One month into the baseball season and neither of our local teams are currently doing very well. The Nationals are below 500 and the O’s are 10-20. For some weird reason, both teams are winning some games on the road but are getting drilled at home.
It’s beginning to look like a very long year for D.C.-Baltimore baseball fans.
On a more positive baseball note here is something I ran across in my baseball travels.
Birdie’s Two Letters
When a baseball team doesn’t win, it is usually the manager who is the first to be blamed. However, in 1963 Milwaukee Braves manager Birdie Tebbetts came up with a way to deal with the stress that he passed along to his successor Bobby Bragan. Upon taking over for Birdie, Bragan found two letters in his desk drawer labelled No. 1 and No. 2 and instructions to “Open in emergency only.”
The season commenced and sure enough the Braves did not do very well. Bragan consulted letter No. 1 which contained Birdie’s direction “Blame it all on me.” The following season, the Braves improved some but still weren’t playing very well. Bragan, frustrated, opened letter No. 2 hoping to find some words of wisdom on how to improve his team’s performance on the field. Birdie’s helpful advice read simply “Write two letters.”
Brad had this to say about letters with some good advice in them.
