Motivational Story - Lucas Giolito (Chicago White Sox / MLB)


 
Greetings! This week’s piece is to illustrate to you to never lose Hope! That you can find your way. That you can catch lightning in a bottle regardless of whatever hole you may dig yourself into during your career?

I am introducing to you Lucas Giolito, a pitcher for the Chicago White Sox. He was once a can’t miss baseball prospect in high school. A first round draft pick back in 2012. It took seven years for him to figure out of all things – himself. During that period, he underwent Tommy John surgery, was cut loose by his first big league team and traded at age 21 right after his first season in the majors. He would undergo multiple mechanical tweaks and changes to his pitch mix before taking on some new mindset training.

In the last two years, he has made the unlikely journey from worst starter in the Big Leagues statistically to fighting his way back to now becoming a front-end starter in the White Sox pitching rotation while earning an invite to the Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

During the 2020 season, he made national news by tossing a No Hitter on August 25th against Pittsburgh, striking out 13 Pirates batters enroute to a 4-0 win. Giolito also flirted with another No Hit bid in the opening playoff round victory versus Oakland where he threw six innings of hitless ball.

He credits his resurgence to a brain-training program that helped refocused himself. As well, it was a talk with his then Chicago manager Rick Renteria who pulled him aside one day to talk to Giolito about the differences between an athlete’s “personal confidence” versus “situational confidence?”

Said Lucas: “In 2018, I have to admit that I had no situational confidence. I’d take the ball, go out there and pitch but I was searching and I was anxious. But I knew, through it all, I had the confidence that a really, really good pitcher was somewhere inside of me?”

He added: “The separators, most of the time, are what’s between your ears? How consistent are you? What kind of routine do you have? What are you doing on a daily basis to make yourself a better player? It took years of struggle for me to really take a step back and look at myself in the mirror and say, ‘Is what I am doing conducive to being successful?’ The answer was no, so I made those changes to find my confidence.”

For the brain training program, Giolito states that he invested in 20 overall one-to-one sessions where he was provided with focus and guided visualization exercises that helped him increase his resilience to stress and anxiety.

He said: "Baseball is obviously a game of failure. It’s very easy to let it get into your own head. I realized I just needed to find the right way? This is why baseball is such a good sport to compare to life in general. You have to step out of your comfort zone. If you keep doing the same thing over and over that’s not working, you’re not going to see better results. And when you find that thing that seems like it may work, commit to it.”

Giolito added. “I thought a lot of what LeBron James said a few years ago, how he invests into himself. That you’re in control of what you’re bringing to the table as an athlete, so why not do everything you can to better yourself? It's fun to now finally be able to do what I know I've been capable of!

Never stop believing in your Dreams OK!


Jim Loria

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