![\"Socrates](\"http:\/\/www.johnpaciorek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Socrates-and-Plato.jpg\")
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Chapter 12<\/h1>\n
The Deed is Done!<\/p>\n
\u201cSocrates, what is your perspective on the prospect of resolving the apparent conflicts which seem to have prevailed since Baseball\u2019s inception? Beneath the evolution of its undisturbed periphery, deep questions of impropriety have gone virtually undetected, or unacknowledged, by a complacent \u2018unexamined\u2019 mentality!\u201d<\/p>\n
Socrates pauses to consider Plato\u2019s question and exclamation, then remarks, \u201cThere does not seem to be an adequate sense of \u2018teamwork,\u2019 the very essence marking the intricate design of the \u2018Activity\u2019 itself, between all parties involved in the network of organizational integration.\u201d To which, Plato responds with lamentable refrain, \u201cIf mankind could get by without \u2018teamwork,\u2019 very few would concede an actual desire to depend upon others for any part of their livelihood or existence. Independence and individuality seem inherently at odds with the concepts of mutual acceptance of and tolerance for one another\u2019s human pre-dispositions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Socrates tempers Plato\u2019s lamentation with, \u201cHowever, the climb of civilization out of the miry depths of chaos into its current state of universal integration was predicated on man\u2019s ability to function as co-inhabitants and world-wide \u2018team players\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCertainly those individuals who participate in team sports are considered prime prospects for espousing the concept of working together for a common good,\u201d affirms Plato. \u201cTeamwork in sports can be construed as a strategy by which team members try to unify their individual efforts to promote a higher and collective goal of winning a particular prize that all players must share,\u201d he confirms.<\/p>\n
Socrates adds that, \u201cThe real essence of teamwork is a factor of compatibility from which an apparent challenging situation may gain a solution through cooperative endeavor. Compatibility is a substantive alliance between two or more distinct entities to promote harmony. Cooperation is the only feasible means to procure and establish an effective sense of Teamwork! Uncooperative participants are incompatible with the high goal of achieving a unified sense of teamwork. Inability to cooperate with high moral and ethical standards and practices would jeopardize the foundational structure of the \u2018Team\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems you\u2019ve remembered one of the main tenets of my major written works,\u201d Plato accepts as flattery. \u201cAs certainly as universal harmony would be an aspiring goal of world-wide teamwork, so it could be instigated by the examples set at any of the simple and modest levels of current athletic competition by the participants whose minds are set for such an ambitious endeavor,\u201d he eloquently completed.<\/p>\n
So, the newly formed co-op for \u2018conflict resolution\u2019 begins another search, a tangent to the other but destined eventually to coincide with the original. \u201cLet us be creative and think about what it would take to establish a team of such remarkably cooperative individuals that the spirit of love, camaraderie, and success, would no doubt permeate the entire environment and eliminate any hostile element of personal or communal dissent,\u201d encourages Socrates.<\/p>\n
Plato responds, as would any enthusiastic student, to an intriguing enterprise, \u201cLet\u2019s see! What would it take to begin such a revolutionary entrepreneurial venture? Would it not first take the philanthropic concern of an enterprising executive(s) (owners) whose love of the game supersedes the traditional \u2018bottom-line\u2019 mentality of most \u2018Entertainment Czars\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n
Socrates mentally recalls the recent acquisition of a prominent Team in Los Angeles with just those very promising credentials, as he interjects, \u201cThis unusual breed of \u2018Benevolent Benefactor\u2019 (reflective of your own Philosopher King, or statesmen), would he not have to be a multi-billionaire whose livelihood didn\u2019t depend upon receipts garnered at the turnstiles?\u201d \u201cOr, he\u2019d have to be a person of enormous faith in the other-worldly, intangible concept of \u2018\u2026 what blesses one, blesses all, and vice-versa,\u2019 as posited by our beloved metaphysical colleague, M.B.E.,\u201d proposed Plato, without an iota of cynicism!<\/p>\n
\u201cHis investment would be based completely on the sound and unwavering belief that \u2018Good\u2019 is the source and emanation of an honorable and worthwhile endeavor– the \u2018seed within itself\u2019,\u201d as Plato recalled of a scripture. \u201cHis intent would have to embody the thinking of our nineteenth century visionary whose every project enlisted the contemplation of her original textbook words, \u2018\u2026 right motives give pinions to thought and strength and freedom to speech and action\u2019,\u201d insisted Socrates.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo these prospective \u2018Men-of-Vision\u2019 might first want to set their sights on providing to \u2018the community\u2019 a team of ballplayers that works its \u2018Magic<\/b>\u2019 with exemplary character and athletic abilities that would instill pride and comfort, on and off the ball field, into the hearts and minds of its adoring fans,\u201d Plato envisioned aloud.<\/p>\n
