TRANSCRIPT
*Transcripts are auto-generated and reviewed for accuracy, but there may be some errors in punctuation or words. Listen to the podcast at https://rabbidaniellapin.libsyn.com/ for clarification
The Rabbi Daniel Lapin Podcast
Episode: Why Stars Often Fail and Teams Always Win
Date: 04/10/2026 Length: 38:03
Daniel Lapin 0:02
Greetings, Happy Warriors and welcome to the Rabbi Daniel Lapin show with a another episode where, well, ordinarily, I do my utmost to reveal how the world really works. But today, I'm not alone, and so together with my friend Chris Singleton, we're going to try and reveal a little bit about how the world really works. And Chris is an unlikely guest on the show, because you would have thought that a famous baseball player and sportscaster and your rabbi have very little in common. After all, if you didn't grow up with baseball through your childhood and your school years, the likelihood of understanding the game when you suddenly arrive in America as an adult? Well, it's close to zero, I gotta tell you, it's, it's really a difficult game for a newcomer to understand. And so here we are, and I don't even know how many years we've been friendly, Chris, but it's, I don't know it's, it may be I know it's, I know it's, it may be 10 or
Chris Singleton 1:22
I'm saying it's at least 10 years. Yeah, it's funny, because of just how we met, I had somehow come across one of your devotionals, read it, dug into a little more of some of your writings, and then I either sent you an email or I sent a donation to your organization, and then you, being the baseball fan that you are, you write back and say, Hey, is this Chris Singleton, who played for the Baltimore Orioles, and I only played there one year, and it really wasn't that impressive. So the fact that you were able to pick that out that initiated a deeper connection, and so we've been able to be friends for a long time. I had the pleasure, ladies and gentlemen, watching this, to enjoy a Shabbat meal in the home of the Lapins several years ago, and that was incredible. I'll never forget speaking with your grandson. He made me feel like I was a second grader and he was the college student. He was so sharp, and the questions that he had in the comments that he had, I said, Wow, this kid's going to be amazing.
Daniel Lapin 2:32
Well, you were a prophet. He actually is amazing. He's only 22 now, little kid then. But he just got married to a wonderful woman, wonderful and he's also just finished his qualifications in computers. And he's, he's busy on a number of high tech projects I'm going to try and invest in him. He's, he's going places.
Chris Singleton 3:02
There you go. Well, tell him. I said, Hello. I'd be curious see where. I'd be curious to see where his baseball knowledge is at this point.
Daniel Lapin 3:09
Yes, that's it. Would be interesting. I dare say he's let that slip over the last few years. Okay, okay. But please do, if you don't mind just take a few moments to tell our audience a little bit about what gets you up in the morning, and a little bit about your background and your family, just shows that they get to know you a little bit. I'd rather do it that way than me trying to do it myself. Yeah, well,
Chris Singleton 3:35
I would say when you talk about what gets you up in the morning, and it's such, such an important question, because people, they're just kind of going through the motions. They have a grind. Some people are stuck in jobs and careers that they don't they don't love, they don't like. I understand that you have to make ends meet, and you got to do what you got to do until you can do what you want to do, I think, and so I've been very blessed and fortunate to live a life of having played baseball and then being a broadcaster for a long time and now working as a director of player resource programs for the Major League Baseball players union, as well as running my own coaching business, CS mental performance and as well during neuro performance training. But I would say that Rabbi one of the things that is really a blessing, and sometimes I have to pinch myself, is that I don't wake up each morning chasing $1 because I've been blessed to be able to have had good careers and have good careers. Now there is a level of financial security in such a uncertain world, to whatever degree you know, you can say you have financial security, but I am in a place where I'm able to really pursue. What my heart and my passion is, and what gets me up each day is the opportunity to make a positive impact on someone else's life and to truly give them the tools like what you're doing, okay, all of the resources that you put out there, you are equipping people, even though it's not direct, because your materials are written, but they can consume your materials, and they can consciously make better decisions to improve their lives. So even in an indirect way, you're having that impact. I look to have that impact more directly, one to one, with individuals and really just trying to raise, if you will, the vibration of in the earth in terms of, you know, love, loving people, serving one another. And if we can have that spirit, and other people can repeat that, I think we improve the atmosphere, you know, here in the earth, and that's what I'm truly excited about when I get up in the morning, is, you know, how I how I can do that more effectively today?
