He may have been the most naturally gifted baseball player of all time. In the June 18, 1956. edition of Sports Illustrated, writer Robert W. Creamer called him the “new Ruth.” When he began his baseball career, he was probably the fastest man in the game. He was clocked making it to first base in 2.9 seconds on a left-handed drag bunt. And he could run the bases in an incredible 13 seconds.
But his speed was nothing compared to the power of his hitting. People speculate that he got his strength from working as a “screen ape” during the summers at the lead mine near Commerce, Oklahoma. The job was to smash large rocks with a sledgehammer. Working with a partner, one man would smash rocks until he couldn’t hold the sledgehammer any longer, then the other would take a turn. It’s said that there were home run hitters, and then there was this man—in a league of his own. The Guinness Book of World Records credits him with the longest home run ever measured, at 643 feet. Many believe he hit the longest ball in baseball history in a 1951 exhibition game at USC (656 feet). And he could smack the ball out of the park with equal ease from either side of the plate.
Born to Play Baseball
The player I’m describing is, of course, Mickey Mantle of the New York Yankees. Growing up in Ohio, I was a Cincinnati Reds fan, but I saw and heard a lot about Mantle—especially in 1961 when the Reds finally made it to the World Series but lost to the Yankees four games to one.
Mantle’s prowess on the baseball field was legendary. He seemed to be born for baseball. His father, a former semipro ballplayer, and his grandfather began teaching him to hit when he was four years old. They would pitch balls to him after work every day. And since his father was right-handed and his grandfather a lefty, the boy learned to hit from both sides of the plate.
By age sixteen, Mantle was playing semipro ball. In 1948, a scout for the Yankees, Torn Greenwade, went to Oklahoma to see Mantle’s teammate, third baseman Billy Johnson, play. Mantle hit two long home runs that day—one right-handed, one left-handed. Greenwade said Mantle was the best prospect he’d ever seen and was ready to sign him on the spot—until he discovered that he was only sixteen and still in high school. Greenwade promised to come back when the kid graduated. And he did: Mantle signed with the Yankees on graduation day in 1949.
What a Record!
That summer, Mickey Mantle played class D ball in the Yankees organization. The next year, he was sent to play for the class C team in Joplin, Missouri. In 1951, he was invited to the Yankees’ spring training camp, and he was so good that he jumped straight from class C to the Yankees—the first time that had ever happened in the organization’s history. He was nineteen. He went to the World Series that rookie year and came home with a championship. During his career, his team won the American League pennant and went on to the World Series twelve times, winning it seven times.
Mantle had an incredible career before he retired in 1969. He played in more games as a Yankee than any other player (2,401), including Lou Gehrig. He was picked as the American League MVP three times (1956, 1957, 1962). And in 1956, he won what’s called baseball’s triple crown: He finished the season with the league’s best batting average (.353), most home runs (52), and most runs batted in (130). And, remarkably, more than thirty years later he still holds the World Series records for home runs (18), runs scored (42), runs batted in (40), and bases on ball (43).
Despite a one-of-a-kind career, experts believe he never reached his potential. Most people blame it on injuries. Mantle suffered some horrible ones, often to his knees, throughout his career, and he continually played in pain. Before each game he had to carefully wrap each knee in bandages. Sportswriter Lewis Early wrote, “One of the questions baseball scholars ponder is the great ‘What if?’ What would Mickey have accomplished if he had been healthy during his career?” It’s true he suffered injuries that would, as one writer said, “keep a clerk in bed.” But that wasn’t the root of the problem. What most people didn’t know was that Mantle was a raging alcoholic.
Another Kind of Record
The people close to Mantle knew about his problem, but the public didn’t until he told his story in Sports Illustrated in 1994, a few months after he had gone to the Betty Ford Clinic to become sober. Mantle had begun drinking during his second season with the Yankees after his father died of Hodgkin’s disease at age thirty-nine. As he was setting records on the baseball field, he seemed to he trying to set records for drinking with his buddies. He said that early in his career he would quit drinking during spring training, get into shape, and then begin drinking again once the season started. And he never even thought about baseball during the off-season.
