Ted Williams knew he could hit the fat pitch. He knew that a fastball down Broadway was a gift.
The big unlock for Williams was when he realized how poorly he hit some of the other pitches. The pitch that came in down and away in particular.
Early in Williams’ career, Rogers Hornsby told him that the most crucial factor for a hitter is getting a good ball to hit. Williams took this advice to heart.
A lot of players would think, “hey, I’m hitting .330 and I like to take a swing at the high heat. What’s it to ya?”
Williams looked at it from a different angle. He thought, “I’m hitting .330, and if I never swing at that trash coming in down and away, I’ll hit .400.”
And then he did.
Total stud, right?
He found his weakness and avoided it like the plague.
You can’t run away from all your problems, but if you’re smart, you’ll avoid a few.
Before sabermetrics and advanced statistics in baseball, Williams carved up his strike zone into 77 cells, each the size of a baseball. The areas where he could hit .400 or better, he called his “happy zone.”
The not so happy zone for Williams was down and away, low and outside, and despite all his talent, Williams could only muster a .230 average on pitches out there.
Knowing and doing are very different. For example, I know that those little Trader Joe’s peanut butter cups are not good for me, but that didn’t stop me from having five of them last night after dinner.
And one more with my morning coffee.
They are so good with coffee though.
Anyhow, Williams needed to be very disciplined at the plate to reach his potential.
He understood that average hitters turned into great hitters if they waited for the fat pitch, and even the most talented hitter turned into average hitters if they swung wildly at the wrong pitch.
Becoming an all-time great takes a lot of skill, but it also takes a healthy dose of judgement and discipline.
Williams said, “A good hitter can hit a pitch that is over the plate three times better than a great hitter with a questionable ball in a tough spot.”
And this holds true in other areas as well.
Warren Buffett said, “When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for poor fundamental economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.”
What he’s talking about is a great hitter with a questionable pitch.
Your job, as a ball player or a business, is to find your “happy zone.”
It will be different from person to person, so no copying, keep your eyes on your own paper.
Williams said, “There isn’t a hitter living who can hit a high ball as well as he can a low, or vice-versa. All hitters have areas they like to hit in.”
Outside of baseball people call this a zone of opportunity, a circle of competence, a sweet spot. We should all be looking for the pitch, the business, the job, that looks like a fat pitch.
And you can be patient.
Buffett points out that in baseball, if the pitch comes in over the plate, between the knees and the shoulders, it’s a called strike. Even if it’s down and away.
In business, you can take as many pitches as you’d like.
And there are no called strikes in life either.
So, to my dozens of readers, I’d invite you to take a few pitches.
Because the pitches you swing at, and those you take, will have a compounding effect on your future options.
A swing is like saying YES to an opportunity, taking a pitch is like saying NO.
Saying NO is very specific. A pitch comes, you decide not to swing. You’ve said NO to that pitch specifically, not all future pitches.
Saying YES is blunt instrument, the YES decision has implications for everything around it. Saying YES is essentially saying NO to all future pitches.
Are you following? Let’s play out an example.
A pitch comes in, you say YES, you are taking the bat off your shoulder and swinging. Super. I’m happy for you.
Because you are a talented hitter, you make contact, but if it’s not in your happy zone, you don’t hit it hard. It’s a slow roller to the second baseman. That decision to swing, that YES, took away your future pitches, your future opportunities. And you’ve got to hustle down the baseline and make the best of it.
Some of those future pitches might have been in your “happy zone,” but we’ll never know.
When I graduated from college, I took the first job that came my way. 18 months later I was still toiling away at Wells Fargo selling terrible loans as the country marched into the teeth of the subprime lending crisis.
Did I spend my college years dreaming about the mortgage business? Hell no! I was drinking beer and playing Tony Hawk Pro Skater.
Did I even want that job? Hell no! I wanted to drink beer and play Tony Hawk Pro Skater.
Oh, and also, I hadn’t taken the time to identify my “happy zone,” so while I didn’t want the job at Wells Fargo, I didn’t have a way to articulate, “you know, boring environment, shitty product, maybe that’s not for me,” and instead I just took a hack at the first pitch I saw.
I’ve had friends do the same, I’m sure you do as well. With investments, careers, spouses, and any number of other parts of their life.
This is not a suggestion to sit on the sidelines either. Warren has the right idea, but at some point, you do need to take the bat off your shoulder and get in the game.
Williams had a lifetime average of .344, not too shabby, but clearly, he went after a few pitches. Took a few chances and made the most with what he had.
But my hunch is, those chances were more calculated once he did his homework. They were in the green and yellow zone, not down and away. And he spent most of his time sitting back and waiting for the fat pitch.
Note: The Yes/No framework, Yes being blunt and no being specific, was pulled from entrepreneur Jason Fried who is smart and interesting and you should read his books and buy his software. I adapted it to the Ted Williams Happy Zone framework.
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