One of Mickey’s fondest wishes was that he be remembered as a great teammate.
-- from Bob Costas’s Eulogy for Mickey Mantle on August 15, 1995
Don Mattingly, who also played for the Yankees, wrote the following:
Team sports are really difficult things. Sometimes your team wins because of you, sometimes in spite of you, and sometimes it’s like you’re not even there!
That’s the reality of a team game. Then at one point in my career, something wonderful happened . . .
I don’t know how or why, but I came to understand what “team” meant. It meant that although I didn’t get a hit or make a great play, I could impact the team in an incredible and consistent way. I learned that I could impact my team by caring first and foremost about the team’s success and not my own. I don’t mean by rooting like a fan. Fans are fickle. I mean CARE, really CARE, about the team -- about “US.”
I became less selfish, less lazy, less sensitive to negative comments. When I gave up on me, I became more. I became a captain, a leader, a better person, and I came to understand that life is a team game. And you know what? I’ve found most people are not team players. They do not realize that life is the only game in town. Someone should tell them.
It has made all the difference in the world to me!
* * * * * * *
We had better realize that we are all in this together . . . before it’s too late.
You have a big decision to make: what’s it going to be . . .
ME or WE???
Rob Gilbert