Daniel Lapin 6:09
Well, I relate to that, because I think you know that I always well, always. But as for many years now, I have coached a small cadre of clients, and I feel that it keeps me sharpened and very focused on bringing value to people. So when I write and when I do the podcast, I'm very aware that there is something similar to me working with a particular about Daniel Lapin client in that I've got to make sure that there are measurable changes in the life. So when I speak about how the world really works, my goal, whether I'm working with an individual client or whether I'm speaking to a large group of people, is always going to be, what are the metrics? How are we going to determine whether I am being useful to you? And if we focus on how the world really works and eliminate any illusion and eliminate any fantasy and remain focused on very measurable goals, then we're doing something valuable in that sense, it's, it's kind of like sports, isn't it? Because there's no, there's no vagueness there. And this match, or this little I know about baseball, and that is the statistics, the measurements, the numbers really, really matter. And I remember my grandson to whom you referred knowing all kinds of numbers, and he could do averages and all kinds of other metrics, the likes of which I don't begin to understand. But, yeah, but there's no hiding behind Fiddle Faddle. Yeah, I imagine right? You're playing you're playing sport. Let's talk about baseball. The number of runs is out there. It's not debatable. Everybody knows it exactly, and you know it exactly, and you know if you're doing better this season than last season or worse. And there's something very exciting and also challenging about being in a field where almost every one of your actions is measurable and can be evaluated, yeah, yeah. And in business, it's exactly the same thing, because there is something called a financial statement, right? There's a P, L, there's a cash flow statement at the at the end of the period, whatever it is, day, week, month or year, there is a bottom line, and you either cracked it or you didn't.
Chris Singleton 8:55
Yeah, yeah. You know, there's, it's interesting, you know, you're absolutely correct in terms of the evaluation. You know, they always say, hey, the numbers don't lie. Right? The numbers, they don't lie. They are the numbers. You don't think that you spent as much on your credit card until you get your statement, and you go through your statement, the numbers don't lie. You spent what you spent. It's there. You didn't feel like you spent as much as you did, but you did. But even in you know, baseball, all the measurables and everything else, my only concern, especially in a baseball environment, and this could probably apply to some degree in corporate as there are investments that an individual can make that aren't measurable. So when you are helping to improve the culture of that environment in that team, those aren't going to show up on a stat sheet, right? And so what I find is, you know, balance is, is obviously the key, you know, to success in every area of our lives. Guys, and what I've seen with baseball, to a certain degree, is they've gone too heavy on the data and analytics, and they are minimizing the value of having a player in that locker room with character, with integrity, with, you know, work ethic, all of those things. So, you know, I don't want us to lose the human side with all of the advancements in technology and AI and everything else that we forget that life is relational as well. Teams are relational. I always tell people, you know, it's interesting when you ever when you hear at the end of the season when that team wins a championship, whether it's baseball or football, and they're holding the trophy and there's confetti coming down and everything, there's all there's always somebody, it seems to me, that says, hey, we really cared about one another. We cared about there was an investment that went beyond just, you know, doing your job. It was more about picking one another up. If this guy didn't get the job done, I'm going to come up next and I'm going to get a hit, I'm going to
Daniel Lapin 11:11
pick him. Is this, are you talking chiefly between players on a team, or you're talking about a player and a coach or a team owner or something. Where is the focus
Chris Singleton 11:22
players with with one another? You know, primarily there is a degree of coaches being part of that team, but really it's made up of those guys that are on the roster. And so I think, as well, as much as numbers are very important, I'm also concerned about, you know, culture, whether it's, you know, the business culture that some corporations have, some have a really good culture. They invest in their employees, they have resources. They want them to feel valued, productivity, you know, all of those things, you know, we see, and I'm sure you probably have studies of how those things are increased when employees and people feel like they're valued or appreciated. And so that
Daniel Lapin 12:06
is true. Yeah, that is true. But what happens when you have a company? And right now there are several companies that are in the news that, because of AI, are going through major force reduction. In one case, 5000 people let go, and that's that's a tough thing, because now you've got a conflict between caring for employees and caring for the business, which is another way of saying caring about another group of people, right? Shareholders who may have their retirement savings in the stock of that company, customers of the company, vendors to the company. It's not easy running a business that that's a that is, I'm sure the same thing happens in baseball as well, where there are conflicts between competitiveness. I'm sure. Let me, let me jump quickly to something else, and then we'll come back to this. But I've had a theory. You probably have a pretty good idea of how valuable my theories on baseball are a big fat round zero. But here's the theory for what it's worth, and shoot it out of the field if it's if it needs to be shot down. But I have a theory, and I've done some sort of minimal research, my theory is that teams that spend money on buying a star player, and I may not even be using the right terminology here, but they don't do as well. In other words, I've sensed that teams with a big name, star player on the team seemed, in my view, not to do consistently as well as those where I may not be able to pick out individual names of the stars, but it, but it is a solid team and some of the big names could come back to me, because a Rod is that right? Yes, and I remember the team that bought him for a lot of money, and it wasn't a huge success. Is this connected with what you're talking about? In other words, building a solid team might, at times, be more valuable than acquiring a huge star player with tremendous glamor attached to his name.