After Mantle retired, his drinking became worse. He often started drinking early in the day and continued until he was incoherent in the evenings. Somehow, he managed to keep his professional commitments. Mantle said,
I always took pride in my dependability when I was doing public relations work, endorsements and personal appearances. I always wanted to do my best. It was when I had no commitments, nothing to do or nowhere to be that I lapsed into those long drinking sessions.
He often did and said things he couldn’t remember the next day. Many times he was horrified when someone told him about his previous night’s behavior. Fans would ask him about his playing days and what kind of pitch he liked to hit, and he couldn’t remember.
Finally, at age sixty-two, Mantle hit rock bottom. He had made a mess of his family. His health was wrecked. And he wanted to sober up. That’s when he checked into the Betty Ford Clinic. He said that was the first time he had thought seriously about anything in his life. From the perspective of sobriety, Mantle assessed himself and his career:
My last four or five years with the Yankees, I didn’t realize I was ruining myself with all the drinking. I just thought, This is fun. . . . Today I can admit that all the drinking shortened my career. When I retired in the spring of ‘69, I was 37. Casey [Stengel, the Yankees’ manager] had said when I came up, “This guy’s going to he better than Joe DiMaggio and Babe Ruth.” It didn’t happen. I never fulfilled what my dad had wanted [to be the greatest player who ever lived], and I should have. God gave me a great body to play with, and I didn’t take care of it. And I blame a lot of it on alcohol.
Everybody tries to make the excuse that injuries shortened my career. Truth is, after I’d had a knee operation, the doctors would give me rehab work to do, but I wouldn’t do it. I’d be out drinking…. I thought, Hey, I’ll be all right. I hurt my knees again through the years, and I just thought they’d naturally come back. Everything has always come natural to me. I didn’t work hard at it.
It’s a tragedy anytime someone neglects his potential and misses many of the possibilities life has to offer. Sportswriter Tom Swift speculates that without the alcoholism, Mantle might have hit eight hundred home runs. Despite his great natural talent, Mickey Mantle never gave the commitment off the field that he displayed on it.
The Man in the Mirror
Only after giving up drinking and taking an honest look at his life did Mantle develop the kind of commitment that would have served him well during the previous decades. After being sober for three months, he said, “I’d rather put a gun to my head than have another drink.” But by the time Mantle was ready to change, it was too late. His liver was ruined from a life of alcoholism. He received a liver transplant, but doctors soon discovered that Mantle had inoperable cancer.
In the last months of his life, Mantle relied on his faith, fought the good fight, and regained some of the dignity he had lost during his drinking days. He died on June 8, 1995. On August 15, a group came together to honor Mantle. One of the eulogists was sportscaster Bob Costas. He said, “All of America watched [Mantle] in admiration. His doctors said he was, in many ways, the most remarkable patient they’d ever seen. His bravery, so stark and real, that even those used to seeing people in dire circumstances were moved by his example.” And Costas also described a cartoon that had appeared in the Dallas Morning News that day: Saint Peter is at the gates of heaven with his arm around Mickey Mantle’s shoulders, and he says, “Kid, that was the most courageous ninth inning I’ve ever seen.” During his last year of life—at age sixty-three——his commitment carried him through.
Why Commitment Matters Today
What were you born to do? What do you think your future holds? Do you believe you have a purpose or a destiny? If so, will you fulfill it? To become the person you have the potential to be, you will need great tenacity. That quality comes from commitment. Take a look at these truths concerning commitment:
COMMITMENT CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE
In Choices, Frederic F. Flach writes, “Most people can look back over the years and identify a time and place at which their lives changed significantly. Whether by accident or design, these are the moments when, because of a readiness within us and a collaboration with events occurring around us, we are forced to seriously reappraise ourselves and the conditions under which we live and to make certain choices that will affect the rest of our lives.”
Think about a time in your life when you made a real commitment to do something differently. Didn’t your life change as a result? It may not have turned out exactly as you expected, but it undoubtedly set you on a new course. If you want to change, you must embrace commitment.
