@dnacatching
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Davey Johnson asked me to learn to catch.
My first reaction: Why?
He looked at me and said, "I think it'll add value to you. And I think it'll let you see the game from a lens you've never seen before."
I trusted Davey. So I said yes.
Here's what I didn't understand until I got behind the plate:
Before becoming a catcher I was always looking in. I was watching from a distance.
Behind the plate, the whole game opens up.
Everyone is out in front of you. You can read every hitter's swing. You're building a relationship with every pitcher. You see the defensive alignment. You understand strategy from a completely different angle.
It changed everything about how I understood baseball.
And it changed what I thought I could do next.
I finally stopped trying to squeeze more out of a playing career that had run its course. I started thinking about coaching. About managing.
A few years later I was a minor league manager.
I don't think I get anywhere close to that without Davey Johnson asking me to learn a position I had no business playing and without me trusting him enough to say yes.
Two questions worth sitting with today:
Is there someone in your life who's earned your trust enough that you'd say yes to almost anything they suggested?
And is there a lens on your work you've never looked through?
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