World Series Special: From pitcher to pitcher
The parallels between pitching baseballs and pitching ideas
My entire youth I worked my ass off with a single-minded focus: to become a Major League pitcher. And I had a lot of success. One game in high school 12 scouts lined both baselines with radar guns. Another game I struck out 24 batters. This wasn’t a pipe dream. But it was a harsh reality. The reality that I, like a few million other good ballplayers, would never make it. The odds stack tremendously against you. Add to that rotator cuff surgery junior year in college from throwing 200 pitches in a game at least a few times over the years, and 150 pitches too many times to count. Oh yeah, and I’m 5’10” 172lbs. Look at any Major League roster, with the exception of the occasional freak, pretty much every pitcher stands over 6ft tall and weighs at least 200lbs.
Time to pivot from baseball player to creative director. I had always loved advertising, more than the shows my mother used to say. So, it was natural.
4 Lessons carried over from pitching baseballs to pitching ideas
1. Gimme the ball This is the biggest lesson I learned from being a baseball pitcher. As the pitcher, every play starts with you. You decide what pitch, then nothing happens until you initiate the action. That’s a major responsibility, and you are quite exposed out there propped up on the mound all alone, everyone watching and waiting for you. You need to have a strong attitude and want the opportunity…gimme the ball.
It’s pretty much the same as a creative, except the ball is your idea. Most action orbits around the creative idea. If no one pitches an idea to initiate the action very little can happen. While many others help the outcome, it does start with the creative pitcher. You stand out there alone on the “mound” of presentation, vulnerable and exposed, and fire your idea. You need to embrace that position, take the ball and go.
2. Pitching is about strategy Yes, throwing 100mph certainly helps, but pitching is about outsmarting hitters, not just overpowering them. Strategizing on what should come next in the sequence, adapting when your fastball is flat, your curve hanging. Having other pitches to go to, being able to locate those pitches. You must count on your versatility and resourcefulness, react to the situation facing you today on the mound and figure out how to win, how to keep hitters off balance never knowing what is coming next.
Outsmarting the competition is the exact goal of any creative pitch. What will they not think of? What idea will win the day? Do we have a brilliant insight? You need to strategize on the idea but also plot how to win. And for all creative presentations to clients, you need to surprise them, so their reaction is, “Wow!, didn’t see that pitch coming!”
3. Count on your teammates I used to try to strike everyone out. If someone grounded out to second on a dribbler, I was pissed. That’s ego, and you need it to be a good pitcher. However, I learned too late that the rest of the team is there to help you. You don’t need to do it all on your own. Had I figured that out earlier maybe I wouldn’t have burned out my arm. Without the rest of the team a pitcher could never win any games with no one to field and make outs, no one to bat and score runs. There’s a reason a baseball team consists of 9 players, not one.
The same holds for your team in advertising/business. They do so much to help get the win. The strategists nailing the insight, the account team setting up and ushering through the idea, production making it come to life and sing, along with many others. Without them, a pitcher and their idea die a lonely death.
4. Dealing with victory. Dealing with defeat.
I have struck people out to win the championship. I have given up a homerun to lose it. The highest of highs, the lowest of lows.
That happens every day in advertising. Sometimes your pitches kill it. Sometimes they get killed. A lot rides on every one of them. Creative glory, reputation, jobs, income, livelihoods. You need to deal with these highs and the lows and march on.
The greatest pitchers stand on the mound alone, accept that spotlight, wind up and throw their best stuff. That’s all they can control. From there, let’s see what the other guy’s got.
-Rob Baiocco
Co-Founder and CCO, The BAM Connection