Chris Singleton 14:42
Yeah, that's it. Is there is merit to what you're saying. You know, there have been some organizations that had done a really good job. Let's just say, for example, early, 2000s two up until. The last five years or so, or maybe longer, but let's just say the Minnesota Twins, they're an organization not considered a big market. They're not going to spend a lot of money on a free agent player, but what they did is they developed a really good farm system. They drafted well, they identified talent, and they developed that talent, and they got those players to the big leagues, and they created in their organization from the very top the Major Leagues down to rookie ball, a culture and a mindset. So when these players moved up each level, they weren't, you know, deer in the headlights that oh, I'm in double layer. I'm in triple air. I'm in the big leagues. They had an organizational approach to how you play the game, and that just seemed to translate when they got to the big league level. So they didn't have really any big name stars, but they were very successful, very competitive, and would find their way into the postseason the Tampa Bay Rays. I played for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 2005 they dropped the devil in 2000 and they went on to be very good as an organization. I don't know they just became the Tampa Bay Rays, but new ownership came in, and they were a team in the American League East, very tough division to compete in with the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays and the Baltimore Orioles, but primarily the Yankees and Red Sox, who had big budgets to spend on players, the rays, could not compete with those organizations, but spending but they were having more success than the Yankees and Red Sox, because they were evaluating talent very well, from high school and college players to draft, they were looking at other organizations that had players that they weren't valuing, that the rays said, Hey, this player has actually got a lot of potential. Let's make a trade, get this player, then they get to that organization, become a star. So I think that when you look at if you don't have the money to spend, and to your point, if you're just thinking, This isn't basketball where you have five players, right? So you could have LeBron James, and maybe someone else is pretty good, and you can win a championship, you've got a lot more players on the roster, lot more players on the team. So whether it's football or baseball, you have to have better distribution of talent and people that play their roles in order to have success over the course of a long season. So yes, there have been teams to your point, they've gone out and they spent a lot of money on one player, and it looks good, and maybe it creates the buzz in the fan base. Oh, we get to go to the ballpark and see this future Hall of Fame player, and that's fine from an individual standpoint, but you're not going to be happy in October when you're sitting at home and your team's not playing if the other teams aren't playing.
Daniel Lapin 18:04
There's a bit of a parallel to business, I think, or is there in the sense that you may well bring a star business leader into an organization, maybe even an organization that is a troubled organization, and it very well may and is likely to dramatically improve things, but that's because, in business, a so called Star is, by definition, somebody who can build the team and bring everybody along with him. He isn't somebody who's trying to stand out and appear brilliant and incandescent in his own right. So, you know, I always think back to the time where Salomon Brothers was in terrible trouble, 30 years ago, and they brought in Warren Buffett, who took $1 a year salary, and everything turned around, but he brought confidence, he brought team building, he brought a whole cadre of other players who were eager to work together with him. So Is that true in baseball as well, where a star is by definition, somebody who downplays his own ego in order to focus on the overall team building, or do you find in baseball that the star is sometimes somebody who is ego driven?
