The Best Team Doesn’t Always Win

This week marks seven years since the New Jersey Jackals won a championship that I was fortunate enough to be a part of.

At the time, I was serving as Director of Digital Content and assisting with player procurement. I learned a lot that season about professional baseball, but one lesson has stayed with me more than anything else:

The best team doesn’t always win. The team that plays the best wins.

We finished the regular season in third place and eventually faced the first-place team in the championship. On paper, we may not have looked like the most dominant team in the league.

But championships aren’t won on paper.

What made that group special was the way a collection of talented professional players came together around one common goal: win.

Everyone on a team has individual goals. Players want to perform well, advance their careers, put up numbers, and create opportunities for themselves. There is nothing wrong with that.

But when individual goals become more important than the mission of the team, chemistry begins to disappear.

Great teams understand something different.

When one person is struggling, someone else picks him up.

When a teammate is going through a difficult stretch, you don’t turn your back on him. You help him through it.

When adversity hits, leadership keeps everyone focused.

And when personalities, backgrounds, and individual ambitions all come together, there has to be enough trust and chemistry for everyone to pull in the same direction.

That applies far beyond baseball.

Businesses need it.

Families need it.

Friendships need it.

Organizations need it.

Any group of people trying to accomplish something meaningful needs individuals who are willing to occasionally put their own interests aside for the good of the group.

Talent matters.

Leadership matters.

Preparation matters.

But chemistry matters too.

Seven years later, I still remember the celebration and the championship. But what stands out even more is what that team taught me about winning together.

Am I making the people around me better, or am I only focused on what I can accomplish for myself?

Because the strongest teams aren’t simply collections of talented people.

They are people who trust one another, support one another, and work toward something bigger than themselves.