"Saint Pedro Day"

Pedro was back on the mound today, and he had a great outing; He pitched well- better than his line would even show, because if it were not for a couple of sloppy defensive plays he would have given up only a run in 5 innings. With this effort came a win and Pedro's 3,000th strikeout. All accomplishments to make a Mets fan proud.

What grabbed my attention was what Rick Peterson, the Met's pitching coach, called Pedro's starts. He referred to them as "Saint Pedro Days."

Pedro is an important person to the team, it's true, but what makes his starts an event every time is something intangable; It's more about who he is than just what he does on or off the field. Just by being in the ballpark, he makes his team mates better.

That's something to aspire to- being the guy who brings everyone up. The person who has those qualities of being good at what he does, but who brings it off with class and humilty... that's the guy that everyone needs on their team but few people want to be.

First of all, it takes effort; It does nobody any good for the person who is the main encourager to be the worst and most error prone worker. You have to push yourself towards excellence to be that guy, and not just on one occasion but again and again.

It also takes the right perspective; A person needs to see how far they have to go and use that to drive themselves on, rather than seeing how far they have come. That's real Humility.

I had someone tell me recently that it wasn't "humble" to point out something which was done wrong. I'd disagree. I think it's key to being humble to point out such things in others, but using your own failures as the guide.

From what I know of Pedro, he's always giving advice to other pitchers on his team... not "I do this better than you, so listen," but more like, "I used to do the same thing... here's how I fixed it."

It's hard, but something to work toward.

Happy St. Pedro Day!