Hardball

Hardball : How Politics Is Played Told By One Who Knows The Game
$15.95
Great read with pages of wisdom on political survival. Hard to put down this book. These pearls of wisdom apply just as much to the business world. I wish I had read and learned from this book 20 years ago when I was first starting my career.

Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win
$25.00
The idea that everyone likes a good loser...so long as they're on the other team, is a tongue-in-cheek summary of business strategist George Stalk's book titled "Hardball." Stalk and co-author Rob Lachenauer tackle the serious issue of business competition, predicting that it will become so fierce during the next decade that short-term advantages and periodic victories will not be enough to ensure an organization's survival. As the title suggests, the authors state that successful companies of tomorrow must develop an overwhelming competitive advantage that cripples or neutralizes rival companies. Soundview likes this book because it is a radical departure from the dozens of business books that currently tout collaboration, joint-ventures and cooperation with competitors. The authors take the contrarian view that the marketplace of hardball competition will force participants to relentlessly pursue winning in an effort to expand their market position at the expense of others in the space. Furthermore, the authors present detailed case studies of companies (from varied sectors) that ruthlessly utilize the seven hardball strategies listed in the book. Whether or not you belief in this philosophy of business, it's important to know because your competition may be planning a pick-up game of hardball - at your expense!

Hardball
$9.98
I think this is one of Keanu Reeves best movies!!
No hi-tech sci-fi blow them up movie, a story of a man
down on his luck, who takes a job coaching a inner city
baseball team!!
I give this movie 5 of 5 stars!!

Hardball (2001) / The Bad News Bears (1976) (Double Feature)
$14.98
This is a good movie. It also is the first PG film I remember watching, and let me tell you my virgin ears of 8 years old were shocked. This movie reminds me of why I don't have the heart to put my son in neighborhood sports. The competitiveness, the vanity, the pressure it's all too much. I remember about 6 years ago hearing about a riot that broke out at a school sports game, and a poor 17 year old girl paid the price for the wrath of the spectating parents. It broke my heart what happened to her, and I guess my heart breaks for the kids in this movie. It's a good underdog movie about a has-been drunken third rate ball player who coaches a team of throwaway kids. There's a racist shortstop, an obese catcher, and a whole bunch of kids that just wouldn't fit in the "Perfect" team. It was done well in the sense that it showed the team being built from the ground up, and the addition of 2 good players to shoulder the weight, and only to increase the diversity of this team as now we add a girl, and a juvenile deliquent. Alot of good performances went into this movie Walter Matthau as the coach, Vic Morrow as the opposing coach a Type A(as in anal) person, and Joyce Van Patten as his assistant, and Tatum O' Neal as the girl pitcher Amanda. These aren't Oscar-Winning performances, but they carry their weight for this movie. The film is a dark comedy, and that's putting it mildly as we see how human nature just takes over when a person tries to make a kid into a better person...a promising adult. This film also made me have some prejudices against parents as I feel that parents are so much wanting to be cocksure about their kids being good athletes that they bet their whole paycheck for their kids team to win. Let's face it parents we have to let our kids just have fun, and learn on their own about fair-play, and good sportsmanship. If we do what one parent says in this movie: "You're supposed to tag him you dummy" we've shown our kids where our heart is it's not about our kids either.....it's about us living through our kids, and that's not a good way to be. I don't know if they do this where they have a class at the beginning of the sports season where the adults learn about good sportsmanship, and just chilling out at the game....if not they should. I still remember the 17 year old girl, and if I was at that game I would've comforted her like she was my own daughter, and nurse her wounds. We send a mixed message to our kids when we act like this, and that's: "It's only fun when you win" instead of "It's not if you win or lose, but how you play the game." As I said I cannot lie this movie is good, and it's all too real about what happens in organized neighborhood sports. Parents it's time to wake up, and smell the coffee; Are we exposing our kids to this because we like the sport, and hopefully they'll like it, or is this one of the ways we try to get to heaven thinking God will let me in if I show how dedicated I am to making my child into a winner. Parents think before you expose your child to neighborhood sports.