Brandon Crawford, Brandon Belt, Gregor Blanco, Joaquin Arias, Hector Sanchez, Tyler Colvin, Juan Perez, Ehire Arianza, Adam Duvall and Joe Panik (leaving aside for a moment Brandon Hicks and Dan Uggla) 

CANNOT OUTHIT OR OUTSLUG MADISON BUMGARNER!?!?!

Ángel Pagán	63	241	37	74	14	1	3	19	19	29	11	3	.307	.356	.411	.767
Hunter Pence	109	440	73	127	23	6	13	42	34	79	10	4	.289	.343	.457	.800
Buster Posey	98	355	40	100	18	0	12	54	34	44	0	1	.282	.343	.434	.776
Pablo Sandoval	105	386	48	107	17	2	12	45	28	61	0	0	.277	.326	.425	.751
Michael Morse	105	359	38	99	26	1	15	49	23	99	0	0	.276	.328	.479	.807
Madison Bumgarner	23	47	7	12	2	0	3	12	1	19	0	0	.255	.280	.489	.769
Gregor Blanco	94	241	24	59	8	3	1	19	24	53	10	4	.245	.321	.315	.636
Brandon Belt	46	165	22	40	5	0	10	23	13	48	3	1	.242	.304	.455	.758
Ehire Adrianza	53	97	10	23	6	0	0	5	5	22	1	1	.237	.279	.299	.578
Brandon Crawford	104	333	41	78	14	8	8	45	44	87	3	3	.234	.321	.396	.718
Tyler Colvin	57	139	16	31	10	3	2	18	8	45	1	0	.223	.268	.381	.650
Joe Panik	23	70	6	15	2	0	0	5	7	8	0	0	.214	.282	.243	.525
Adam Duvall	12	40	2	8	1	0	2	3	0	13	0	0	.200	.220	.375	.595
Héctor Sánchez	66	163	8	32	8	0	3	28	8	55	0	1	.196	.237	.301	.538
Joaquín Árias	75	131	8	25	2	0	0	8	5	16	1	0	.191	.219	.206	.425
Brandon Hicks	71	204	27	33	6	1	8	22	32	77	0	1	.162	.280	.319	.599
Juan Pérez	38	46	7	7	2	0	1	2	2	16	0	1	.152	.204	.261	.465

We only have five guys ( 5 freaking guys!! ) in the entire organization (Pagan, Pence, Posey, Sandoval, Morse) who can out hit and out slug a pitcher? 

Note: Sandoval and Pagan aren't even out slugging him at this point. Thankfully they are out hitting him. 

SERIOUSLY, I ASK YOU, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON OUT HERE?

Respectfully Submitted,

The Slav

“Shame on us” is right, and is this malaise becoming a malignancy? | Giants Extra

"Checked out" = euphemism for QUIT!! 

 Plain and simple.

I wondered several posts ago whether something deeper was going wrong for this team within the clubhouse. This qualifies as evidence. Shame is right. Thanks Bochy!! I keep saying "it can't get much worse..." and then it does. This is pretty much rock-bottom right here.

from mercurynews.com:
POSTGAME NOTES: “Shame on us” is right, and is this malaise becoming a malignancy? | Giants Extra:

I definitely don’t want to sound alarmist, but when Madison Bumgarner was asked after the game by the Chron’s Henry Schulman if he felt that some of the players have “checked out” on this lost season, he answered, “Sometimes, yeah, I do.”

Now that’s a bit scary. We’ve known for awhile now that this season is burnt toast, but Bumgarner’s surprising admission suggests something more ominous is at work in the Giants’ clubhouse than just poor hitting and shoddy defense. More than ever, you would think the Giants would be trying to pull something together so that this malaise doesn’t become a malignancy that impacts 2014. But there just doesn’t seem to be much collective wherewithal right now. When you’re getting shown up by the lowly Milwaukee Brewers in your home park, with the whole Ryan Braun mess hanging over their heads, you should feel ashamed. But quite frankly, there seems to be a 25-cabs attitude that has taken over this team. For one thing, the clubhouse is like a ghost town after these losses.

'via Blog this'

SPEAKING WORDS OF WISDOM....

Maybe we have so long ridiculed authority in the family and discipline in education and decency in conduct and law in the state that the freedom we fought so hard for has brought us close to chaos. And it could be that our leaders no longer understand the relationship between themselves and the people they lead. - Vince Lombardi (1913 - 1970)

The danger to America is not Barack Obama, but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic can survive a Barack Obama... who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president. - Author unknown

It is in the nature of charisma that it rises out of thin air, out of need and distress, and then dissipates when the magic fails. The country has had its fill with a scapegoating that knows no end from a president who had vowed to break with recriminations and partisanship. The magic of 2008 can't be recreated, and good riddance to it. Slowly, the nation has recovered its poise.

