Mentally tough baseball players have a team first attitude. Some refer to it as a "we over me" attitude, but what this means is that mentally tough players truly put the team before themselves. They care about winning as a group more than they care about individual accolades. This is not to say that mentally tough players cannot care about individual accomplishments. Many even say you have to be a little bit selfish to be good. Mentally tough players never allow their individual goals to take precedence over the team though. They're willing to push the goals aside to do what is best for the group.
I am currently reading a Derek Jeter biography called The Captain: The Journey of Derek Jeter. The book itself is outstanding and gives tremendous insight into Jeter's career. If I had to pick what stands out the most though it would be how genuinely Derek Jeter seems to care about being successful as a team. Although he clearly takes pride in his individual accomplishments, there is a definite, honest view that the World Series rings are what truly matter to him. Many of the Jeter haters always point to how some of his measurable abilities may not be off the charts. For me, this makes me appreciate him even more as a player. His drive to do whatever it takes for his team to win really does act like an uncharted 6th tool. This play sums it up.
So what can you do to have a team first attitude? You can have some perspective. Baseball is a team sport, and you signed up to play it. Yes. It's a team sport comprised of a series of individual challenges, but those challenges are best confronted with the team in mind. Understand that there really is something more special about accomplishing something as a group than as an individual. In my opinion, that something special is knowing everything you did together to accomplish the goal. It's the countless hours lifting and conditioning. It's the weekends you give up and the football games and parties you say "No" to because of having a tournament. It's the understanding of how incredible it is to take 20-35 unique individuals and find a common goal together. That is what "we over me" is all about.
Do you have someone you've played with or coached who had an attitude of "we over me?" Tweet me or email me about them. I'd love to hear about it!
Just in case you haven't seen the Gatorade commercial yet...have a tissue locked and loaded!
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