Old sayings become old sayings because there is a lot of truth to them. Like the one above….it means that doing something wrong in an attempt to ‘get back’ at someone that has done you wrong, isn’t the right thing to do. Solid advice for teams and life, for sure.

Well, I would like to twist that old saying up a little and present it to you as an important message for any team: ‘Two rights, make a wrong’

That sounds stupid….but I think baseball is the easiest sport to give an example of how this could apply to a team:
Let’s say there are 2 outs, bottom of the 9th, team in the field has a 1-run lead. The shortstop makes an error on an easy ground ball that should’ve been the 3rd out of the inning. Instead of game over, pitcher has to face another batter and he grooves a fastball right down the pipe that results in a 2-run homer….game over.
After the game, the pitcher can say; ‘if the SS had made the play, we would’ve gotten the third out and won the game’. Likewise, the SS can say; ‘if the pitcher hadn’t thrown that meatball, the batter wouldn’t have hit that HR.’

Both players are right of course….but the two ‘rights’ have created a wrong on the team. Instead of just accepting their own responsibility, they looked to blame someone else.

This creates tension on a team and a sense of being afraid of making a mistake. As a player, you want to feel like your teammates ‘have your back’……you do that by having theirs!

Players need to pick their teammates up, and I think coaches need to pick their players up (especially HS and especially publicly). Build your team by creating an environment that allows kids to be free of the fear of failure by knowing that their teammates and coaches will have their backs.