World Series champion Ryan Howard details why coaching and accountability set the tone for winning
For Major League Baseball teams, a team's culture and chemistry is paramount to gutting through the grueling season - and according to World Series champion Ryan Howard, it outweighs a team's talent.
MLB plays 162 regular-season games in about 180 days, from the end of March until the beginning of October.
Spring training starts in the middle of February, and if a team makes a deep postseason run, the season may not end until the end of October.
During the long and arduous season, players see each other more than they see their families.
Philadelphia Phillies legend Ryan Howard told OutKick that a strong clubhouse culture and team chemistry outweigh the team’s talent.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE OUTKICK SPORTS COVERAGE "Every team has talent, but I always say if you have the culture and chemistry.
That culture and chemistry will outweigh talent, any day.
To where you put the two together, you're unstoppable," Howard told OutKick in a recent interview.
Howard, who spent his entire 13-year career with the Phillies, said it was the coaches who established the clubhouse’s culture.
"I think for us, it started from the top with the coaching staff.
When you have coaches that give you a positive environment every single day that you show up, it's loose, it's lax, you've got coaches that you know are gonna go and they're gonna fight for you, no matter what, on the field, off the field.
You create that environment and it makes it easier for the players to all want to be able to get along," Howard said.
"When you have people that have the mindset of, hey, we want to win, not want to win, we expect to win.
So, when everybody shows up with that mindset, day in and day out, you know the work that's gonna need to go in and your coaching staff is helping to continue to grow that environment, man, it makes it so easy." The 2006 NL MVP said that when the coaches put in the same amount of work, if not more, than the players do to help them become the best they can possibly be, you can’t ask for anything more as a player.
5News aggregated this summary from the outlet’s public feed. The full article, with all the context, is on www.foxnews.com — the content belongs to Fox News.