\u201cSecondly, the General Managerial position, Field Manager, Farm-Director, and other administrative assistants would have to incorporate the astute personnel-profiling tools that would enlist only those individuals whose aims and goals were compatible with those of the administrative web (not hierarchy), and whose athletic talents warranted their being part of the big-league \u2018Team\u2019,\u201d Socrates continued after hopeful reverie.<\/p>\n
\u201cThirdly,\u201d promoted Plato, \u201csince selfishness, greed, and flagrant unseemly behavior on and off the field are counter-productive to meritorious service and community well being, ball-players should be drafted, chosen, or solicited first on the basis of their character, then on athletic ability.\u201d \u201cWould not this standard almost seem too radical for contemporary agencies for scouting talent,\u201d queries Socrates? \u201cHowever, character-building credentials could easily translate to skill development, if the instructional aspect of the Organization is under the supervision of an administrator with impeccable understanding of the mechanical principles applicable to the \u2018game,\u2019 like our JFP, or another of such qualifications\u201d, reminds Plato. \u201cIs there anyone else with such a credential,\u201d asks Socrates, incredulously?<\/p>\n
\u201cSo! Since optimal physical skills would not be essential at first, and strong moral and ethical character would be a \u2018must,\u2019 the rationale for this revolutionary presumption is that, since (righteous) thought precedes (controlled) action, technique for superlative functioning is easier taught to one with a sound and principled work ethic,\u201d Plato paraphrases JFP.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would seem that Team Unity in a professional sports Organization must incorporate a mutually caring and considerate relationship between the players and the assistant-administrative personnel, and the executive administrators, not unlike the supportive sentiments in the Republic<\/span>, and Laws<\/span>, as proposed by a renowned contemporary of my own,\u201d quips Socrates admiringly at his flushing prot\u00e9g\u00e9!<\/p>\n Plato, graciously accepting his patron\u2019s acclamations, submits, \u201cEach entity has at least an indirect influence on the success and well-being of the others. However the executive branch of the Organization wishes to handle the varying accommodations, acknowledgment of this<\/span> subtle fact must always be under consideration, namely, \u2018You are only as strong as your weakest link\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Socrates then makes a casual biblical reference to a man named Paul whose certain epistles confirm that not a single part of the body should be taken for granted, abused, or in anyway not cared for as the rest, even those commonly considered inferior or less honorable. One verse, states, \u201c\u2026if the foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? The head cannot say of the feet, I have no need of thee.\u201d \u201cThe man is well acclaimed and note-worthy in all his discourses,\u2019 assures Plato!<\/p>\n Plato continues, \u201cThe Web of organizational tactics, discipline, and dissimulation should start from the center where the executive offices feed outwardly in concentric order to those who carry out essential duties according to their respective positions within the network. The ball-players hold the most enviable position at the peripheral end of the web, where most attention is paid by outside observers. The glamour aspect of professional sports is augmented by the high-profile notoriety of prominent personalities and the extreme celebrity status of \u2018star\u2019 performers.\u201d<\/p>\n Socrates quickly asserts, \u201cAlthough an individual\u2019s monetary worth should be commensurate to the actual relative value he provides to the team, no one should be paid such an exorbitant amount so as to create an unnecessary dissention among personnel of slightly inferior ability. One player does not a team make<\/b>.\u201d To which Plato postfixes, \u201cAnd, with regard to the wisdom<\/b> elicited by the rhetoric of JFP, I conclude, \u2018once it is established that the secret of success (even in Baseball) is not predicated on the predisposed, abundant abilities of the so-called \u2018natural-ballplayer,\u2019 but in learned and assimilated techniques taught to those receptive and humble minds willing to expand current horizons, public scrutiny will no longer have to cater to the egotistical whims of selfish non-compliant players, and ego-centric lives of arrogant \u2018glory-hounds\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n And in summation, Socrates dispenses an anecdotal resolution to this depiction of a great ideal gone awry. \u201cBegin again, at the beginning! But, this time, start the entire venture by following an absolute Principle<\/b>, and derive the blessed benevolence, spoken of with profound succinctness, by our distinguished metaphysician, when she reflected this divinely inspired thought, \u2018to begin rightly, is to end rightly\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n The End<\/p>\n Post Script: Ecclesiastes: 9: 14 \u2013 16<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In my Book, Plato and Socrates: Baseball’s Wisest Fans, the two enigmatic ancient Greek philosophers ponder the many elements that make Baseball their favorite Pastime, but also thoughtfully point out ways in which it could be even better. The following is the final chapter of the Book. Chapter 12 The Deed is Done! \u201cSocrates, … Continue reading Teamwork: Who wants it – Who needs it?<\/span>