A PITCHER AND TEAM HUSTLE by Hal Skinner
If you are a pitcher, you are the inspirational centerpiece of your team.

You, of all the players, are in control of the ball more than any other member of your team.

When you control the ball, you control the game. Your team looks to you, more than anyone else, for their confidence during the game. They feed off of the confidence level you display. When you are fired up, so are they. When you hustle and show it, so will they. 

If the pitcher has a defeated look or attitude, the whole team tends to give up. The team's hustle starts gasping to try and stay alive. The other team senses this and it makes them hustle even more. While you have the ball in your hand, all eyes are on you, including your own team's.

When the other team sees you dragging, they get fired up, their confidence level rises and they get much more aggressive, on the bags and with the bats.

When you are fired up, excited and show your determination, the rest of your team will be just as determined to win as you are. Once in a while, when you strike someone out, turn to your 2nd baseman, make a fist, pump your arm and yell "YEAH". Do that a few times and watch how fired up your team gets. They will want to win for YOU because they know you are trying your absolute best to win for all of THEM.

A pitcher that is fired up, with a team that is fired up behind that pitcher, is the most intimidating thing the other team will ever face. It takes away their confidence level and when that happens, their level of hustle drops like a rock. The team that hustle's the best is always the team that wins the big trophy.

Stay fired up, always hustle and show it. The pitcher in the circle is from where the team's hustle breathes its breath of life during the game. Don't let it be the place where the team's hustle dies too.

When a team's hustle dies, the pitcher is the only one that can give it immediate CPR with the very next pitch. Not even your coach can do that! Stay fired up, show it, be vocal about it and your team will definitely respond. You have a responsibility to your team to do everything you can do to win the game. No other player has more responsibility for their own team's performance than the pitcher.

The pitcher is held more accountable for the final outcome of the game than any other player. Have you ever wondered why the pitcher is the only individual team player that has a win/loss record for their position? Maybe now you understand why just a little bit better.