Ill regularly add memories and stories about my baseball career that helped shaped how I think about the game. The stories will range from all points in time from my life, which go back to my earliest memories to recent ones. I will bounce back and forth between time because some things will come up that might spark a memory. My first entry will be about meeting Derek Jeter while with the New York Yankees organization and how a couple short conversations we had were filled with baseball gold.
The first time I “met” DJ was playing against him while I was with the A’s organization. In our meeting, he chased a high fastball for a strikeout with the bases loaded in probably my worst professional appearance in my entire career. Friends would try to tell me a silver lining from that outing was that “you struck out Derek Jeter, you can always say that.” The thing for me was I would rather help my team win by pitching well than by telling people I struck out Derek Jeter.
Three years later I signed with the Yankees as a free agent.
The second time I met DJ I was running around a field while running a conditioning test. I was pushing myself to run as fast as I could and had put myself ahead of the group running at the same time. DJ starting cheering my name as I ran by the cage around homeplate “GO BRUCE! GO BRUCE!”
I thought that was really special, now I can always tell people that DJ was cheering for me one time. Haha.
The third time we ”met” or actually conversed was when we were playing billiards at a team building function during spring training. DJ and his partner were playing against me and my partner in a single elimination tournament . While we were playing, DJ tells me that he isn‘t good at pool, but he just tries to keep it simple. “Just put the ball in the pocket.”
I thought at the time how simple and brilliant that is for many things in life… including baseball.
The fourth time we conversed, I asked if I could sit with him during lunch before a spring training game. After he said “of course!“ I asked him what helped him feel comfortable when he first got called up to play in the big leagues. He told me that when he first got the opportunity, he had early success that helped him feel like he belonged.
I remember thinking at the time, how often players do not have the opportunity to get that success if they do not get it early or fast enough. That reassurance of playing the game well, just like most players do before getting the major league opportunity, has such a strong impact on relaxing and being oneself at the highest level in the world.
This short conversation with DJ is a part of how I view developing baseball players. How can I help a player be their best version of himself? I have seen plenty of talented players miss out on a long baseball career because they struggle with their opportunity when they do finally get it. I have also seen lesser talented players get repeated opportunity because the right people believe in that player.
What I learned from DJ in these short moments (that have lived in my mind ever since) is to keep the task at hand simple. What is the job? Do the job. The environment will always change, but focusing on the environment is not the task, perform the task and disregard the environment.
Simple. Whats the job? Do the job. Thats it. Move forward.
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