The Only Name that Matters

A big part of being human is individuality. We are all unique. All different. 

The individual does matter. 

Being on a team should never mean giving up your identity as it should be about blending your identity and skills with others to pursue a common goal -  Winning. 

I am a team first guy and believe in“The only name that matters is the one on the front of the jersey,

not the one on the back".

But I am a bigger believer that each individual player must be allowed to express their personality and be responsible for their own production. We are not faceless, thoughtless, dependent rah rah drones going through the motions.Your name should be reflective of your individuality and be at the core of why you play the game.Plenty of team players are famous (i.e. Jeter , Bird, Magic Johnson, Brady, etc), yet maintain a high level of personal performance, team success, and star power. Your name is much more than a collection of letters as it represents who your are and what you stand for in life/sports. 

Through this blog, I have become my own independent figure, the Softballinsider "SBI", but I have a name, even though most below 96th street people misspell it as Rhonda (a blog for another day), my real name is Ricardo Ronda. Sometimes I feel I've created a monster as no one sees Ricardo Ronda anymore, they just judge me from what I write about on "SBI" . My name matters, and like this blog, it doesn't have a malicious power controlling agenda, rather it stands for honesty, self-respect, and ambition - all qualities that I bring to my readers, my friends, my family, my team and life. Damn all those words will never fit on the back of a jersey, I guess Ronda will due.


Being humble and team oriented is honorable, but never forget that your name matters.