Bob Cramer's Blog

Spring training is just around the corner.  I’ve always loved this time of year: winter is getting a bit long in the tooth and spring hopes eternal as pitchers and catchers report to camp and all teams remain in the World Series running.   

I was quite a baseball player back in the day at my little summer camp in Maine.  Being a bit chunky with slow feet and left handed, I was the quintessential first baseman.  I also pitched once in awhile, throwing a natural screwball that just sort of happened and wreaked havoc.  I also found a left-handed catcher’s mitt and gave that a try and it wasn’t below me to play some mean lefty shortstop.  But hitting was my thing and like many, I really believe if I had just focused I would have made it big in baseball.

But the big leagues had to wait as boarding school, various colleges and tennis, which overlapped with baseball during the spring, limited my at-bats considerably (actually down to none) so while my fantasy batting average approached 1,000, my actual playing days drifted off to a field of dreams.

But I’ve always embraced the hope and promise of spring training.  It is a little like venture investing: which players will emerge from all of those filled with potential and pedigree?  Who will be busts, no matter their previous accolades?  Contracts are given, trades completed and finally somebody has to decide who is on the roster for the upcoming campaign.  Lots of moving pieces and all of these incredible standouts need to stand out to new coaches and general managers, baseball’s version of venture capitalists.

Back here in the ATL, I am experiencing a bit of spring training myself.  The comfort and security of my previous corporate job has gone bye bye and I am tasked with some reinvention.  In baseball parlance, I am transitioning from a player-coach to more full-time coach, hopefully leveraging years of experience into helping new companies and their management teams make the show, or the major leagues.  Like the trusty ol’, wise-cracking hitting coach who helps these young, talented prospects refine their swings, I am doing the same for talented entrepreneurs trying to take things up a notch, increase their averages for success and have long, lucrative careers at the highest level.

It has already been a fun journey and the future is so bright,  the opportunities so abundant and the sun so inviting, I am seeing everything through rose-colored glasses.