COMMITMENT HELPS YOU OVERCOME MANY OF LIFE’S OBSTACLES
You’ve got problems, I’ve got problems, all God’s children have got problems. The question is, How are you going to deal with them? Clergyman and author Maltbie D. Babcock said,
One of the most common mistakes and one of the costliest, is thinking that success is due to some genius, some magic something or other which we do not possess. Success is generally due to holding on and failure to let go. You decide to learn a language, study music, take a course in reading, train yourself physically. Will it be a success or failure? It depends upon how much pluck and perseverance that word “decide” contains. The decision that nothing will overrule, the grip that nothing can detatch will bring success.
When Mickey Mantle was confronted with the problem of his father’s death, instead of making a commitment to face the loss and deal with it, he turned to alcohol. And that started him on the road to ruin.
YOUR COMMITMENT WILL BE TESTED EVERY DAY
I think many people see commitment as an event, something that is done in a moment. They say “I do” in a wedding ceremony. They shake hands to close a business deal. They buy a treadmill in order to exercise. But the commitment doesn’t end with that decision; it’s just getting started. And you better believe that any time you make a commitment to something, it will he tested. That happens in any number of ways:
• Experiencing Failure: Perhaps the greatest challenge to commitment is Failure. Olympic gold medalist Mary Lou Retton says, “Achieving that goal is a good feeling, but to get there you have to also get through the failures. You’ve got to be able to pick yourself up and continue.”
• Having to Stand Alone: When you want to accomplish something, people will try to distract you. They will challenge you. They may even try to get you to compromise your values. It may be unintentional. It may be because they’re worried that if you grow, they will feel left behind. In those moments, you need to ask yourself, “Who am I trying to please?” If you desire to please yourself by following through on your commitments to yourself, there will be times you need to stand alone.
• Facing Deep Disappointment: Let’s be honest, a lot of things can go wrong in life. How are you going to react in the face of those disappointments? Sportscaster Harry Kalas once introduced Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Garry Maddox by saving, “Garry has turned his life around. He used to he depressed and miserable. Now he’s miserable and depressed.” That’s not how you want to end up.
When things go wrong, when life gets rough, when the pain becomes great, will you he able to keep going? If you determine to make and keep proper commitments daily, you greatly improve your chances of being able to carry on. As Abraham Lincoln said, “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to success is more important than any other thing.”
Making the Decision to Make and Keep Proper Commitments Daily
I don’t think I really understood the true value of commitment until 1976. I was the senior pastor of one of the fastest-growing churches in Ohio. And the success we were seeing necessitated a $1 million expansion of our facilities. But there was a problem: I was only twenty-nine years old, and I had never led a major building program. Frankly, the task seemed impossible. But at the same time, the future of the church absolutely depended on its success. That’s when I made a life decision concerning commitment: If something is worth doing, I will commit myself to carrying it through. I decided that come what may, I would lead my congregation through the building program.
Little did I realize how much that commitment would be tested. Each time we made a decision, more problems arose. Here are just a few:
1. To accommodate the growth, I needed to improve my staff. That meant terminating some people who were very popular.
2. More than 200 people in the church (nearly 15 percent) left the church because they did not agree with the vision.
3. Our bank agreed to lend us the money only if we first raised $300,000 from among the congregation, but I had never led a large financial campaign, and the most I had ever raised for a project was $25,000.
4. The church board’s decision not to give the bid for the build-mug contract to a member of our congregation who owned a construction company caused him to leave the church, and he had been the church’s most generous giver.
5. Our architect was careless with disbursements to contractors, which made the project cost over $125,000 more than it should have.
You’ve heard the old saving that motion causes friction? During the entire process, there was enough friction to cause a five-alarm fire. I felt like I was in the hot seat every day. If I hadn’t made the commitment early in the process, I never would have made it through.
If you desire to have greater tenacity to accomplish the things you desire, then make the decision to embrace commitment wholeheartedly in your life. Begin by doing the following:
COUNT THE COST
After the Nazis drove the British army from the European continent at Dunkirk and obtained France’s surrender in June of 1940, the Germans were certain that victory in Europe was at hand and that Great Britain would seek a peace agreement. France also believed that was true. French General Maxime Wevgand told Charles de Gaulle, who was a colonel at the time, “When I’ve been beaten here, England won’t wait a week before negotiating with the Reich.”
