Pillars is the term we used for our book about the coaches who went on to create the top winning programs in professional football. A coach has to have all his players doing well as a team for a winning program. I know from my own modest coaching experience, as you move up in age and level of competition any weaknesses can often be exploited by your opposition. You might be able to hide a poor outfielder in right field in the early stages of Little League, but the more advanced teams will start hitting to right at every opportunity. As a coach, you learn that the program you put in place has to spend time focusing on improving your weakest players.
Sometimes in the cruelest of ways, a very good player fails in a critical moment and the public comes to scapegoat him or her although other team members were certainly part of the loss. You often see a coach or group of players expound on the importance of playing as a team and teamwork. That doesn't mean however, that everyone shares that opinion after a loss.
We recently saw that Bill Buckner passed away. Buckner is remembered by some for his missed ground ball in the 1986 World Series between Boston Red Sox and the New York Mets. Similar to other players who have been scapegoated in Major League Baseball, there was plenty of blame to go around for the loss, but Buckner took it on the chin. Buckner was injured, and many believe he should not have been in the game at the time. Regardless, the mistake was a small footnote in a splendid career--the error has been exaggerated in its importance. With the Boston Red Sox now winning 4 World Series Championships in the 21st century, you hope to see more spirited positive coverage of Buckner's career.
Our book, Public Bonehead, Private Hero, covered the baseball life of Fred Merkle. Merkle played in the pre-radio time when the newspapers followed baseball very closely. Merkle's mistake was not tagging second base when a player on his team lined a hit to the outfield and Merkle got off the field as many of his contemporary baserunners would have done in the same circumstance. Tagging the next base was the rule on a game winning hit with men on base, but the rule was generally ignored. Merkle was only 19 at the time, but the press was merciless and raked Merkle over the coals in the press. Fans picked up on the write ups and let Merkle have it at home and away--for DECADES.
