In the summer of 1949, a highly touted prospect in the New York Yankees minor leagues fell into a brutal hitting slump. After signing with the Yankees for $140 a-month plus $1,150 as a signing bonus in 1948, a year later, the future switch-hitting star of New York was assigned to the Independence Yankees, a class D minor league team of the Kansas-Oklahoma-Missouri League. The Kansas-Oklahoma-Missouri league drew about as many fans as one would expect for a Class D minor league - close to none.
In front of small crowds in the plains of the Midwest a 19-year old Mickey Mantle couldn’t get anything going at the plate. In front of empty stadiums, in the middle of nowhere, frustration turned into exasperation which turned into desperation quickly. In a state of desperation after a long hitting slump, buried in the ranks of professional baseball, Mantle had had enough. He called his father and told him the fatal words for the careers of future stars - “I’m done.”
His father Mutt Mantle, blue-collar to the core, drove to Independence, Kansas and convinced his son to keep swinging. The future Hall of Famer decided he would not quit. Two years later he broke into the major leagues playing alongside the great Joe Dimaggio. Eventually after Dimaggio retired, Mantle took over center-field. The MainStage of Yankee Stadium. He stayed on the MainStage for 15 more years. He went on to be a twenty-time all star and seven-time world series champion. Mantle won the American League Most Valuable Player Award three times. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame on January 16, 1974.
Six months after Mickey Mantle was inducted in the hall of fame, just across the river from Yankee Stadium another future hall of fame Yankee was born in New Jersey. On June 26, 1974 the Jeter family welcomed a little boy into the world and named him Derek.
Derek Jeter spent his formative years in Kalamazoo, Michigan. A three sport athlete at Kalamazoo Central High School, Jeter was way ahead of his peers in baseball. As a senior in high school he was an all-state shortstop in Michigan. In 1992, he was the American Baseball Coaches Association national player of the year, the Gatorade high school player of the year and USA Today’s high school player of the year. He was committed to play college ball at the University of Michigan but would never make it to campus.
The New York Yankees selected Jeter sixth overall in the 1992 draft. He signed for $800,000, a touch more than Mantle’s $1,150. Like Mantle, Jeter was highly touted. Also like Mantle, Jeter went from the spotlight to the empty stadiums of minor league baseball quickly. Jeter played with the Gulf Coast Yankees of the Rookie Ball level, Gulf Coast League. Instead of the plains of the Midwest, Jeter was given the humidity and heat of Florida. But both environments had a few things in common for Mantle and Jeter. Failure, frustration, barely any fans in the stands, and phone calls home to Mom & Dad. While Jeter’s father never had to get in the car and drive down to talk his son into staying the course, the future hall of fame shortstop racked up over $400 a month in long-distance phone call bills. Homesickness and frustration caused the pride of Kalamazoo Central High School to call home daily.
In his first year of professional baseball Jeter struggled mightily at the plate. In his first game he went 0-for-7 with five strikeouts. In his first professional season he made 9 errors in 48 fielding chances. The 156-pound, lanky shortstop, with the compact swing had a hard time getting things going at the plate as he hit .202.
On the back fields in Florida, Jeter continued to refine his craft. Eventually the potential began to materialize. He slowly climbed the ranks of minor league baseball over the next four seasons. Tampa Yankees (A) , Albany-Colonie Yankees (AA), Columbus Clippers (AAA). Jeter found his way at the plate and in the field and was named the Minor League Player of the Year Award by Baseball America in 1994. He broke into the major leagues in 1995 and went on to be a fourteen-time all-star, five-time world series champion, and a world-series Most Valuable Player. He was voted into the Hall of Fame earlier this year, where he will join the late Mickey Mantle.
Aside from both being connected to the New York Yankees, as well as being hall of fame baseball players, as well as being frequent callers to their moms and dads as teenage, professional baseball players, Derek Jeter and Mickey Mantle have something far more powerful in common. Derek Jeter and Mickey Mantle were graduates of the school of development. A school of development not reserved just for future New York Yankees, rather a school of development for anyone who is in the pursuit of mastery in their craft.
