Lessons From A Legend

Baseball legend Willie McCovey shares all-star tips on leadership and teamwork

Over the years, baseball legend Willie McCovey has learned a thing or two about teamwork and collaboration. The San Francisco Giants first baseman known to fans as “Big Mac” and “Stretch” earned himself a place in the baseball Hall of Fame—and a lifetime of experiences to to share.

Those lessons also come from his time as co-owner of the thriving McCovey’s Restaurant in Walnut Creek, CA. The idea for McCovey’s Restaurant began germinating back in 1986 when McCovey’s godson, Rick Dudum proposed opening a sports-themed eatery with the legend’s name attached.

But Willie was not an instant convert. “Much of the success with McCovey’s Restaurant comes from Willie always pushing me to take things to the next level and always excepting the best and only the best, as he always did in his own career,” says Dudum. “Before I did anything, Willie made it clear that he was expecting me to really do my homework.” By 2004, after more than a decade of planning and research, the doors opened to a restaurant that—in addition to showcasing one of the most extensive and meticulously chosen collections of sports memorabilia—radiates the same inexplicable type of energy that only a day at the ballpark can deliver.

After the end of the 2008 baseball season, the soft spoken, thoughtful McCovey, sat down with Profit Online to share some personal insights on his life on the field and in the front office—and why teamwork is an essential ingredient to success in the dugout of the business world.

Profit: What lessons about teamwork, collaboration, and success did you learn during your years as a professional baseball player?

McCovey: I learned that you always have to work as a team and you cannot have any missing links in the chain if you’re going to be successful. I was just 17 years old—a real wet behind the ears kid—when I left home in Mobile Alabama to play baseball. Until then, I had been away from home once in my life and that was to visit my brother in Los Angeles.

We had quite a few guys in the same age group that signed on at the time and we went through some tough times together working our way through farm leagues and into the big leagues during what was then a period of segregation. We played a lot in the South and back then we couldn’t all stay in the same hotel and there was a lot of name calling from the benches. All the guys on the team stood behind us, though, and they kept us going. By the time many of us got to the Giants they really were like a family for a lot of us because many of us signed together and we had all labored together through minor leagues. I learned during those years that teamwork is about standing together in any situation.

Profit: How have the lessons you learned about teamwork and collaboration translated into success as an entrepreneur and a business owner?

McCovey: Again, it’s about standing together as a team. I’ve always been very patient but I’m also a perfectionist. He [Rick Dudum] was really anxious to get out of the starting gate, I told him he needed to just slow down, do his homework, and that he had to start from the bottom and work his way up. Before we ever opened the doors at McCovey’s we met with a lot of prospective employees and quizzed them a bit—first on if they knew who I was, and second, naturally, about how valuable it is to be a team around here.