It’s been a while since I’ve done a post with a baseball theme!
The Yankees have made the playoffs every year since 1995 (that’s twelve consecutive seasons). This year, however, as they presently sit a game below .500, many analysts have already counted them out of October play. The team currently consists of a mix of mostly aging position players and very young pitchers, and for every step forward they’ve taken a step back.
Ambition is something every actor must have. We believe in ourselves and we believe we deserve a shot at the top jobs within whichever sector or sectors of the industry we wish to engage. We’re talented, we’re smart, we’re armed with the awesome knowledge gleaned from Entertainment Bleekly and other sources like it. And yet, we struggle. Early on, we struggle mightily. It’s frustrating and it’s not fair.
Brian Cashman, general manager of the New York Yankees, faced a tough decision this past year. He could either trade away the organization’s several talented young rookie pitchers to acquire a single ace veteran pitcher, or he could hold onto his young guns and cultivate them for future play. He chose the latter.
Although the team is struggling now I have to admire the long view that Brian Cashman took. It was brave of him– as the team continues to underperform expectations he faces a daily battle for his job. A battle he may yet lose. Despite this, he maintains that he made the right choice and that the team will be better for it, even if it means not going to the playoffs this year.
I encounter on a daily basis ambitious young actors that want it all but want it right now. They often become quite discouraged and wary when I tell them the path to where they want to go is not short. I fear their reasoning may sometimes be, if I can’t promise them a quick route to success, what good am I?
If a man like Brian Cashman is willing to risk his several-millions-per-year job on a conservative, long-term approach to success, shouldn’t the rest of us pause to notice? Brian Cashman knows that success in baseball, even at the highest level, is rarely a single player away. That ace veteran pitcher wouldn’t have made all those listless aging veteran position players swing their bats any better. And if that ace had been acquired, and then become injured or otherwise ineffective, several talented young arms would have been lost for nothing.
We must recognize our talents and be patient as we develop them. We must treat the industry seriously and not fool ourselves into thinking that a single bold initiative will deliver us into the promised land of major booked work.