mark christiansen

Davey Johnson asked me to learn to catch. My first reaction: Why? He looked at me and said, "I think it'll add value to you. And I think it'll let you see the game from a lens you've never seen before." I trusted Davey. So I said yes. Here's what I didn't understand until I got behind the plate: Before becoming a catcher I was always looking in. I was watching from a distance. Behind the plate, the whole game opens up. Everyone is out in front of you. You can read every hitter's swing. You're building a relationship with every pitcher. You see the defensive alignment. You understand strategy from a completely different angle. It changed everything about how I understood baseball. And it changed what I thought I could do next. I finally stopped trying to squeeze more out of a playing career that had run its course. I started thinking about coaching. About managing. A few years later I was a minor league manager. I don't think I get anywhere close to that without Davey Johnson asking me to learn a position I had no business playing and without me trusting him enough to say yes. Two questions worth sitting with today: Is there someone in your life who's earned your trust enough that you'd say yes to almost anything they suggested? And is there a lens on your work you've never looked through? @mets