With Spring Training in full swing, it presents the perfect opportunity to learn valuable leadership lessons from those involved in game of baseball.  Before getting to the list, I want to make some of you aware of a very unique opportunity.

Each week, I have the privilege of joining approximately 80+ professional and amateur baseball coaches and scouts for an online Bible study.  This time together is put on by Mike Linch, the absolutely delightful senior pastor of NorthStar Church in Kennesaw, GA.  It is my favorite 45 minutes of the week!  A sampling of what it looks like is shown below:

If you are a baseball scout or coach from the high school to MLB ranks and want to learn about spiritual leadership with like-minded individuals, please reach out to Mike at mike@northstarchurch.org.  He will send you all the details of how to join us.  Trust me, these are humble, Godly men.  Being in their presence will make you a better person.

Now, as promised, the following are ten baseball books all leaders should be reading regardless of the industry:

1. Hurdle-isms: Wit and Wisdom from a Lifetime in Baseball by Clint Hurdle – Major League Baseball player, hitting coach, manager, and current Special Assistant to the General Manager for the Colorado Rockies, Clint Hurdle, delivers a collection of his most inspirational stories.  You’ll find a ton of funny, insightful, and otherwise notable anecdotes from one of Major League Baseball’s most successful personalities.
2. Coaching With Purpose: The Game Plan That Helps Coaches Build Winners On and Off the Field by Keith Madison – Coaching today is more challenging than ever. From tight budgets, long hours, and overzealous parents to the NCAA transfer portal, NIL deals, and social media, today’s coaches are faced with high expectations and little thanks.  Too many coaches find themselves burned out, worn down, and wondering if all the stress and pressure is worth it.  What if there was another way to stay in the game? After 28 years of coaching on the field, including 25 seasons as head coach for the University of Kentucky, and 20 years mentoring coaches both one-on-one and through his work at SCORE International and the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA), Coach Keith Madison has a plan to help you be successful.
3. The Cub’s Way: The Zen Of Building The Best Team In Baseball And Breaking The Curse by Tom Verducci – One of the Top 10 leadership books I have ever read – With inside access and reporting, Verducci reveals how Theo Epstein and Joe Maddon built, led, and inspired the Chicago Cubs team that broke the longest championship drought in sports, chronicling their epic journey to become World Series champions.
4. Buzz Saw: The Improbable Story of How the Washington Nationals Won the World Series by Jesse Dougherty – Two words – Juan Soto!! ! By May 2019, the Washington Nationals—owners of baseball’s oldest roster—had one of the worst records in the majors and just a 1.5 percent chance of winning the World Series. Yet by blending an old-school brand of baseball with modern analytics, they managed to sneak into the playoffs and put together the most unlikely postseason run in baseball history. Not only did they beat the Houston Astros, the team with the best regular-season record, to claim the franchise’s first championship—they won all four games in Houston, making them the first club to ever win four road games in a World Series.
5. The Best Team Money Can Buy: The Los Angeles Dodgers Wild Struggle to Build a Baseball Powerhouse by Molly Knight – Knight tells the story of the Dodgers’ 2013 and 2014 seasons with detailed, previously unreported revelations. She shares a behind-the-scenes account of the astonishing sale of the Dodgers, and why the team was not overpriced, as well as what the Dodgers actually knew in advance about rookie phenom and Cuban defector Yasiel Puig and how they and teammates handled him during his first two roller-coaster seasons. We learn how close manager Don Mattingly was to losing his job during the 2013 season—and how the team turned around the season in the most remarkable fifty-game stretch (42-8) of any team since World War II, before losing in the NLCS. Knight also provides a rare glimpse into the infighting and mistrust that derailed the team in 2014, and resulted in ridding the roster of difficult personalities and the hiring of a new front office.  Knight also reveals new facts behind the blockbuster trade with the Red Sox. She paintsan intimate portrait of star pitcher Clayton Kershaw, probably the best pitcher in the game today, including details about the recordcontract offer he turned down before accepting the richest contract any pitcher ever signed.
6. The Yankee Way: The Untold Inside Story Of The Brian Cashman Era by Andy Martino – When Brian Cashman arrived in the Bronx as an intern in 1986, he discovered a team in chaos, run on impulse and emotion and lacking the sheen that had defined the Yankees in earlier eras. Decades later, Cashman had risen through the ranks of the front office, earned the trust of the Steinbrenner family, and become the longest-serving GM in the Yankees’ storied history, helping to transform the Yankees to glory with a string of World Series championships and an unmatched streak of winning seasons.
7. The Cardinals Way: How One Team Embraced Tradition And Moneybag At The Same Time by Howard Megdal – Despite years of phenomenal achievements, including going to the World Series in 2004 and again in 2006, the Cardinals reinvented themselves using the “Cardinal Way,” a term that has come to represent many things to fans, media, and other organizations, from an ironclad code of conduct to the team’s cutting-edge use of statistic and analytics, and a farm system that has transformed baseball.
8. Chumps to Champs: How the Worst Teams in Yankees History Led to The ’90s Dynasty by Bill Pennington – In Chumps to Champs, Pennington reveals a grand tale of revival. Readers encounter larger than life characters like George Steinbrenner and unexplored figures like Buck Showalter, three-time manager of the year, Don Mattingly, and the crafty architect of it all—general manager, Gene Michael, who assembled the team’s future stars—Rivera, Jeter, Williams, O’Neill, and Pettitte.
9. Astroball: A New Way To Win It All by Ben Reiter – One of my favorite leadership books ever! Astroball picks up where Michael Lewis’s acclaimed Moneyball leaves off, telling the thrilling story of a championship team that pushed both the sport and business of baseball to the next level. In 2014, the Astros were the worst baseball team in half a century, but just three years later they defied critics to win a stunning World Series.
10. Homegrown: How The Red Sox Built A Champion From The Ground Up by Alex Speier – The 2018 season was a coronation for the Boston Red Sox. The best team in Major League Baseball—indeed, one of the best teams ever—the Sox won 108 regular season games and then romped through the postseason, going 11-3 against the three next-strongest teams baseball had to offer. The Sox’ success wasn’t a fluke—nor was it guaranteed. It was the result of careful, patient planning and shrewd decision-making that allowed Boston to develop a golden generation of prospects—and then build upon that talented core to assemble a juggernaut. Speier has covered the key players—Mookie Betts, Andrew Benintendi, Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, Jackie Bradley Jr., and many others—since the beginning of their professional careers, as they rose through the minor leagues and ultimately became the heart of this historic championship squad.