Chris Singleton 19:31
Yeah, and I would say the latter, and I don't necessarily, you know, want to demonize the word ego driven. I think that that star has a lot of pressure and a lot of responsibility to go out and perform. So here's an example. I had a buddy years ago that signed a pretty good contract. And, you know, back then it was, it was pretty big money. It was like five years, $50 million
Daniel Lapin 19:57
yeah, that's pretty big money back then.
Chris Singleton 19:59
Yeah. Yeah, and now it's, you know, five years, you're looking at 150
Daniel Lapin 20:04
so he,
Chris Singleton 20:07
he was telling me that one of the pressures of being one of the higher paid players on the team was that your team, right? So we think about it. The the whole goal is to go out and win the game, right? That's the goal to win the game. So you would think, if the team accomplishes its goal that night, everyone should be happy. Well, what he would find is that if the team won the game, but he didn't have a hit in the game, there would be reporters at his locker asking, what's wrong with you? Why didn't you contribute tonight to the win? And so it forced him to take on more of a selfish approach, because if I'm going to be sort of singled out or attacked, even when we win, if I don't perform at a high level, then I've got to focus on my performance, because and that's going to supersede whether we win or not. Yeah, I hope we win, but in order to protect myself, I have to look out for me and perform well. And so it's interesting in baseball, at least, I don't think that that star player is tasked with the same thing that a star in the corporate world or CEO is to make everyone else better around you. I think their primary goal is to perform and produce, and maybe a secondary is to try to elevate others, but in the corporate world, right? I mean, you have to, can't. It's not so much just focused on you and your results. It's looking at the team's results, and what are the reports, the quarterly reports and the annual reports. And I think a good one, you know, gets the right people. We've always heard, hey, get smarter people around you. Let them do their what they're experts in, and just quarterback, you know, everyone, and see where things end up. But I just, I look at it, and I think that, you know, when you mentioned Warren Buffett, you know, I think whether it's a manager for a baseball team or a CEO or any kind of leader. If they're secure, then they're going to help be it's going to be easier for them to make people better. If they're insecure, they're going to be more focused on themselves. And how do I look and when you have that kind of attitude or approach. A lot of times those environments end up toxic.
Daniel Lapin 22:46
You know, one of the things I love about business, you said, surrounding yourself with smart people, one of the things I love about business, Chris and is that it's not dependent on inherited talent, intelligence and brightness are largely inherited, but things like people skills and understanding how money works, these things anybody can become good at. You don't have to have win, won the genetic lottery, and it's a great thing. Warren Buffett is highly brilliant, and He's exceptional. But overwhelmingly, if you look at the very financially successful people in America, they're not at the end of the bell curve. They're in the middle of the bell curve. They're normal, intelligent people, and the things they're good at is understanding how the world really works in in baseball, how much of the talent do you think is inherited and how much can be developed? And to some degree, obviously right. Nobody could teach me to be a good dancer, but somebody could teach me to be less of a klutz. Yeah, in in baseball, obviously, I know that it's not possible to take anybody and turn them into a great player, but, but within, within the acceptable mid range, how much of it is inherited, innate talent, Tiger Woods, for instance. In golf, I got to think that being brought up in a family of golfing fanatics has to have played a role, whether there's genetic in there or whether it was sort of nurture afterwards. But how about in the field of baseball?
Chris Singleton 24:38
Well, I would say a couple of things on how early did a person start? So for example, your golf example, I've found, as I've dabbled with golf over the years, the individuals that I've been around that golf was introduced. To them at a very young age, tend to be a lot better than the guy who picks it up as an adult, right? Because there's muscle memory. There's certain things that just developed intertwined, and that makes sense. Everything else,
Daniel Lapin 25:17
I totally understand that.
