Twins clubhouse leader revisited

I was never a pro athlete that was paid to do a job that i love(not even close), but i played sports in high school. I have had the benefit of being a small part of a state champion wrestling team and the misfortune of playing for a terrible baseball team in high school.
On our wrestling team, we may have looked up to our state champions for motivation to be the best, but we all had our own motivation for success or we wouldn't have made the team. If you can't get up for a match, why wrestle?

As for my baseball team, we had 1 good player and it wasn't me. He knew our team sucked and he gave up trying to motivate anyone. People didn't look up to him for encouragement, they weren't committed enough to care. We played some good games and those were the games that we stayed competitive. In those games, people tried harder, had less errors, and played with more self induced pride as the game went on. In bad games, the more out of it you got, the worse people played. Momentum in sports is a direct result of competitive drive. The more quality players you have, the more capable of positive momentum shifts. Our 1 guy just couldn't get it done alone.

I would think that if you are getting paid to play baseball, especially if you still enjoy it, you would be able to self motivate for individual performance from game to game. Everyone knows that you have those "confidence building" athletes who you just expect to succeed in the clutch and when they do, it drives you to somehow concentrate harder and play better for a brief time. Some people, the best, almost always play their best despite their team's play. Like Joe Mauer.

In conclusion, I think that the "leader on the field" can change from game to game, even inning to inning, but the "leader in the clubhouse" should be your best everyday player. IMO It should be Joe Mauer. He is our best and highest paid player.