Motivational Story - Roy Halladay - Baseball Bust to Hall of Fame
I have always been fascinated by people be it in sports or business and the route they took to achieve career success? I admire the individual’s even more when I find that they had to face a few roadblocks while out on their personal highway or got lost along the way and needed directions to find their ultimate destination?
Would you believe that the late Roy Halladay, a three-time 20-game winner, twice a Cy Young Award recipient as his sport’s best pitcher and named to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2019, was once removed from his Major League team and sent down to the lowest level of minor league ball to re-learn how to pitch?
At age 22, Halladay was already pitching for the Toronto Blue Jays. He already had compiled a 9-7 career record at the time and was showing immense promise to become a top-of-the-rotation hurler. Then came year three - the 2000 season - when he was viewed as a complete flop? There were concerns for his 4-7 won-loss record but the fact that he had set a new MLB record for worst ERA (10.64) in a single season for a pitcher with 60 innings or more, set off the alarm buttons in the Toronto front office. Their prize prospect could no longer find home plate?
This is the same pitcher, who when you go back 100 years or more through the Major League Baseball record books, you'll find that Roy Halladay is the only player besides the immortal Cy Young, to ever strike out 200 batters in one season while having fewer walks than starts! Yet he lost complete control of his pitching mechanics? His confidence was obviously shattered. The Blue Jays realized that they had to shut down their young star and reboot his mindset altogether.
Even Halladay’s wife, Brandy, was concerned. During a shopping trip to a book store back during her husband’s darkest season, she was looking for published material that dealt with depression and self-esteem if that would help? Brandy, as luck had it, also ran across a book that she bought for her husband titled - “The Mental ABC's of Pitching” written by H.A. Dorfman.
The Blue Jays’ baseball executives next called on one of their former pitching instructors (Mel Queen) and gave him the task of fixing Halladay. Queen wasted no time nor pleasantries when he first met his new pupil. It was a “tough love” exchange of words that seem to jolt Halladay before Queen set out to help fine tune his pitching mechanics. What comes next is a portion of that riveting conversation between the two as told to Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated.com.
"Now," Queen told Halladay, "You can walk out of here if you want. You have a guaranteed contract worth millions. You can walk right out of here, and you're not going to pitch in the big leagues ever again. But if you want to pitch in the big leagues again, you will do everything I tell you without question?"
"O.K.," Halladay said. "I'm ready."
"Good. Let's start. How are you doing, Doc?"
"I'm good."
"What?! That's why you're so stupid! You're in Dunedin (Florida at “A” Level Ball) with a 10 ERA, and you're telling me you're good? No! You're not good!"
Queen paused.
"O.K., now we're going to start."
While Queen tinkered with Halladay’s mechanics (he would ultimately lower the pitcher’s release point when throwing from the mound and speed up his delivery), the Blue Jays front office reached out to Harvey Dorfman, who was a Mental Skills Coach for the Oakland Athletics back in the late 1980’s, to also work with Halladay. Both developments made a significant difference as Halladay eventually worked his way back up to the Big Leagues to complete a resume that enshrined him in the Halls of Cooperstown!
Said Halladay when he looked back on his time spent with Queen and Dorfman? “It made the biggest difference for me. The first part was trying to rebuild that confidence in me, having a positive mentality. The second part was to simplify things. Sometimes you get caught up in the big picture— worrying about giving up runs or who you're facing—and you get away from what makes you successful, which is executing pitches.”
"I think it says a lot about his mental toughness," said Mike Arbuckle, who was the head of the Philadelphia Phillies’ draft day operations when Haladay pitched for the club (2010-2013). "What Roy did says a lot, to take not one step backward but multiple steps backward. A lot of kids would have folded their tents."
Added Brandy Halladay: "Mr. Dorfman really taught Roy to focus on one thing at a time. When he gave up a hit, he learned to think about the next hitter. He helped him deal with those mental stumbling blocks every person has to deal with. The book and [Dorfman] helped his pitching career, our marriage, the way we looked at life in general ... It absolutely saved his career."
FOR THE ATHLETE: As you can see more than ever, focus as much attention onto your “mindset development” as you do with your own personal workouts from the neck down. Your brain is the most sophisticated super computer in existence. Think of it as the hard drive and your body is the computer screen. You don’t want to continually save junk in the hard drive (or clutter up your mind with negative thoughts and distractions) as it will eventually slow down your computer’s ability (your body) to perform.
Translation: When your mind and body are on the same wave length, that is when your true talents will be unleashed and allow you to perform at a much higher level for a longer period of time!
Jim Loria
MOTIVATIONAL QUOTES RELATING TO THIS STORY
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“To be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win & expect to win” – stated by Zig Ziglar, Self-Help Author and Motivational Speaker
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“History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats” – stated by Bertie Charles Forbes, founder of Forbes Magazine
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