Chris Singleton 25:19
Yeah, so there's an element of that there. I think in previous eras or generations, it was absolutely about talent, natural given talent. You know, there's certain things you can't teach, right? You can't teach speed as a runner. You can maybe improve your speed a little bit. But if you there's some people who were born, they came out of the womb and they could just fly and run. No question. There are some individuals they first time they picked up a ball and dad said, Throw it here. And he throws it way over their head. It's like, wow, this kid's got arm strength. You know? That's something that was God given, right? No question, you have some of those things that are inherent, and then it comes down to how they develop that. So I think in an age of information technology, there's more opportunity for individuals that weren't necessarily blessed with, you know, I mean, really high talent out of the womb, but maybe okay, but there are training mechanisms, and there are things that they can do to figure out how to maximize their potential and their ability, as opposed to previous errors and generations, there's more opportunity now for individuals that weren't necessarily born with that natural gift.
Daniel Lapin 26:42
Chris, let me. Let me jump to something else. Now, I just came back from Dallas yesterday, where I had some speaking and teaching going on, and the Uber driver who picked me up from the airport was terrific. He, first of all, not every driver gets out of their seat and helps you put the baggage in the trunk. It's a good point. And to me, that's very valuable, because I travel with checked bag and I, just as soon, have helped getting that in the trunk. So this guy didn't hesitate. He was out there and and his his driving was x all around, terrific. And we were we started chatting, and he asked me a few questions. At one point, he said to me, so you married, you got kids? And I said, Yes, very much. So he said, How old were you when you got married? I said, I was actually 32 was very late, but you know, there were reasons for that. And he said, well, that gives me hope. I'm 28 Okay, so I said to him, why aren't you married? And he laughed, and he said, I haven't found the right girl. And I said to him, I always ask people that question, and 99 out of 100 guys say I haven't found the right girl, to which my answer, 99 times out of 100 is always the same, which is, I think it has less to do with you not having found the right girl, and much more to do with you not yet being the right man. And my reasons for saying that are that the initiative for marriage has to be the man's women cannot propose, and it doesn't work when they do most of the time. The initiative has to be the man and and secondly, he's got to be he's got to be ready for marriage. He's got to have worked on himself and prepared himself and be willing to understand and take on what's involved. Anyways, he, at that point, was eager to drop the conversation, which I was sorry about, because he seemed a good guy and he was at a point, I would think, in his career and his work where marriage would be a huge leap onto the next plateau. Is there anything you would have said to him, anything different or additionally that, you know, maybe, let's imagine he went on. He said, You know, why? Why do you think I should be married? Sort of reverting back to Chris as as coach and whole holistic thinking, rather than specifically sports. What might you have said to him, from which I can learn?
Chris Singleton 29:38
Well, I think you know, obviously, what your response that you give the large majority of the time is, it's not a it's not the easiest thing for a person to swallow, but it is accurate and true in many cases. And it's like, what, what kind of person are you becoming? And there is, I think, just a sort of this law of attraction, right when you are doing the things that you need to do to be the best version of yourself, with or without girlfriend or spouse, and when you are pursuing something, I think that's attractive and that that's a biggie you find. You know, you intersect with individuals. Now, there are rare cases, I think, more rare than normal, that a person just hasn't intersected with that individual. But to your point, it's kind of like, what are you doing with your life to maximize your potential, and that's going to put you in places and spaces and environment, and not just within a production standpoint, but character integrity. You know, when you walk in that way I have found as a married man of almost 30 years, when I walk in character and integrity and live my life that way. You are attractive to females. I've had females ask me, Do you have a twin? Do you have a brother? Do you have you know, because they're saying what you exude is what I want in a man, obviously, I can't have you because you're married.
Daniel Lapin 31:23
I'm really sorry. I'm gonna pause this. I'm gonna pause this for just a moment, because this is a call from the grandson you met long ago, who was a baseball enthusiast, and he's phoning me from Israel. Oh, wow, he's studying in Israel. Hello, you're safe. Hi, how are you later? I'm gonna have to talk a bit later, but I had to pick up your phone because I'm doing a podcast interview with my friend whose name is, can you guess
Daniel Lapin 32:08
it? Is it? No, this is, this is Chris Singleton, you're exactly right. He wanted to. He earlier, we were talking about you, and he wanted he remembered you from a long time ago. He wanted to know whether you're still up on baseball. Yeah, no. All right, Jose, I'm gonna let you guys appreciate the call. I'm really sorry, and you tried to call me yesterday, and I was just getting on an airplane to come home from Dallas, so please forgive me. I'll get back to you quite soon, as soon as we're done with this interview. Okay, sounds good. All right. Sorry, Chris, I felt very, very few people have my cell phone number. I can't find it, pretty much. And grandchildren, yeah, but it's so funny, he's exactly the one we were speaking about. That's funny, yeah, so you were speaking as a longtime married guy, and you find that when you exhibit and you radiate characteristics of being on a program, being determined, having integrity, having structure, that this is actually attractive to women, yes, yeah.
