Failure Your Teacher Or Judge [WCHRA Keynote]

Play those games, to be honest with you. But there's one game in particular that will stick in my mind forever. And it was our first trip to Missoula, Montana to play the Missoula Osprey. Now, that name may sound familiar because I believe that Osprey still exists and they probably play here a couple times a year. And I can remember the hour and 15 minute bus ride from Helena, Montana, up over McDonald Pass. And it was. And on the bus, our coaching staff had warned us that the crowd in Missoula gets pretty routed. You've got all the students from the University of Montana, they like to come to the games, drink a bit too much, and they get all over the opposing players. So be ready.

So it's game one of the series, a three game series. It's Friday night. Remember this game like it was yesterday. It was hot, the stands were filled, there were about 5,000 people crowd. And ash was falling from the sky because wildfires were burning around Missoula. I mean, I remember literally wiping ash off my uniform. And that night, our starting pitcher guys was terrible.

So terrible that by the third inning, the call comes down the bullpen, get Neary up, get him loose right now. So I jump up, stretch out my arms, stretch out my legs. I start warming up.

Not maybe more. Ten pitches later, ten throws later, I'm coming into the game and I'm running into the mound, right into this loud, obnoxious, drunk crowd.

So I get to the mound, grab the ball from Dan Norman, our manager, and I look to the Osprey dugout to see who I'll be facing right away. And it's Andres Torres, the top prospect in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization. It's not motivated, right? Going up against one of the best guys, got the juices flowing. Here's my chance to compete with and beat the best. So I start warming up. And as I start warming up, the crowd starts chanting.

Now put yourselves in the story. Imagine you're over at Seplezio Field watching the Rockies play. Opposing pitchers coming in the game, crowds chanting. Little by little, the chanting gets louder. And by about my third warm up throw, I now can hear what they're chanting.

So can I relive a memory? On the count of three, can we all chant this together? One, two, three. How can you pitch when you're five foot six? How can you pitch when you're 5 foot 6?

Ah, thank you guys for the memories.

Now.

In that moment, my mind went somewhere it shouldn't have.

Instead of getting jacked up and motivated, that I'm gonna face the top guy in our league. My mind listened to the crowd.

My mind said, yeah, who am I?

I'm 5 foot 9, not 5 foot 6.

I'm 165 pounds. I don't have an overpowering arm. I was a free agent. I wasn't a top draft pick. What right do I to have to stand on this mound and face Andre's toys?

Cause I'm average.

Does anybody else feel that way before? Kind of sucks, doesn't it?

And that lesson carried with me to this day because I finished that year out, had a good year in Helena, went back to Arizona for spring training in 2001, and I got released, got let go. I got fired, and I couldn't understand why. I look back at my two years with the Brewers, I'm like, it could have been my ability. I busted my butt in high school. In college, guys, you won't believe. There was a time knees, legs, squatted. 550 pounds. I busted my butt to play professional baseball. It couldn't have been my stats. I had a good year. The fans in Helena voted me the most valuable pitcher on the team.

But I still got fired.

And so I said, you know, instead of letting failure be my teacher, I let it be my judge. I said, you know what? I'm going to put my baseball career away, and I'm going to move on into business, because if I change my environment, I'll get different results. And here's the lesson, Gabe. When you fail.

You can try to change your environment.

You don't solve the real problem, it will carry with you wherever you go.