Silent Communications work in Sports.

Al Betz is a friend of mine. He wrote a fascinating book about his experiences called, "Outfluence."

For the purposes of this story, Al’s book highlights the importance of body language in communications. I always understood implicitly in his concepts for personal and business communications, but it never occurred to me until yesterday that his principles also applied to all forms of communication including baseball.

Yesterday while returning from my Son’s commencement exercise, I was listening to the radio broadcast of the Kansas City Royal baseball game. They were playing Texas. Kansas City was batting in the top of the second inning. There were two men on base for the Royals.

The announcer described the Texas pitcher.

“The pitcher is clearly nervous. You can see it in his movements. He has lost confidence in his pitches. His body language is sending signals to the batter. He is pacing like a puzzled horse on the mound.”

The announcer continued.

“Good batters see these movements as a major lack of confidence by the pitcher and the batter usually gains confidence at the pitchers expense.”

“Now the pitcher keeps asking the catcher for new signs and he keeps looking to the dugout for help.”

The announcer repeated again.

“The pitcher’s body language is a signal to the batter that the pitcher has lost it. Good batters sense this weakness in a pitcher, and they gain confidence from these signs of weakness and they get extra ready.”

On the next pitch, the Royals batter hit the ball into right field for a double and two runs scored.

What signal does your body language send your customers, or your competition in business or in sports? Your personal life too?

You can Google Al Betz, his bio and his book. You should buy it.