I'm not a huge Major League Baseball fan (outside of cheering for the Twins). I would rather spend my time watching the NFL, playing Golf or maybe going to a minor league game with my kids. However, there are certain stories that I enjoy following because that story is compelling. As much as I like the Twins and don't like the big markets dominance, I do enjoy the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry. The history, the hatred, the back-stories - there is a lot involved. This weekend was the first of their series this year at Boston. In case you missed it, yesterday, the Red Sox Jacoby Ellsbury decided that he didn't want to wait for J.D. Drew to get a hit to score a run - he decided to just steal home - with two outs, the bases loaded and the Sox holding onto a 1 run lead. This sent a spark through the Red Sox and helped propel them to their 10th straight win and a sweep of their hated rivals. This is something that just doesn't happen on a regular basis (despite what we've seen in movies like "Major League"). The announcer was so surprised by it that he was stumbling over his words. It was a big gamble, but one that paid off and one that is going to be talked about for some time.
There is a lesson here for you when it comes to preparing your speeches. Are you surprising your audience? Are you giving them a spark to get excited about and rally around? If not, you should think about doing something daring. Is there something that you've been wanting to say, but not sure if it would work? If you have, I would say now is the time to try it out. Be bold and daring. Sitting on the sidelines is the safe strategy, but if you want to get your name out there and get people excited about what you are doing, you sometimes have to steal home.
As always, don't do it without planning it through. There is a good chance you might get tagged out at home. You want to make sure that if you do, it won't be the end of the game - just a small set back that you can recover from. So be daring, but PLAN on being daring - don't just do it on a whim. I am sure that Jacoby Ellsbury has stolen plenty of bases and he planned it out in his head what he was going to do. It was an exciting play that was fun to watch and is going to be discussed for a while. Do the same thing.
Travis
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