The 2013 World Series

With the St. Louis Cardinals playing in the 2013 World Series, I found myself returning to a great book about the Cardinals, baseball and the importance of being mentally prepared to play your best. In "One Last Strike", Tony LaRussa writes about the 2011 season as manager with the Cardinals, and how the team came back from ten and a half games with little more than a month to play to make the playoffs and go on to win the World Series.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from his book:

"Gutty. Clutch. Whatever you want to call it, the guys just narrowed their vision and disciplined their minds to focus on the immediate task at hand and produce great results by not thinking about the results." 

"...part of toughness and character is continuing to play when everything is not 

falling into place."

"....'mental toughness' is something they can acquire. If they decide to make something important, then they can make it happen. It's all about making a choice - you can be tough, you can play through a minor injury, you can get through a slump. It's all about control and knowing that you possess it, but it's your choice whether or not you activate it. Players also have to recognize that if they choose not to activate it, 

they aren't going to play for the Cardinals."

"Part of a winner's philosophy is that there's a win somewhere in every loss 

if you search for it."

"We had a meeting in the clubhouse afterward, and my words were 'We're not going to allow anybody who's not in this clubhouse to dictate our attitude and determination to compete in Game 6 and Game 7. We control our minds."