There is a widespread sense of unstated embarrassment that a political majority, if only for a moment, fell for the promise of an untested redeemer—a belief alien to the temperament of this so practical and sober a nation. - Fouad Ajami

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704164904575421363005578460.html?mod=wsj_share_facebook

‎"You know, Americans of Hispanic descent, you know what the strongest issue there is? That is economic empowerment, upward mobility," Rubio said. "There’s only one economic system in the world that that’s possible in, time and again, and that’s the American free enterprise system."And the reason why Americans of Hispanic descent should be Republicans is because the Democratic leadership is trying to dismantle the American free enterprise system," he continued. "The point is he’s wrong.

Rubio Blasts Reid for Saying He Doesn't Understand How Hispanics Could Be Republican

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/08/11/rubio-blasts-reid-asking-hispanics-republicans/

Senseless Panic: How Washington Failed America

http://www.futuresmag.com/Issues/2010/August-2010/Pages/Senseless-Panic-How-Washington-Failed-America.aspx

Former Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chairman William (Bill) Isaac details the mistakes made leading up to and following the 2008 credit crisis in this book, but not from hindsight as other critics have. Rather, he does so from the perspective of a regulator who has navigated the banking industry through other significant crises, arguably on par or greater than what was facing us in 2008.

Isaac harshly criticizes those responsible for TARP, particularly Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. He correctly points out that our leaders panicked and used the panic the economic crisis created to jam their agendas through. One chapter is titled “Schizophrenic Failure Resolution” and details the ad hoc approach the Treasury took in handling the various brush fires that arose during the crisis. This led to more uncertainty just when our country needed our leaders to communicate that there was a consistent plan in place to handle the crisis. He makes a solid case against the “no other option” argument. In fact the four policy recommendations he made in lieu of TARP were all eventually executed, only after the $700 billion TARP legislation was passed.

He also points out the all too cozy relationship between policy makers and Wall Street, highlighting how some insiders apparently had more access to decision makers than their direct supervisors.

Isaac describes some of the specific problems that led to the crisis, mark to market accounting standards for one; and also the general recurring cause, a pro-cyclical approach to regulation. He points out our tendency to let our guard down in good times, loosening capital standards when the money is flowing and getting tough during difficult times just as the banks need a little help. The end result is we exacerbate both the bubbles, making them frothier, and the downturns, making them more painful.

“That America has transformed itself from a nation of earnest, muscular, upright citizens to a land of overfed barbarous morons ruled by grifters.”

“When this sucker goes down (to paraphrase a past president) it’s going to be like a fire in a circus tent. Don’t expect much from the clowns’ bucket brigade. We’ll be lucky if they don’t toss gasoline into the grandstands.” - James Kuntsler

RIP: John Wooden (1910-2010)

We lost one of the greatest sport coaches of all-time, maybe the best ever. The Wooden Pyramid should be on or near every coaches desktop. This link shows how much the great minds do think alike. Some wisdom from Wooden, Lombardi and Ben Franklin to boot.


http://www.squidoo.com/coachjohnwooden

Contemporaries

Lombardi and Wooden

I hesitate to include this, but Lombardi quarterback Bart Starr has written that the philosophies of these coaches of different sports were "very much the same." (A Perspective on Victory, Follett Publishing Co., 1972). Wooden did not give pre-game motivational speeches; professional football coaches may need to; reportedly, at the close of the following speech, inebriated middle-aged businessmen in the 1960s were ready to take the field or run through a brick wall.

From When Pride Still Mattered by David Maraniss (Simon & Schuster, 1999) (pp. 397-406)


February 8, 1967
New York
Speech to American Management Association
Vince Lombardi

Block One
The Meaning of Football


Football is a game very much like life, a game which gives 100 per cent elation, 100 per cent fun, when you win, yet demands and extracts a 100 per cent resolution, 100 per cent determination when you lose, a violent game and to play it any other way but violently would be imbecilic, a game played by millions of Americans, yet completely uninhibited by racial or social barriers, a game that demands the Spartan qualities of sacrifice, self-denial, dedication and fearlessness.

I have been in football all my life, and although I sometimes wonder why I stay in an occupation as precarious as football coaching, I do not feel particularly qualified to be part of anything else.

Block Two
The American Zeal


Over the years I have grown increasingly worried about the lack of interest in competition, particularly athletic competition among our young people. Men need the test of competition to find their better selves, whether it is in sports, politics or business.

I need no greater authority than the great General MacArthur, and I would like to quote some of the things he said to me. Namely: "Competitive sports keeps alive in all of us a spirit of vitality and enterprise. It teaches the strong to know when they are weak and the brave to face themselves when they are afraid. To be proud and unbending in defeat, yet humble and gentle in victory. To master ourselves before we attempt to master others. To learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep, and it gives a predominance of courage over timidity.