3 Bonus Books

I love books on excellence and elite performance.  These three bonus offerings deal with other high-performing Spring and Summertime athletes and coaches:

• The Games Leaders Play: How People just like YOU are Winning in Athletics, Business, Faith and Life by Brian Dodd – Yes, this is my best-selling book. Some leaders are easily forgotten, others leave a lasting legacy. Some leaders do things by default, others by design. Some leaders want silver bullets, others build systems. The Games Leaders Play is a powerful resource which gives you the tools and resources needed to succeed in today’s world. Containing numerous stories and anecdotes, I will teach you the leadership principles needed to make a positive difference in the lives of others. You will be inspired and better equipped to lead others as you turn each page.
• The Tiger Slam: The Inside Story of the Greatest Golf Ever Played (Tiger Woods in 2000 – 2001) by Kevin Cook – In The Tiger Slam, Kevin Cook delivers a gripping, inside-the-ropes account of an astonishing streak of victories that left Woods’s rivals scrambling to keep up.  Readers will hear from many of golf ’s biggest names—Tiger’s caddie, his coach, his opponents, his idols, and others, all offering fresh insight into the electrifying highs of his victories and the obstacles on and off the course that threatened his relentless pursuit of perfection.
• 62: Aaron Judge, The New York Yankees, And The Pursuit Of Greatness by Bryan Hoch – “In the most thorough telling yet of an all-time-great Yankees performance” (Jeff Passan, New York Timesbestselling author), veteran Yankees beat reporter Bryan Hoch unravels the remarkable journey of Judge’s run to shatter Maris’s beloved sixty-one-year-old record. In-depth, inspiring, and with an expert’s insight, 62 also investigates the more significant questions raised in a season unlike any other, including how—and where—Judge will deliver his encore.