Baseball is all about records. Sacred records. That is why so many hardcore American fans are angry that steroid users have shattered milestones held by baseball’s icons.

Our baseball records aren’t the only statistics that are tumbling. It has occurred in Japan, too. Performance enhancing drugs, though, are not involved, and some fans there just don’t mind that a sacred record or two is broken.

For decades, the Japanese have called Sadaharu Oh the world’s home run king. With 868 of them and many other records, he is worshiped in Japan as much as Babe Ruth is revered in America. Over the years, a few foreign players in Japan’s elite league threatened Oh’s hallowed single season home run mark of 55. Each time, opposing pitchers deliberately refused to throw balls near the strike zone, allowing Japan to protect Oh’s milestone.

But the culture of deference to Oh has ended. As this past season progressed, many Japanese fans rooted for the single season record to fall as its latest challenger, Wladimir Balentien, continued to hit balls out of the park. Balentien is not Japanese, but from Curaçao in the Netherlands Antilles, and he once played for the Seattle Mariners and the Cincinnati Reds.

During Balentien’s chase, Japan experienced a gradual change in its version of the game of baseball. Commentary about Oh’s record included discussion about the realization that the country cannot continue to remain isolated, in its baseball and other ways of life, from the rest of the world. Japan needed to embrace outsiders.

In one survey, 69 percent of 1,300 respondents said they were enthusiastic about Balentien’s bid to pass Oh. Many fans showered boos on pitchers who did not throw strikes to him during the record chase. Eventually, on September 15, Balentien shattered the record.

The times, even for Japanese baseball, sure are changing, as they do every day in our personal lives and in the business world. The successful person, and possibly even the happier one, is the individual who learns to adapt to these changes.

Postscript: The tumbling of the single season home run record created additional buzz as other components of the overall story were publically acknowledged.

While born in Japan, Oh is a Taiwanese national. Even though he is a foreigner, Oh’s career was protected for years by Japanese players and fans. Maybe today’s fan, who has cheered the success of Japanese players in American baseball, has accepted the possibility that anyone, even a player from Curaçao, can hold a baseball record in the Japanese elite league.

More important is the scandal revealed earlier this season that involved the ball used in Japan’s games. The Nippon Professional Baseball league admitted that it had quietly juiced the ball to create a greater bounce off the bat, and players used that ball for about 60 games. Home runs increased by more than 40 percent from the previous year. While the players weren’t juiced, the balls certainly were marked with performance enhancement issues. Is Balentien’s new record tainted? The debate will continue.

I guess nothing comes easy, nor is anything really what it seems. That goes for life, business and the great game of baseball.

Jim

If you were in Newport, Rhode Island, about 30 years ago, you would have witnessed a wonderful tradition of the bygone years of sailing.

For every America’s Cup competition, teams departed the harbor, passed impressive Fort Adams and then sailed out to the open sea. They would be followed by hundreds of vessels, large and small from yachts to dinghies, traversing the surf to the designated area of challenge and defense.

The America’s Cup is one of the oldest major trophy competitions in sports, dating from 1851. This year, a new “wave” was added to the race, and, at first, it faced considerable resistance from traditionalists. Eventually, though, the change triumphed and the America’s Cup entered a post-modern era in which speed and thrills were added to conventional sailing tactics.

Despite an 8-1 lead and a wealth of talent, Team New Zealand could not win the 34th America’s Cup. The victor in an astonishing comeback was Oracle Team USA. With millions upon millions of people watching on television and the internet, including many who had never stepped onto a sail boat, the outstanding outcome delivered the competition to a point of no return. This year’s regatta forever changed sailing.

A new class of boat, a wing-sailed catamaran, had been introduced to showcase the sport more attractively to television audiences. Though the sailing elite were critical of catamarans, the new boat class successfully created a lasting buzz for the competition across all kinds of media.

Expected to sail faster than the wind, the boats actually were faster than anticipated, leading to many exciting moments on the water and for a worldwide audience. Soon after the unbelievable win by Oracle Team USA, Australia’s Hamilton Island Yacht Club became the “Challenger of Record” for the 35th America’s Cup. New thrills certainly await us on the horizon.

Similar to this year’s regatta, a radical new idea, concept, or technology often will alter a business game plan. Selling change is not easy, and overcoming skepticism definitely will become part of the challenge. However, with planning, commitment and the promise (and delivery) of significant results, even you might win over some of the traditionalists in your line of work.

The teams competing in this year’s America’s Cup did it. Now, it is time for you to challenge your competition and hoist the cup!

Jim