What Do Al Pacino and Michael Jackson Have in Common?

Aside from the obvious correlations that one might draw between the King of Pop and Alfred James Pacino (both in showbiz, both have millions of fans, both have millions of dollars); their ability to inspire a baseball team to go on a 10 game win streak and turn around a struggling season is often over looked.

It all began June 25, 2009, the day Michael Jackson died. (May he eternally rest in piece) The Saltdogs were assembling in the clubhouse around 3pm getting ready for a typical day and another game. The team had been struggling to win games in the first half and needed something to jump start the team. After batting practice, the team returned to clubhouse and saw that MJ had indeed suffered a cardiac arrest and died. Many of the guys felt that it would be appropriate to honor Michael by substituting their intro-songs (music played as a batter walks to the plate) with one of his many hits. The entire starting lineup agreed and as the starting pitcher took the mound to start his first warm up pitches, "Billy Jean" began playing over the loud speakers. To be in the clubhouse and in the dugout, one could feel a little extra spark in all the players' eyes and an extra hop in their step.

Al Pacino's role in this story technically began few days before Michael's death. The movie "Any Given Sunday" stars Jamie Foxx, Cameron Diaz, TO has a small part, and of course Al Pacino as the fiery head coach Tony D'Amato. In the movie, D'Amato gives one of the most passionate, inspirational, and all together awesome pre-game speeches in cinema history (apologies to Russel in "Miracle" and Hackman in"Hoosiers"). To truly understand the power behind this speech, take 5 minutes and check out the youtube link to this piece of motion picture perfection. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO4tIrjBDkk . As fate would have it, one our starting pitchers happened to have the audio version of this speech on his ipod, and began playing it before each of games, starting a few days before the day Michael died.

For some reason; a reason that this Saltdog can't quite explain, the combination of the energy provided by hits of Michael Jackson and the power of Pacino's speech, the Saltdogs starting winning ball games. Close games, blow outs, it didn't matter. Even more amazing, the day that Michael died, our starting pitcher threw a no-hitter! We proceeded to win 10 games in a row and have been playing inspired baseball every since. Over the next 3 weeks, we listened to the speech every game around 6:30pm just before guys would begin the warm up to start the game. At the conclusion of every speech, the Saltdogs grew more and more animated and more and more "fired up." We also continued to listen to "Dirty Diana," "Man in the Mirror," and other MJ Specials.

Truth be told, the Pacino speech has tapered off a bit as the season keeps trudging along. Interestingly though, MJ songs thrive on as we close in on the last month of the season. The Saltdogs keep playing good baseball, although we haven' won every game.

If there were a way to write down a formula that had the same effect as the Pacino-Jackson Phenomena, it would sell for millions. Every coach from little league to the big leagues, and peewee football to the NFL (and any other sport) would use that formula. Coaches constantly look for ways to keep their players fired up and inspire them to play at a level that might be beyond the sum of their individual parts. I feel this Emergence Theory is many times the differences between a team the wallows in mediocrity or finds a way to make a change for the better and increase its ability to perform. In actuality, the fact their is no one way to achieve this goal is one of the many things that makes team sports so amazing. The millions of intricacies that make up "team chemistry" will always be the second piece to the puzzle that combines with raw talent to make a winning team.

The Saltdogs can thank Michael Jackson and Al Pacino for that piece.

Delayed Dreams

Until recently, I haven't had much time or desire to keep up with the blog. A lot of that has to do with the continuing ebb and flow of the career of a minor league baseball player. To get my readers up to speed, I am engaged, I am not long with Diamondbacks and I am currently playing independent professional baseball for the Lincoln Saltdogs. Also, after changing my mechanics to allow to throw from two distinct arm slots (over the type and side arm) I was off to solid start for the 'Dogs. All of this in a determined attempt to be signed by a different affiliated pro team. However, I was pitching for the fourth time in five days when I threw a pitch and strained my lat muscle on my left side. This injury occured a little over 3 weeks ago. It has truly been a test of patience. Something I firmly believe God has allowed me to experience to precipitate my growth spirtually as well as in over all maturity. I am slated to be activated in four days or so. Assuming there are roster spots available and all goes according to plan, I cannot wait to taste and feel the mound again. I've been diligent with my rehab and am happy to report my last bullpen felt great. Now its a matter of ironing out the mechanical 'kinks' and start contributing to the team again.
We are on a massively long road trip that took us from Lincoln to Fort Worth, TX two days ago that took 11 hours . Tonite after the game, we bus 12 hours to Pensacola, FL. After three games there have to bus 20 hours back north to Lincoln. If you're scoring at home, thats 53 hours of driving in a week. In the words of Bob Seger (whom I think should have been a ball player) "There I go. On the road again, There I go. Up on the Stage." The silver lining is upon my return from this journey, I will be picking up my fiancee from the Omaha airport and will have her with me in Lincoln for the next week.

So my dreams are taking a different than expect path. Being on the DL certainly delays them a bit. Nevertheless, I remain faithful to the plan that God has for me, whatever that may be.

Until Next Time....(Which won't take 9 months, I promise).