But the Germans and the French underestimated the commitment of Winston Churchill, who had become England’s prime minister in May, and of the British people. Churchill knew what was at stake in the conflict, as evidenced by his remarks at the time:
What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life…. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free…. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age. . . . Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, “This was their finest hour.”
The war that England fought was long and bloody. They suffered terrible bombing from the Nazis, and for a long time they stood alone. But they stood. Their commitment was unwavering. And because they stood, the Allies won the war. I believe their resolve was strong not only because they knew what was at stake, but they also had a sense of what price they were being asked to pay. It can be very difficult to stand by a commitment naively made. The commitment becomes much stronger when you have already counted the cost.
DETERMINE TO PAY THE PRICE
Once you count the cost, then you have to decide whether you are really willing to do what it takes to follow through. U.S. Senator Sam Nunn said, “You have to pay the price. You will find that everything in life exacts a price, and you will have to decide whether the price is worth the prize.”
When I went off to college, I was determined to stay committed and focused on preparing for the ministry. But I knew there would be a price. Many of my college friends got married while still in school, and some even had children; Margaret and I waited, despite our shared desire to begin our married life. It was a difficult journey. And to this day, I don’t recommend engagements as long as ours. But our commitment paid off. A few weeks after we graduated, we got married. And we waited several years before having children. As a result, I was prepared when I entered the ministry, and I could focus on establishing my career during those important early years.
ALWAYS STRIVE FOR EXCELLENCE
Howard W. Newton said, “People forget how fast you did a job — but they remember how well you did it.” Few things fire up a person’s commitment like dedication to excellence. The desire for excellence carried Michelangelo through to the completion of his work on the Sistine chapel. Excellence drove Edison to keep trying until he figured out how to make a light bulb that worked. Excellence drives the companies Jim Collins wrote about in Built to Last and Good to Great.
Anyone who desires to achieve and become successful must he like a fine craftsman: committed to excellence. A great craftsman wants you to inspect his work, to look closely at its finest details. In contrast, sloppy people hide their work. And if anyone finds fault with it, shoddy workers find fault with their tools. Which are you most like? Excellence means doing your very best in everything, in every way. That kind of commitment will take you where halfhearted people will never go.
Managing the Discipline of Commitment
After I made the decision to commit myself to the building program at my church, I knew that I would need to find a way to keep myself on track. So I determined to live out this discipline: Every day I will renew my commitment and think about the benefits that come from it. To do that, I carried a laminated card with me every day for eighteen months. Here’s what was written on it:
The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issue from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would come his way. —William H. Murray
I read that card every day as we were going through the project. On especially difficult days when I felt like throwing in the towel, I read it two or three times. It helped me to star focused and feel encouraged. I thought, If I stay committed and do all I can, and then I ask God to make up the difference, we can achieve this. And we did!
When you accomplish something that you once believed was impossible, it makes you a new person. It changes the way you see yourself and the world. My thinking went to a new level, and the vision for my leadership expanded. I never would have gotten there without commitment. My personal commitment—and that of many others—was the key to our success.
As you strive to keep your commitments daily, keep the following in mind:
EXPECT COMMITMENT TO BE A STRUGCLE
When our children were young and living at home, Margaret and I decided one summer we wanted to take them on a vacation that focused on how the United States was built as a nation. We started out in New York City. We went to Ellis Island, the longtime gateway into the country, and got a feel for the millions of immigrants who came to America with the dream of building a better life. We visited Philadelphia. We saw the room where our country became a nation with the signing of the Declaration of Independence. We viewed the Liberty Bell. And we visited the graves of the brave men who signed the Declaration of Independence.
After that, we traveled south to Williamsburg, Virginia, the home of Patrick Henry, who declared, “Give me liberty or give me death!” And we ended the trip in Washington, D.C. As we looked up at the towering Washington Monument, we were reminded of the United States’ struggle to become a nation. As we gazed at the huge statue of Lincoln at his memorial, we recalled the struggle we have endured to remain a nation.
