Make Your Brand Matter

Introduction

When selecting a historical figure to quote at the start of a book, very few people have selected Lefty Gomez for that honor. That's likely because most people have never heard of Lefty Gomez. To be honest, if it wasn't for Google, I would never have heard of him either. It turns out that Lefty Gomez was an all‐star pitcher for the New York Yankees and Washington Senators, with a career that spanned 1930 to 1943.

Once I discovered Lefty and his story, I came to appreciate what an interesting individual he was, both on and off the field. Born and raised in California, he signed with the Yankees in 1930 (after a short stint with the San Francisco Seals), playing throughout the difficult years of the Great Depression.

It wasn't an easy path at first. In 1931, the Yankees were concerned about Lefty's pitching velocity and his overall size – Lefty was a slender 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighed 155 pounds – so the team physicians followed the standard medical strategy at the time and extracted most of his teeth – this was often the first step doctors would take to cure general ailments, a practice that was abandoned a few years later – while asking him to drink three quarts of milk a day.¹ If you've ever needed a reason to appreciate the advancements of modern medicine, consider Lefty and his relatively toothless life.

Interestingly, the strategy worked, and through these early years of his career, Lefty established himself as an elite player on the team. In fact, he ...