Block Three
A Man's Personal Commitment to Excellence and Victory


While complete victory can never be won, it must be pursued, it must be wooed with all of one's might. Each week there is a new encounter, each year there is a new challenge. But all of the display, all of the noise, all of the glamour, and all of the color and excitement, they exist only in the memory. But the spirit, the will to excel, the will to win, they endure, they last forever. These are the qualities, I think, that are larger and more important than any of the events that occasion them.

Block Four
Abuse of Liberty


For most of the twentieth century, we as individuals have struggled to liberate ourselves from ancient traditions, congealed creeds and despotic states. Therefore, freedom was necessarily idealized against order, the new against the old, and genius against discipline. Everything was done to strengthen the rights of the individual and weaken the state, and weaken the church, and weaken all authority. I think we all shared in this rebellion, but maybe the battle was too completely won, maybe we have too much freedom. Maybe we have so long ridiculed authority in the family, discipline in education, and decency in conduct and law that our freedom has brought us close to chaos.

I am sure you are disturbed like I am by what seems to be a complete breakdown of law and order and the moral code which is almost beyond belief. Unhappily, our youth, the most gifted segment of our population, the heirs to scientific advances and freedom's breath, the beneficiaries of their elders' sacrifices and achievements, seem, in too large numbers, to have disregard for the law's authority, for its meaning, for its indispensability to their enjoyment of the fullness of life, and have conjoined with certain of their elders, who should know better, to seek a development of a new right, the right to violate the law with impunity. The prevailing sentiment seems to be if you don't like the rule, break it.

Block Five
Discipline


It could be that our leaders no longer understand the relationship between themselves and the people they lead.

That is, while most shout to be independent, they at the same time wish to be dependent, and while most shout to assert themselves, they at the same time wish to be told what to do.

Block Six
What Makes a Great Leader?


Leaders are made, not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.

A leader must identify himself with the group, must back up the group, even at the risk of displeasing his superiors. He must believe that the group wants from him a sense of approval. If this feeling prevails, production, discipline and morale will be high, and in return he can demand the cooperation to promote the goals of the company. He must believe in teamwork through participation. As a result, the contact must be close and informal. He must be sensitive to the emotional needs and expectations of others. In return, the attitude toward him should be one of confidence and, possibly, affection. The leader, in spite of what was said above, can never close the gap between himself and the group. If he does, he is no longer what he must be. He must walk, as it were, a tightrope between the consent he must win and the control that he must exert.

Block Seven
Character and Will


The character, rather than education, is man's greatest need and man's greatest safeguard, because character is higher than intellect. While it is true the difference between men is in energy, in the strong will, in the settled purpose and in the invincible determination, the new leadership is in sacrifice, it is in self-denial, it is in love and loyalty, it is in fearlessness, it is in humility, and it is in the perfectly disciplined will. This, gentlemen, is the distinction between great and little men.

The love I'm speaking of is loyalty, which is the greatest of loves. Teamwork, the love that one man has for another and that he respects the dignity of another. The love that I am speaking of is charity. I am not speaking of detraction. You show me a man who belittles another and I will show you a man who is not a leader; or one who is not charitable, who has no respect for the dignity of another, is not loyal, and I will show you a man who is not a leader. I am not advocating that love is the answer to everything. I am not speaking of a love which forces everyone to love everybody else, that you must love the white man because he is white or the black man because he is your enemy, but rather of a love that one man has for another human being. Heart power is the strength of your company. Heart power is the strength of the Green Bay Packers. Heart power is the strength of America and hate power is the weakness of the world.

A Precursor

Thirteen Virtues of Benjamin Franklin

Legendary coach Pete Newell quoted Ben Franklin to explain his own philosophy, "Want of care does us more damage than want of knowledge. For want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost, and for want of a horse the rider was lost, being overtaken and slain by the enemy, all for want of care about a horseshoe nail." It sums up John Wooden's philosophy as well.

From The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin:

1. TEMPERANCE. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.

2. SILENCE. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.

3. ORDER. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.

4. RESOLUTION. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.

5. FRUGALITY. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.

6. INDUSTRY. Lose no time; be always employ'd in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.

7. SINCERITY. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.

8. JUSTICE. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.

9. MODERATION. Avoid extreams; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.

10. CLEANLINESS. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.

11. TRANQUILLITY. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.

12. CHASTITY. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dulness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation.

