The sobering words were spoken at a World Series. They also apply to today's trading deadline in major league baseball. Before Game 7 of the 1982 World Series, St. Louis manager Whitey Herzog was about to go to the field for batting practice. As he did, a few journalists in his office told him the many factors his team had in its favor that night in the one-game showdown with Milwaukee for the title.
Herzog responded to all their evaluations as he walked toward his office door, his fists jabbed into his Cardinals windbreaker. "It doesn't mean anything if we don't execute," he said. Soon after the trade deadline passes at 4 p.m. today, you'll be able to hear "winners" and "losers" declared. But no playoff berths will have been clinched. Even the teams that appear to have done the best in this year's trade market must still go out and play well in the big-game glare to reach the World Series.
As many years of baseball have shown us, if a team has an abundance of talent but doesn't execute -- doesn't play the game properly -- it puts itself in jeopardy of losing to a team with inferior talent. Conversely, a team that doesn't have the most talent but that does executes consistently -- hits the cutoff man, makes double plays and takes the extra base -- gives itself a chance to beat a team with a more dazzling roster.
