Sublime

Thomas Aquinas

In the thirteen years I played and coached for the Celtics, I never heard the words dynasty or legend spoken by anyone within the organization. The reality is, any team that thinks of itself as a dynasty will never become one. Red used to tell us that what we did last season was important only in terms of what it made our opponents think of us. The

AFTER PLAYING WELL IN THE DAVIS CUP, I lose early in Scottsdale, a tournament I typically own. I play poorly in Atlanta and pull a hamstring. I lose in the third round in Rome and realize, reluctantly, that this can’t go on. I can’t play every tournament. Approaching thirty years old, I must choose my battles more carefully.

in 1920, a 25-year-old Hornsby—a lifetime .310/.370/.440 hitter to that point—hit .370/.431/.559, leading the league in all three splits, and he also led the league in hits, doubles, RBIs, and total bases. Over the next five seasons combined—this is so ridiculous—Hornsby would hit .402. Nobody, not even Ty Cobb, hit .400 over five full seasons.

Only three men as big as Frank Thomas—Derrek Lee and Mike Morse are the other two—have hit .300 in a full big-league season. Thomas did it nine times.

Baghdatis hits

Go quietly, and you’re a number. Go in spectacular fashion, and you’re a name.

“Taking good, smart risks is something that anyone can do, whether you’re on a team of 5 or in a company of 50,000.”18 Bezos would agree. “Given a ten percent chance of a 100 times payoff, you should take that bet every time,” he wrote in Amazon’s annual letter to shareholders in 2015.