A Night to Remember

Have you ever watched something and think something special was happening.  Last night was it for me.  I'm a huge baseball fan and we are in the midst of the best time of the year.  For the first time in years, the season is ending during the week in an attempt to finish playing in October.  Here's the scene going into last night's games:  Tampa Bay and Boston were tied for the Wild Card in the American League and Atlanta and St. Louis were tied in the National League.  If they were still tied, they would play a one game playoff today.  Around midnight eastern time, the Phillies and the Braves were in extra innings; Boston and Baltimore resumed play after a rain delay; and Tampa Bay and the Yankees were in an extra inning battle.  More on the Tampa Bay game later.

As a Phillies fan, I was watching the game.  The Phillies tied the game in the 9th.  Atlanta knew they had to win in order to force a playoff since St. Louis beat the Astros.  Back and forth it went until the top of the 13th when the Phillies scored on a bloop single.  Atlanta's season ended in the bottom of the inning with a double play.  I quickly moved to the Red Sox game where Boston had a 3-2 lead going into the bottom of the ninth.  Their closer gave up two runs in the bottom of the ninth to the Orioles.  The Red Sox ran to the television to watch the Rays win in the bottom of the 12th on a walk off home run by Evan Longoria.  The Rays were losing 7-0 going into the 8th inning.  They scored six runs in the 8th and scored in the ninth on a two out home run by Dan Johnson.  The best game of the night.  Tampa Bay and St. Louis go to the playoffs.

What's the connection to leadership?  In my mind, the teams with the best leaders won their games.  The Phillies have great leadership on the field and an underrated manager in Charlie Manuel.  By winning, he became the win leader in Phillies managerial history.  The Red Sox appeared to be lacking leadership as they saw their 9 game lead evaporate.  The same for the Braves-they had an 8.5 game lead in September.  The Braves had a rookie manager and an aging Chipper Jones-not enough.  Certainly not compared to Tony LaRussa and Albert Pujols.  Leadership matters-especially when the going gets tough.  It promises to be a great post season.  May the best leader win.