A school of development with tremendous rigor despite tuition costing $0.00 a year with books included. This school of development blends three components of confrontation in the minds of all who enroll. Obscurity, uncertainty, and disrupted comfort zones. All three, weaving and bending in the mind and on the spirit of the developed simultaneously. Development can be so frustrating, exasperating, and despairing at times. It can break the spirit of the most talented leaders.
Obscurity
After being drafted in the first round of the 1992 MLB draft, Derek Jeter attended a game at Yankee Stadium with his family. He sat in the first-row in a packed, historic Yankee Stadium (the same field where the legendary Mickey Mantle roamed the outfield). After seeing a game with his family, he packed his bags and headed to the Gulf Coast. Far from the roar of Yankee Stadium, far from the packed crowds, far from the outfield Mickey Mantle - the hall of famer roamed. The first stop for his professional development occurred in plain obscurity. The lonely backdrop of minor league baseball, in small towns, with a roommate on road trips, traveling on buses and working out on fields with chain link fences. The glamour of Yankee Stadium might as well have been on Mars compared to where Jeter took ground balls and hit in the cages. The back fields of baseball complexes are often silent.
The most seasoned leaders are able to point to chapters in their life in which they worked and plodded in absolute obscurity. They weren’t the future CEO, they had no proven success on the stage. They were working a dead-end job, with no plan of climbing the ladder. Obscurity has a way of humbling us all. A humility that must be crafted in order to succeed under the bright lights in the future. It’s a development we can’t read in a book, we can’t take an experienced leader out for coffee to acquire it, it must only be acquired over years, or decades waiting in the wings. No retweets, no shoutouts, no spotlight, no book signings, no interviews, just the simplicity of showing up and beating on your craft - often alone.
Uncertainty
Perhaps for Mickey Mantle the most debilitating experience of Independence, Kansas was not just the hitting slump - however I'm sure it was frustrating. Perhaps what was the most exasperating and devastating was not that Mantle was failing for quite possibly the first time in his baseball career, but maybe it was the thoughts darting in his mind that he just might not have what it takes. We read stories of successful people and as we dissect their journeys we have the privilege of knowledge they did not have - the knowledge of how it all ends.
For a baby-faced, 19-year old Mickey Mantle, he didn’t know how it was going to end. He wasn’t sure if he would make it the next day, let alone to the big-leagues or hall of fame! In the process of development, some of the heaviest lifting has nothing to do with the craft, but rather the lifting occurring in the mind as we navigate expectations along with hopes and dreams. Uncertainty has a way of adding tremendous weight to the bar. Wondering if all the labor is in vain, sizing up failure and a slow start “How am I going to make it to the big leagues if I can’t even hit in Independence, Kansas?” The uncertainty of how things will pan out in the future is one of the toughest parts of development.
Disrupted Comfort Zones
For both Mantle and Jeter, family played a huge part in their upbringing. Both were close to their parents and siblings. Both grew up in small towns. Small towns in which they were the star. One of the most challenging dynamics of development is having our comfort zone stretched. The packing of boxes, the moving away, the new job or new role outside of our wheelhouse all can create a very difficult dynamic to thrive in. On top of moving away from family, both Mantle and Jeter had tremendous pressure on them to succeed. All while, the one source of comfort - baseball, even more so their success in baseball, was failing them now.
Development takes place at the edge of what is comfortable and what feels like we are doing for the very first time. If we are to gain a new skill, habit, or perspective we can guarantee it will come at the expense of our comfort. Everything about development is uncomfortable. We may not all have the abilities to play shortstop or center field in Yankee Stadium, but there is development to be had in our craft.
If you are experiencing obscurity you are in great company. If you are experiencing uncertainty in your path you are in great company. If your comfort zones are being disrupted, you are in great company. These are not indicators you are on the wrong path. These are indicators you are developing.
Stay The Course,
JB
Book of the week: Atomic Habits by James Clear
Podcast episode of the week: The Sport Psych Show - Jeremy Holt and Dr Will Thomas - Creating Team Excellence
Article of the week: Why Great Leaders Have Influence - Amy Snow
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