Everywhere we went, we were confronted with the commitment of the men and women who founded and preserved our country. We learned about the risks they took, the battles they fought, the sacrifices they made. The greatest honors were reserved for those who endured the greatest struggles. The stakes were high, but so were the rewards. We still enjoy the freedom they won for us.
That trip taught a great lesson to our family. Anything worth having is going to be a struggle. Commitment doesn’t come easy, but when you’re fighting for something you believe in, the struggle is worth it.
DON’T RELY ON TALENT ALONE
When you read about someone like Mickey Mantle, you realize that too much talent can actually work against someone. If Mantle’s commitment to taking care of himself, working during the off— season, and improving his game had matched his natural talent, the results would have been radically different.
If you want to reach your potential, you need to add a strong work ethic to your talent. Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow shared much insight when he wrote:
The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.
If you want something out of your day, you must put something in it. Your talent is what God put in before you were born. Your skills are what you put in yesterday. Commitment is what you must put in today in order to make today your masterpiece and make tomorrow a success.
FOCUS ON CHOICES, NOT CONDITIONS
In general, people approach daily commitment in one of two ways. They focus on the external or the internal. Those who focus on the external expect conditions to determine whether they keep their commitments. Because conditions are so transitory, their commitment level changes like the wind.
In contrast, people who base their actions on the internal usually focus on their choices. Each choice is a crossroad, one that will either confirm or compromise their commitments.
When you come to a crossroad, you can recognize it because…
• A personal decision is required.
• The decision will cost you something.
• Others will likely be influenced by it.
Your choices are the only thing you truly control. You cannot control your circumstances, nor can you control others. By focusing on your choices, and then making them with integrity, you control your commitment. And that is what often separates success from failure.
BE SINGLE-MINDED
Nothing stokes commitment like single-minded effort that results in achievement. A great example of that truth can be found in the story of English minister William Carey. Although he had only an elementary education, by the time Carey was in his teens, he could read the Bible in six languages. Because of his talent for languages, when he was in his early thirties he was chosen to be a missionary to India. Six years later in 1799, he founded the Serampore mission. A few years after that, he became professor of Oriental languages at Fort William College in Calcutta. He also used his talent with languages in becoming a publisher. His press at Serampore printed Bibles in forty languages and dialects for more than three hundred million people.
To what did Carey attribute his success? How was he able to accomplish what he did? He said it was because he was a “plodder.” Describing himself, Carey said, “Anything beyond this will be too much. I can plod. That is my only genius. I can persevere in any definite pursuit. To this I owe everything.”
DO WHAT’S RIGHT EVEN WHEN YOU DON’T FEEL LIKE IT
Thomas A. Buckner said, “To bring one’s self to a frame of mind and to the proper energy to accomplish things that require plain hard work continuously is the one big battle that everyone has. When this battle is won for all time, then everything is easy.” One of the things I admire about great athletes is their understanding of this truth. That’s one of the reasons I enjoy watching the Olympics. When the Olympic athletes come into the stadium during the opening ceremonies and prepare to participate in the games, one of the things they do is recite the following:
I have prepared.
I have followed the rules.
I will not quit.
Anyone who can say that with integrity can be proud of himself or herself, no matter what happens afterward. As Arthur Gordon, author of A Touch of Wonder, said, “Nothing is easier than saving words. Nothing is harder than living them, day after day. What you promise today must be renewed and redecided tomorrow and each day that stretches out before you.”
If you do what you should only when you really feel like it, you won’t keep your commitments consistently. My friend Ken Blanchard says, “When you’re interested in something, you do it only when it’s convenient. When you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.” If you refuse to give in to excuses, no matter how good they may sound or how good they will make you feel in the moment , you have the potential to go far.
Reflecting on Commitment
I believe my commitment continues to be a key to life. That’s true in my marriage, my career, my spiritual life—there’s not an area it doesn’t touch. Twenty-eight years after settling the commitment issue in my life, I look back and realize the importance of that decision:
In my 20s . . . My commitment made up for my inexperience.
In my 30s . . . My commitment motivated many to follow my leadership.
In my 40s . . . My commitment kept me going during my most difficult leadership years.
In my 50s . . . My commitment has pushed me out of my comfort zone and into my productivity zone.
