Baseball Cards and Greatness
Recently, I’ve been thinking about (and writing and talking about) uniqueness and mattering. Those connected lines of thought reminded me of baseball cards, which I talked about last week.
We’ve probably all heard stories about someone stumbling across a shoebox full of old, forgotten baseball cards in an attic somewhere and finding cards inside that are worth a small fortune. Or if not a shoebox in an attic, then maybe a binder at a garage sale. While I sadly can’t speak from experience, I can imagine it must be a great thrill to find something valuable like that when you least expect it.
So what is it that makes these kinds of cards valuable? Rarity is certainly one thing, and I covered that in the content linked above. But there is another aspect I want to cover today.
Top 10 Cards
According to Vaultedcollection.com, the ten most valuable baseball cards in history are:
1952 Topps Mickey Mantle: $12.6 million
1909 T206 Honus Wagner: $7.25 million
1914 Baltimore News Babe Ruth: $6 million
1933 Goudey Babe Ruth: $4.2 million
1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle: $3.19 million
1916 M101-4 Sporting News Babe Ruth: $2.4 million
1909-11 T206 Joe Doyle (N.Y. Natl.): $1.32 million
1909-11 T206 Ty Cobb (Ty Cobb Back): $1.2 million
1955 Topps Roberto Clemente: $1.05 million
1969 Topps Reggie Jackson: $1 million
What Makes Them Valuable?
Now, all of these cards are rare, especially ones in comparatively good condition. But they have something else in common also. Something that coupled with their rarity makes them very valuable indeed.
Take a close look at the list. Whether you’re a sports fan or not, you almost certainly know one or more of these names. There’s probably not a person who will read this who hasn’t heard of Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle. And if you’re even a casual sports fan, you probably know Ty Cobb and Reggie Jackson, perhaps Honus Wagner and Roberto Clemente too. In fact, Joe Doyle is the only semi-obscure name on the entire list.
Why do we know these names? That’s easy—they’re all time greats. Every one of these players except Doyle is in the Hall of Fame. Greatness is the other thing that makes the cards valuable.
Application to Us
So what does this have to do with us? Everything! You already know you’re unique and rare. That’s well-established by now. But will you become a Joe Doyle or a Babe Ruth? Will you go down in history? Or will you be just another name on a long list of pretty good but unmemorable players?
Personality testing sheds light on what psychologists call our locus of control. We may have an external locus of control—meaning we believe and behave as if factors outside of our control determine our outcomes and, eventually, our fate. Or we may have an internal locus of control —meaning we believe we have the power to determine our own outcomes by our choices and actions.
We are all predisposed in one of these two directions. Both our personality (nature) and environment (nurture) play a role in whether we gravitate toward internal or external. But regardless of our inclination, we ultimately have the ability to choose how we will view ourselves and the world around us.
We can choose to believe we are at the mercy of circumstances and other people, and that we can’t win no matter what we do. Or we can choose to believe that repeatedly doing the right things will ultimately bring us success, even if it takes a while and even if the deck is stacked against us.
Great athletes understand this. I had a strong hunch that peak athletic performance would be associated with an internal locus of control, and some quick research seemed to bear that out. And it stands to reason. Great athletes are not laid back. They are hyper-competitive. They are willing to do whatever is in their power to gain a competitive edge. The key word being do, which implies that they believe they are in control of the outcome, else what would there be to gain by any additional doing on their part? They choose greatness by what they do, by their actions.
And we get to make that same choice. We can choose to do the hard things that will distinguish us from others who are unwilling to do them. Or we can float merrily down the lazy stream of life, settling for wherever the current takes us instead of charting our own course.
I don’t know about you, but I plan to strive for greatness.
Do you believe circumstances or other people control your destiny? Or do you control it?
What hard things are you avoiding that might move you toward greatness if you do them?
What can you do today to get started?
