What Makes a Team Great?

OK, in addition to runs?

Bad team chemistry can make a team fall apart, even for a team with 20 MVPs on it.

However, good team chemistry can help a team in any sport win a championship even a bad team. You need a little skill to win some games, ok, your team needs a lot but team chemistry is the dark horse in the bag of elements that experts believe creates a championship-caliber team.

Here’s what some pros have said about teamwork in sports:

“The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the club won't be worth a dime.” – Babe Ruth, even though he wasn’t the friendliest teammate to play with.

“The secret is to work less as individuals and more as a team. As a coach, I play not my eleven best, but my best eleven.” – Legendary Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne.

“Teamwork is what the Green Bay Packers were all about. They didn't do it for individual glory. They did it because they loved one another.” – World famous NFL coach Vince Lombardi.

To have good team chemistry you must have a captain, eg. David Wright, a sparkplug, eg. Jose Altuve, and a coach who promotes good vibes (I know I sound like a flower child) and brotherhood, eg. Casey Stengel who said, “Finding good players is easy, getting them to play as a team is another story.” No kidding, look at the 1962 Mets, 40-120.

I know this from personal experience. Last year, in Little League, we had sluggers up and down the lineup, great fielders, fast runners, but 6 or 7 of those guys put everyone down for the smallest errors, leaving the other 4 of us in our own world. We only had 5 wins in a 16-game season.

This year, we had a good season, only 1, 2, 3 and 4 in the batting order produced, who were our catcher (me), pitcher, shortstop and first baseman. They were our pitching staff, but we had great chemistry and we won 9 or 10 games.

Team chemistry is better than talent because if you have a whole team of moderate players, and they make a few mistakes, strong team chemistry will pick them up, give them confidence and good vibes (Don’t tell me, I sound like a flower child again, I know) will project the team into winning.

The 2015 New York Yankees had bad team chemistry. A little stroll down memory lane: Babe Ruth and his Yankee teammates, (but mostly him) had absolutely horrible chemistry, Alex Rodriguez was suspended for allegedly using drugs, which worsened the spirits of the clubhouse in 2014 that carried on to the next year. What’s more, the 2015 Yanks were without their captain and great shortstop, Derek Jeter, for the first time in 20 years. You would look to Alex to fill the role, he sort of did, but no one ever compares to DJ. Also, they came in the 2015 season with sky-high hopes, Yankee fans were hoping the 27-time champs would make it 28 (like they do every year), but they only made it to the Wild Card game, ultimately losing to the Astros.

Winning is the thing that improves or fixes team chemistry and GMs usually fiddle with team chemistry because they don’t understand how important it is for their players to get along. If someone gets traded away, that makes the player sad and the whole team plays half-heartedly. If the team chemistry is bad from the beginning and the players are angry at each other, that’s the worst. Then you just pray for the best.

All in all, I think team chemistry is a very important virtue in the clubhouse and that certainly improves how the team performs.