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General | General | 7/1/2022

The Lead Off: July

Clint Hurdle

Photo: Perfect Game

Happy Month of July 😎 to all y’all!

There is a bunch going on this month to lean into and much to look back on in June to embrace!

It’s been a month of Championships being won!
Warriors🏀
Avalanche 🏒
Ole Miss⚾️
Oklahoma🥎

I watched all of it!

So many good lifetime memories for those teams and for the individuals.

So much fun for the fans watching at home and those in attendance. I love seeing the passion and feeling the energy in the stadiums.

Let’s focus on the NCAA Baseball Champions…..Ole Miss.💯

Which brings me to this month’s topic….
Don’t sleep on the underdog!

Underdogs?
Ya think?

At one point sitting near the bottom of the SEC standings, the Rebels completed a magical run through the postseason, finishing on top after being the last team included in the Field of 64 for the NCAA Tournament. Ole Miss went 10-1 during the postseason, registering wins over No. 6 Miami, No. 10 Southern Miss, No. 7 Auburn, No. 3 Arkansas and No. 4 Oklahoma.

Coach Mike Bianco kept his team focused on playing to THEIR potential, not WHO they were playing. They got in the tourney as the LAST team chosen with an at-large berth.

We measure so many things in the game of baseball now.

Launch angle
Exit velo
Spin rates
Velo
Etc.

However, the separators for players being OK to Average to Above Average to Elite are intangibles that can’t be measured with devices.

Underdogs have more “want to.” They must execute their “how to” when it matters most.

“Greatness is playing great when greatness is required…Being a great player is you are great when that is the minimal amount required to succeed.”
~ Joel Klatt

Latest example in Sport…. Steph Curry Game 4! NBA Finals💯

In the Baseball industry we can’t measure the “want to.” Call it guts. Call it grit. You watch a player and their actions will tell you. The look in their eyes will tell you. The way they react to adversity or failure will tell you.

“Failure is an event not a person.”

I love pulling for an underdog. The Bible shares a story of the biggest upset ever.

Young little David took down a giant named Goliath. Underdogs are all around us. The real beauty in an underdog is many times they don’t know they’re an underdog.

Ole Miss didn’t get the memo!

I would be remiss to not congratulate the NCAA Women’s College World Series Softball Champion Oklahoma Sooners, led by their Hall of Fame coach Patty Gasso. This team is arguably the greatest softball team of all time!!!

A tip of the cap to Perfect Game and the overwhelming number of players in the College World Series that are PG Alumni!

The MLB Draft will be in Los Angeles on July 17 and I’ll be there representing the Colorado Rockies as we make our first pick in the 2023 Draft!

Many PG Alumni will be going in the First Round.

This month, Perfect Game will be hosting the National Showcase at the Trop in Tampa/St. Pete. Last year, over 300 PG players were watched by college and pro scouts. And many of these players will be invited to the Perfect Game All-American Classic in Phoenix at Chase Field this August.

Hot fun in the summertime!

Play Ball!

Don’t sleep 💤 on the Underdog!

Clint

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