The game has a cleanness. If you do a good job, the numbers say so. You don't have to ask anyone or play politics. You don't have to wait for the reviews.
Interpretation
The essence of the game is straightforward; your performance is reflected in measurable results without external validation.
Sandy Koufax emphasizes the purity and objectivity of performance in sports, where success is determined by quantifiable achievements rather than subjective opinions or political maneuvering. In this context, he suggests that true success is visible through the numbers, which provide an honest reflection of one's effort and talent, unclouded by biases or external judgments.
In practice
This quote is perfect for motivating a sports team before a big game.
It's better to throw a theoretically poorer pitch whole-heartedly, than to throw the so-called right pitch with feeling of doubt-doubt that's it's right, or doubt that you can make it behave well at that moment. You've got to feel sure you're doing the right thing-sure that you want to throw the pitch you're going to throw.
Show me a guy who can't pitch inside and I'll show you a loser.
If I could straighten it out (his golf swing), I'd be pitching at Dodger Stadium tonight.
Part of the secret of a success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.
I think about my own career, and when I graduated from college, the Internet didn't really exist yet. And so not having a specific plan, being able to be opportunistic at the end, is what enabled me to make some of my best decisions, which is to go to places that were growing but that I didn't plan to have happen.
Because you know, down deep in my heart, when all is said and done, I still live under the illusion that basically people think of me as an up-and-coming young actor.
All work undertaken should be useful - not just for a day, or a year, but useful in the sense that it affords permanent improvement in living conditions or that it creates future new wealth for the Nation.
Most work is not coming up with The Next Big Thing. Rather, it's improving the thing you already thought of six months - or six years - ago. It's the work of work.
What I learned from that loss, and also another loss that I'm going to talk about later, was that when you're there, it's not good enough to be there, when you're there, you better walk away with that ring.
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