Ideas for a 2012 Graduation Speech

I am going to look to those great American Philosophers, baseball players and managers, for wisdom .

Stay hungry. The way to get ahead is stay hungry. As Leo Durocher said “Give me some scratching, diving, hungry ballplayers who come to kill you.”

Set high expectations. Sparky Anderson said, “I don’t know whether I’m a big leaguer or not, but I want to find out, and if I can’t do it, then I’ll be a minor leaguer the rest of my life.”

What do you have to do, to be in the Big Leagues of your profession?

Take chances. Wayne Gretzky was not a baseball player, but said, “I learned early that I miss 100 percent of the shots, I don’t take.”

So take your shots.

Also, stick up for what is right. When defending Jackie Robinson, Durocher said, “I don’t care if the guy is yellow or black, or if he has stripes like a god-damn zebra. I’m the manager of this team and I say he plays.”

You will make mistakes. But take them as a learning experience and move into the future. As Sparky Anderson said , “”People who live in the past generally are afraid to compete in the present. I’ve got my faults, but living in the past is not one of them. There’s no future in it.”

Have a strong work ethic. Every employer can identify with Casey Stengel who said, “”All I ask is that you bust your heiny on that field.”

Nolan Ryan said, “”One of the beautiful things about baseball is that you come into a situation where you have to reach down and prove something.”

You too will have to reach down and prove something – to your boss, to yourself, to your spouse, to your children. That is when you find out who you really are.

Joaquin Andujar once said, “My favorite word in English is ” You never know.”

And Joaquin was so right,- in life “you never know. ‘ So stay flexible, stay open to new ideas.

Finally Bob Feller once said, “Every day is a new opportunity. That’s the way life is, with a new game every day, and that’s the way baseball is.”

And there will be a “new game” every day.

Go out there and enjoy life. And do it now, because “You never know.”