When you have commitment, there’s almost nothing you can’t do.
Horrible Circumstances
Recently I read a story that exemplifies commitment. In 1999, the New York Times began awarding college scholarships in a program open to New York high school seniors. The stated goal was “to support the aspirations of students who hope to build on their achievements in college and to make significant contributions to society.” The administrators of the program wanted especially to help students who had succeeded despite the odds. Their materials said, “Candidates must have demonstrated academic achievement, community service and a commitment to learning especially in the face of financial and other obstacles.”
When the names and stories of the first recipients were announced, there were many great success stories. But one in particular stood out: the story of Liz Murray. To say that she had demonstrated commitment in the face of obstacles would be putting it mildly.
Liz grew up in the Bronx, a notoriously rough part of New York City, the child of two parents who were alcoholics and IV drug users. She says her parents always loved her, but they neglected her because of their preoccupation with drugs. Once she woke up to find they had sold her sister’s winter coat to get money for a fix. So to keep herself and her sister fed, she worked from the time she was nine years old. She offered to pump gas at self-service gas stations and bagged groceries at stores for tips.
It wasn’t until Liz was in junior high school that she realized most kids didn’t have parents who shot up cocaine in the living room. That was around the same time her mother’s AIDS, which had been diagnosed a few years earlier, became acute. Liz wasn’t going to school much by then. A lot of her time she tried to take care of her mother, who was also schizophrenic. A lot of her time she spent on the street and with friends. When Liz was fifteen, her mother died. And Liz became homeless.
The First Great Commitment
Ironically, that experience had a positive impact on her. When she saw her mother buried in a pauper’s grave, Liz had a realization. And that brought her to a decision. She says, “I connected the lifestyles that I had witnessed every day with how my mother ended up. And if there was anything that I could do about it, that would not happen to me. So I wanted to get back into school. But, mind you, I was homeless.” Her circumstances were dire, but she committed herself to the task.
First, she found a summer job. (Her employer and coworkers never knew she was homeless.) Her pay was based entirely on commission—and she excelled. That helped her scrape together enough money to survive. Then she got herself accepted at Humanities Preparatory Academy, a public high school in Manhattan. To make up for lost time, she did four years of course work in two years by taking ten classes at a time. By day, she went to school; by night, she studied in stairwells and often rode subway trains until morning.
She set her sights high. She had visited Harvard on a school trip. She decided to apply there and to apply for the New York Times scholarship. Since her mother’s death, she had gained tenacity and focus: “Her death showed me how short life is,” says Liz. “Something I remind myself of dozens of times a day. Thinking of this, it’s easy to prioritize in any difficult situation. It’s always the people I care about that matter and also working to bring out all the potential inside of me is a way of loving the people close to me the best I can.”
Her determination was tested daily in school and out. The interviews for Harvard and the scholarship fell on the same day. On that day she also had an appointment at the welfare office to keep her meager benefits coming. As she waited in line, she saw her opportunity to get to the interviews ticking away. In frustration, she asked if she could be bumped to the front of the line because of her interview with Harvard. She was told, “Right, and the lady in front of you has an interview with Yale. Sit down.” She walked away from her benefits and chose to go to the interviews.
Harvard Bound
In the end, she made her interviews—and her grades. She was awarded a yearly $12,000 scholarship, and she was accepted at Harvard. Randy Kennedy of the New York Times observed, “It is no small feat to earn a 95 average at the Humanities Preparatory Academy in Greenwich Village and to graduate at the top of a class of 158. It is almost unheard of to pull it off in two years.”
Murray has since transferred to Columbia. She says it’s a better fit for her and she can be closer to her father. Her story has been picked up by news programs, Lifetime made it into a movie, and she’s currently writing it in book format. She inspires everyone she meets. Her father, who is HIV positive and currently living drug-free, says that she is his hero. But Murray takes it all in stride. She simply sees it as part of her journey. She hopes someday to become a documentary filmmaker.
When asked about her philosophy, Murray summed it up this way: “There’s always a way through things if you work hard enough and look close. It all depends on our level of determination.” Hard work and determination. That sounds like a good description of commitment.
