What time is it?

The qualifier, slated to be a best of 5 game series against Guam at Paseo Stadium, a stadium unlike anything we have in New Zealand for baseball, was touted by their local media that victory was a forgone conclusion. Tournament Director Ray Brown, a former MLB pitcher, would surmise that the teams were pretty evenly matched after watching a couple of practices. Truth be told, we didn’t know what kind of team to expect of Guam and it would be a mistake to underestimate us. Since Covid, this was the first time most of our players had traveled anywhere and we didn’t travel for 24 hours to get embarrased. Nevertheless, first game jitters in unmarked territory are always a concern. Cullen Scott, our Texas born Kiwi and top pitcher got the nod to start game one. Hailing from America, Cullen had played more baseball, more high stakes baseball at a more competitive level than anyone else on our squad. So naturally we wanted to put our best foot forward. Despite that, Guam jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in game 1 before we responded with 6 runs of our own. Our adversaries would eventually claw their way back into the game creating a tug o' war heading into the 7th and final inning of play. With the teams deadlocked at 9 all, NZ would go on to rally with 2 outs and score 4 runs to win the first game by a score of 13-10! It was only 1 game but we did what most of the naysayers and media thought we couldn’t do. Win baby win!

To understand how the events of winning game 1 unfolded, we have to rewind back the clock to when we first set foot on Guamanian soil and sat down for dinner after our first training run. Being so far away from home, from our friends and family in unfamiliar and hostile territory its important to control the one thing we can control. Ourselves and how we go about our business. Now ‘hostile’ might seem like an overly aggressive or confrontational word, but this is baseball - ‘a struggle for supremecy’ and right now we were at war with our nerves (to borrow from Ty Cobb). The phrase that also came to my mind in that moment was ‘fight or flight’ which was first coined by physiologist Walter Cannon in response to how the muscles react to different states of fear and that much was true whether the players showed it or not. Now we certainly weren’t going into flight mode but our level of fight would certainly be affected.

As Jim Rohn once said, “either you run the day, or the day runs you”, our job was to get on top of each day and the things we could control by falling back on our baseline training. Clayton Willock again delivered his mental skills presentation to remind the players of the tools we had previously given them to deal with the pressures and fears of the moment. On day two after dinner I reviewed the Baseball New Zealand presentation that was inspired by the Padres with a special emphasis on ‘vulnerability’ being the first step and key to confidence. We then held what could only be described as a ‘kumbaya’ moment. We asked each of the players how they were feeling. Some said they missed their families, some said they were afraid of failing because their parents and community had worked so hard to get them there, while others were afraid of letting each other down or not living up to what it means to wear the black jersey. At each inflection point, we fell back on our our mental skills training from day one to apply the tools they had been given. We let them know it was ok to feel the way they did. Seeing and hearing their team mates in their own words describe shared feelings was a powerful moment in the growth of the team. On day three, I compiled a presentation of previous National teams who had come before them playing on the type of stage they were about to play on. That was followed by video messages of encouragement from National coaches the players all knew from back home. Lastly, there was a video montage of pictures to the tune of ‘Moments We Live For’ by In Paradise showing their journey through all of the camps right up until the eve of game 1. The goal was to remind them of who they are, where they come from, all of the hard work they had put in and that they were just a custodian of the jersey they had the privilege to wear.

It’s Game Time!

Waking up on game day especially on a big stage was always a special feeling for me. How cool is it that you get to finally pull on your uniform and go out there and ‘show out’? You’ve done all the hard work. You’ve trained and grinded for days, weeks, months. There is nothing more you can do to prepare yourself for this moment. As coaches we can often be guilty of over coaching, getting inside our player’s minds with every minute detail that we’ve ever coached them up on. Unfortunately that takes a player out of their zen zone. So after breakfast we held our first game day meeting to announce the starting line up and as head coach it was time for me to deliver my first game day message. My goal was to keep it simple, focus their mindset on the mission ahead and the best way to do that is in a way that all of the players can relate to. So after naming the starting line up, I invoked the iconic scene from The Avengers when Captain America and Iron Man go after Loki and for the first time, Thor where Captain America says, “Stark, we need a plan of attack” and Iron Man responds, “I have a plan: Attack!” One simple word to focus on: Attack! I explained that as pitchers we were going to attack the zone, as fielders we were going to attack ground balls and fly balls and as hitters and baserunners we were going to attack fastballs and the bases to score in bunches. We were going to Attack, Attack, Attack! And then we were going to Attack some more! We wrote it on the line up sheet, in all caps, so that players would see it every time they left the dugout. And from the get go, we did just that. Kiki Landon-Lane our starting short stop and lead off hitter attacked the first pitch - it was a foul ball, but he attacked again and while it resulted in an out, it set the tone for how we were going to play the game. We were relentless and we never ever gave up. We played with confidence and trust in each other. We played for our families and friends back home, we played for ourselves and each other and we played for the black jersey. It was hard fought, we were down, we were up, we were tied and we won. In that moment, I was reminded by the words of Kobe Bryant. He said, “when there’s something your really want, fight for it. Scratch and claw and do whatever it takes to get it.” That’s the way we played game 1 and it was truly a result of the mindset and the foundations we laid building up that game!

Kia Kaha | Stay Strong!