Thank Goodness It's Monday #375

WHAT WE ALL CAN LEARN FROM

500,000 ERRORS

Dubious Achievement Award
Jose Reyes credited with the milestone 500,000th Major League Baseball error.
September 15, 2012

It’s unofficial, but … on Saturday, September 15, 2012, Major League Baseball recorded its 500,000 error (more or less).
 

Sez who? Sez Sean Forman, the founder of Sports-Reference.com website.

Forman himself concludes, “This is utterly random, completely meaningless and less than 100 percent accurate….” MLB official statistics keepers essentially agree by declining to comment on the milestone, citing the “inconsistency of record keeping with error totals before the current season.”

However, I say –

It’s close enough. And I’ll add, in the spirit of unearthing some actionable-in-the-wider- world TGIM Takeaways –

A half-million errors (more or less)

are not at all “completely meaningless”

But the meaning, perhaps surprisingly, might well be about what’s being done correctly.

Let’s see if we can get to that point by first looking back.

The tabulation reaching 500,000 errors begins with info gleaned in 1876 when the error rate per team could be as high as 6.01 a game.

 

This season it’s down to 0.62 – significantly less than one error per game.

Why the disparity? Even a casual follower of the game like me can figure out some of the reasons:

·         Equipment’s better.

·         The playing fields themselves are better tended, making them less likely to contribute error-creating ball behavior.

·         Huge increases in strikeouts and home runs lead to a decline in total chances for fielding errors.

·         Players get pretty good instruction in fielding fundamentals for years and years before turning pro. 

But, if – as many have observed over the years -- “baseball is like life” (or “life is like baseball”), are there also life lessons to be gleaned from the Half-A-Million Mistakes Milestone?

Here’s one big one: The corollary number to a less-than-one-fielding-error per team, per game statistic is a league-wide fielding percentage of .983 this season and a record of .984 tallied in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

In other words: In professional baseball, virtually every play in the field is correctly executed.

Here’s another: The nature of errors in the game of baseball is such that it’s the players who are regarded as the finest fielders who pile up the largest error count. 

So, for example, the combination of total volume of plays plus the difficulty associated with those plays, makes errors a fact of life for even the best shortstops. 

2012 stats: The top two active leaders in errors are Rafael Furcal (currently 250 errors in 13 seasons) likely one of the best throwing shortstops ever and Adrian Beltre, the game’s undisputed best third baseman (243 in 15 seasons).

Local Yankee fans: As of this writing Derek Jeter (240 over 18 seasons) and A-Rod (233 in 19 seasons) are #4 and #5 in the active player error derby.

TGIM TAKEAWAY: Mistakes happen. Sure, errors loom large, but often, as in baseball, it’s against the background of near perfection. It’s what you do after the mistake that may well determine the ongoing outcome. 

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Keep your eye on the donut, not the hole.

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Appreciate all the things that go right. Build on strengths. Have confidence that you can do what’s needed to be even better in the future.

Of course, if you sense some greater underlying lack of ability, seek guidance to remove the defect and correct limitations or weaknesses that repeatedly cost success. Otherwise --  

Don’t dwell on slipups. Don’t sweat the small stuff, even if it looms large in the moment. Shake off the infrequent glitch that’s inevitable if you’re striving diligently and get back to striving.

Play ball! See you at the World Series. 

Geoff Steck   
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com

P. S. “Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow; he who would search for pearls must dive below.” The poet, dramatist and critic John Dryden (1631 - 1700) said that.