13. HUMILITY. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

SPEAKING WORDS OF WISDOM...some words that echo in my ears

In a large sense we are engaged right now in a struggle that is far more fiercely contested than any game. It is a struggle for the hearts, for the minds, and for the souls of all of us, and it is a game in which there are no spectators, only players..... The test of this century will be whether man mistakes the growth of wealth and power with the growth of spirit and character. - Vince Lombardi (1913 - 1970)

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy..." - Alexander Fraser Tytler, Scottish lawyer and writer, 1770

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some old-school wisdom from Charactercounts.org

FEBRUARY 1, 2010
Eighteen Random Rules of Life 656.2
I love maxims, those concise capsules of worldly wisdom. I collect them and write them and, of course, love to share them. Here are 18 random rules of life worth posting on your mirror or, better yet, using as dinner-time discussion starters.

Find the lesson in every failure and you’ll never fail.
The likelihood that you’re right is not increased by the intensity of your conviction.
Real friends help you feel worthy and make you want to be better.
When you’re in a hole, stop digging.
Don’t confuse fun with fulfillment or pleasure with happiness.
Refusing to let go of a grudge is refusing to use the key that will set you free.
Hating hurts you more than the person you hate.
Counting on luck is counting on random chance. Your odds are much better when you plan and work.
Being kind is better than being clever.
Don’t underestimate the power of persistence.
The easy way is rarely the best way.
It’s much easier to burst someone else’s bubble than to blow up your own.
You can’t avoid pain, but you can avoid suffering.
Self-pity is a losing strategy. It repels others and weakens you.
Shortcuts usually produce short success.
Control your attitude or it will control you.
It’s more important to be significant than successful.
The world is waiting for you to heal it.

This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.

Train up a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
– King Solomon, Proverbs 22:6

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THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE - AN OPEN LETTER TO THE LEADERS OF THE DAY WHO JUST DIDN'T LISTEN

Some old-school wisdom from the Founders:

An open letter from Thomas Jefferson to what were then his country's leaders after a series of grievances that resulted primarily from the leadership not responding to or quashing the will of the people.

I especially like the part where it says:

"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security"

They say that history doesn't repeat, but it does rhyme.

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. -- Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Then he proceeds to list a series of grievances against the crown that led to this action.

And in conclusion, a course of action.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. -- And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

-- John Hancock

Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry, Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery, Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott, William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris, Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark, Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross, Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean, Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton, William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn, Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton, Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

The Values of the Game - Teamwork

Individual commitment to a group effort — that is what makes a team work a company work, a society work, a civilization work. Vince Lombardi

The above quote from Lombardi may at times seem like another relic from a bygone era. A Utopian vision of the power that the values imparted by subordinating individual glory to achieve team goals is still alive both in sports and society.

In one of my all-time favorite sports books, Values of the Game by Bill Bradley, he describes the essence of teamwork.

Imagine what happens when you´ve got an entire team of players who are passionate about the game. In my Knicks days, there was no feeling comparable to the one I got when the team´s game came together - those nights when five guys moved as one. The moment was one of beautiful isolation, the result of the correct blending of human forces at the proper time and to the exact degree.

When you see it on the basketball court it is a thing of beauty. The emphasis today ,especially at the higher levels, is placed on the individual. The game match ups are at times marketed as Kobe vs. LeBron rather than the Lakers vs. Cavaliers. Yet we still see time and again that reaching the pinnacle at that level is reached when the superstar blends his unique abilities with others and allows the total to be greater than the sum of the parts. The superstar allows other players to become better players around him.

Today in America, it can be difficult to find examples that exemplify teamwork in our everyday lives. Jobs are compartmentalized and specialized. Our large institutions emphasize winning, being the best, and the accomplishments of the individual.

If you don't think the teamwork model translates to larger societal change, the recently released Clint Eastwood movie Invictus is certainly a powerful example.

Plot Summary for Invictus

The film tells the inspiring true story of how Nelson Mandela joined forces with the captain of South Africa's rugby team to help unite their country. Newly elected President Mandela knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa's rugby team as they make their historic run to the 1995 Rugby World Cup Championship match.

By definition, most teams are made up of a small number of people, with a common goal, who are accountable to each other and have different skill sets that can complement each other.

Maximizing the talents of these individuals and keeping them focused on the team goals rather than individual achievements is the ultimate goal of any team leader, from coaches to CEO's to leaders of nations.

When it comes together, we refer to it as "chemistry" at times. We refer to the team that achieves at a level over and above the perceived value of the individual parts as a Cinderella story. But when we see it demonstrated and played out to it's conclusion, it becomes the stuff of legends, in sports and in life.

One of the themes of Bradley's book that connect the "sports as a metaphor for life" thread is the true values of sports are found in the countless hours spent in practice. It is here--unseen by the public--that the love of the game and dedication to teamwork is demonstrated by each individual athlete. And it is here that many of the positive values of sports are imparted. Somebody tell AI.
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TEAMWORK - Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Philippians 2:3-4

Because they have a good reward for their labor.
For if they fall, one will lift up his companion.
But woe to him who is alone when he falls,
For he has no one to help him up.
Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; But how can one be warm alone?
Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.—Ecclesiastes 4:9-12