Can't Buy on the Street

A few years ago Ja Rulewas (I guess still is) a commercial music rapper who made catchy & corny hits with the J Lo's of the world. Everything was going well, until he pissed off much more popular and skilled rappers like Fifty Cent, Busta Rhymes, and Eminem who tore his street credibility to shreds and labeled him as a Sell Out. After he got trashed, his career for the most part was absolutely obliterated. You see Street Creditability among your peers and audience is crucial in the rap game and equally difficult to repair once damaged as you just can't buy Respect.

It's no different in Softball. Credibility as a player, manager, and recruiter is built on a combination of performance, winning, money, and loyalty. Once you have a leak in one part of your reputation, then the ship starts taking on water. Signs of weakness in any area can causes players to leave, performance to falter, and worse of all your reputation to become stained.

I'll be honest, lately I feel like my street credibility has been damaged for a lot of reasons most notably :

• Not winning the Big One enough
• Uneven Performance
• Blowout Playoff Losses/Disappointments

One could debate whether some of these factors were in my control, but what's done is done. No Excuses.

Needless to say, it has made the never easy task of recruiting talented new players/pitchers even more difficult. However, the most difficult part of the whole experience for me has been losing long time loyal players who have gone to where the grass is greener.

However, I do draw inspiration from rappers Jay-Z and Eminem who have had well publicized bouts with diminishing street credibility and mediocre performances only to Move on to the Next One and Recover quite nicely.

The wise softball philosopher Jack Steinman once told me

"never let anyone take your power and what you love the most away from you". good words to live by and remember, as It's not approval from others that matters, it's Self-Respect. You just can't buy that on the street.