team (n) – (1) a collection of people brought together for a common purpose (2) guys who stick together through thick and thin (3) The 2020 New York Yankees
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Yesterday, on Friday, March 13, 2020, Major League Baseball offered players, as individuals, the option to stay with their teams or to return home until the decision is determined regarding when they must return to begin training again in anticipation of the 2020 season.
The players were given the option to go home…
And, unanimously, the Yankees players all decided to stay.
They decided to stay. All of them. As one. Unanimously.
As other baseball teams disband and as those players go their own ways, the Yankees will remain together, building their common bonds, working out together, and honing their skills.
The Yankees are staying!
I believe that this is a big story and that it was a huge decision by the team collectively and by the players themselves individually to decide to stay together. I am also sure that this decision wasn’t easy. I am sure there were a host of pressures from families, friends, and others placed on each player to return to their homes.
But the 2020 Yankees are staying.
Greatness comes when people band together. Teams become great when the players and coaches all share a common goal and when they work together to achieve that goal. Groups working together often only become great when people sacrifice their own interests for those of the team. This is what the 2020 Yankees are doing.
And this is not a small thing. This is huge.
In times of uncertainty (and these are very uncertain times) it’s always easier to find the easy solution or to go home. The road less traveled by is harder, it takes more commitment, and is more often filled with doubt and even fear.
By staying together, this Yankees squad will have a connection unlike most other teams. The’re going to all always remember the year they stayed together when other teams did not. They will remember how they bonded as others went their own ways. This will be the story of the 2020 Yankees – the team that stayed.
The games haven’t started (and they won’t for quite some time), but the Yankees might have just made their most important decision on the 2020 season. When players come together like this for a common purpose, they are always stronger.
I love the fact that they are staying.
The 2020 Yankees are committed to each other and to winning. This will serve them once the games begin and the stakes are raised. This is a team that has come together. This can only be good when the difficulties that every team faces arise during the season.
This is a team – a band of brothers, a collection of individuals, united as one.
The 2020 Yankees just defined the word “team.”
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