Chris Singleton 33:15
And, you know, I think when an individual walks, you know, in that level is respectful of women, and, you know, creates good, healthy boundaries. That's, I think women find that attractive. And so I would say for, you know, maybe some of these young men out there to really embrace, you know, manhood, what it is to be a man, what it is to be a leader, what it is to be, you know, humble and a servant and taking responsibility. It's interesting. I have a couple of daughters, and I'm not super encouraged by the landscape out there of eligible, you know, young men that are going to, you know, they don't, they don't seem to initiate. They like they did in previous generations. They kind of sit back and they're, they're not as aggressive in terms of pursuing women. And it's just different. I mean, it's, it's so much different than when I was growing up, and it's concerning, to be honest, especially having daughters that you know, and daughters who are smart or attractive that the right you know guys will pursue them rather than sitting back. And you know, we didn't teach our daughters to pursue boys. We let the boys or men pursue them.
Daniel Lapin 34:42
That is a whole. What an that's a big discussion we should have and talk about you're exactly right. I mean, as a father of daughters myself, you're exactly right on that, we have to bring it in for a landing to jump back to baseball. How long were you with the Chicago White Sox? Three years. Can you tell us something that would surprise us about the White Sox and the White Sox years, some takeaway for our listeners that they wouldn't know otherwise and wouldn't have heard it otherwise and would be surprised by is there such a thing?
Chris Singleton 35:17
Well, let's see. I felt that our owner, Jerry Reinsdorf, was a very good and caring owner. You know, in fact, Jerry's, he's probably, I mean, 90 at this point. I was in spring training a month ago, and I was at the White Sox clubhouse, and I saw Jerry. It's easier for me to remember him than for him to remember me, because he's had so many players come across his path. And, yeah, I've changed more than he has. So I joke, and they say, Hey, I'm looking for Jerry Reinsdorf, you know. And you know, to kind of shock him. And he looks up and he says, singing. Chris Singleton, he remembered. I mean, just that, my goodness,
Daniel Lapin 36:03
that that's really amazing.
Chris Singleton 36:04
It was very amazing. And, you know, Jerry Reinsdorf was, you know, my first major league owner that I played for when I hit for the cycle as a rookie. I mean, he did some special things for me. I mean, he had his beautiful ring made for me, you know, commemorating, you know, the event that day. They took care of our families really well. And even though I work for the players union now, and you're sort of on the other side of, yeah, I'll never forget just how good of an owner he was, and he's, he's been wonderful to players that have played for his organization over the years. So, yeah, I can never say, from a personal standpoint, that I'd have anything ever bad to say about Jerry rised or but I felt like having the honor to play for
Daniel Lapin 36:55
him was really so wonderful to hear. That's really true. Is he still the owner of the White Sox? Yes, he is yes. How many? How it must be many years he's the team.
Chris Singleton 37:05
Wow. I'd have to say, if I was guessing, I'd have to say 30 to 40.
Daniel Lapin 37:13
And during that time, he's known hundreds of players, right? I'd imagine the number was in the hundreds players.
Chris Singleton 37:19
Yeah, really, yeah,
Daniel Lapin 37:20
and so as an elderly man to identify you like that, that's really something. I was blown away. I was it's actually a tribute to both him and to you. Chris, yeah, yeah, I would say, so, um, we obviously have much more to talk about, and we will be talking again, I think in a few weeks time, you and I privately as we discuss coaching and but thank you very much indeed. It's always fun talking, and very much appreciate you being available for a talk that I can share with our happy warriors.
Chris Singleton 37:53
Yeah, my pleasure. I hope this encourages so.
Daniel Lapin 37:57
Alrighty, yeah. Thank you, Chris, much appreciate it. You got it.
