The big home run or steady play? The road to the Hall of Fame

Maz rounds third

How do teams succeed?  What is success?  How do we know we are winning?

These are some of the great questions we all ask about our work in Partnership  These questions come to mind every day as we work on improving clinical quality, patient safety, service quality, efficiency, and making our work environment safer, better, and conducive to a great work experience.

Partnerships have come and gone in American business. Almost all have failed. Our LMP has been around longer than any other, and we are at another pivotal moment in our history.

We are bargaining our third National Agreement. We are doing this while some of our union affiliates are going through difficult internal challenge and change. We have mostly new leadership on all sides of the Partnership. And, we are running fast to fully understand the new challenges and opportunities presented with the passage of comprehensive health care reform legislation.  How will we know we are succeeding?

A lesson from the annals of baseball

For those of you who are not sports fans, forgive me.  However, I believe the story of Bill Mazeroski of the 1960 World Series Champion Pittsburgh Pirates is a story for sports lovers and non-sports lovers alike.

Bill Mazeroski is best known for his 9^th inning home run in the 7^th game that won the World Series for the Pirates against the powerful New York Yankees. He hit that home run before the home town crowd at Forbes Field when Pittsburgh was the largest steel-producing region anywhere in the world. If you know the pride in great working-class cities like Pittsburgh, then you know the deep emotional outpouring when that home run defeated the “Kings of Baseball” known as those “damned Yankees.”

But Mazeroski’s s career was not a career of great hitting; no, Mazeroski is considered the best defensive infielder to have ever played the game. It’s ironic that he is remembered most for that famous home run, when his statistics on error-free innings and double plays are what truly defined his phenomenal career.

Maz: A steady player

Maz, as he was known, grew up in the coal regions of southeastern Ohio in the 1930’s and 1940’s.  Very poor, with a father who left to find work in Akron, Maz coped with poverty the way so many kids do:  he followed his father’s love of baseball, and at the age of 17, was drafted into the professional ranks.  At age 19, he was the youngest All-Star in the history of Major League baseball, having excelled at 2^nd base for the Pirates.

Mazeroski turned double plays like no one before or since.  Base runners would try to “take him out” as is the practice, but instead they would run into the immovable Mazeroski lower leg, and most often wind up dazed and confused having been both thrown out as well as being the victim of another remarkable double-play.

You see, as a poor young kid, Maz had an inferior mitt, flat, with little pocket.  As a result, when he fielded balls they would invariably roll up his gloved hand to its heel.  Rather than make an error, he learned how to take the movement of the ball and turn it into an advantage.  He learned to grab the ball and throw to first base in one very quick, effortless motion.  As a result, no one could believe how fast Mazeroski could make the exchange from gloved hand to throwing hand.  For Mazeroski it was simple adaptation based on years of experience and practice.

Maz: Hall of Famer

When Mazeroski retired the debate over whether or not he would be inducted into the Hall of Fame began.  Some thought he was a “lock”; others said he was undeserving.  For twenty years after his retirement, the voters never gave him more than 42% for admission.  Then, finally when the Veteran’s committee took his case up, they voted Mazeroski into the Hall of Fame.

Mazeroski’s success was based on innovation in fielding from his authentic experience as a poor kid with inferior equipment.  This part of his story is not known.  He is widely known for that “home run that shocked the world.” But that is not why he is in the Hall of Fame.

For us, improvement in health care will come from no one thing. We must learn from experience, have trust in our ability to do so, constantly deepening our commitment and focus to the thousand little things that add up to systemic success. Home runs are fun and something to cheer about. Whole system change and innovation are what set records.