Coffee or cream, Mr. Suzuki?
Tomorrow’s Daily Yomiuri has an article about Japanese workers voting Ichiro as the ideal company president “because he has talent, leadership and trustworthiness.” The Tokyo Chamber of Commerce credits the results to Ichiro’s leadership at the WBC last month.
Anyway … let’s play along with this. The Yomiuri article notes that the top 5 vote-getters are all from Japanese baseball. They didn’t have to choose athletes, but I will for my voting.
The Five N’West Sports Figures I Think Would Make a Great Company President (not that I know any of them personally…)
1. Tim Ruskell — kinda not fair cuz he already IS a president for the Seahawks, but let’s face it … he’s flat-out good at what he does; incredibly thorough talent evaluator; recovers strongly from mistakes; preaches team effort and values above individual glory.
2. Ray Allen — seems very smart and is very articulate; maintains composure in difficult circumstances; good leadership qualities; seems to float effortlessly between athletics and the business world; all-around Good Person.
3. Jamie Moyer — ditto on smart and articulate; confident and assured, but doesn’t have an ego problem; gets everything he can out of the tools he has to work with; another Good Person.
4. Tyrone Willingham — like Ruskell, promotes team concepts at all costs; seems very trustworthy, the kind of guy you’d want on your side; appears to have a real strong compass and sense of purpose/direction.
5. Lofa Tatupa — a born leader; comes in as a rookie and immediately takes over a veteran-laden defense and leads them to a Super Bowl berth; obviously has great leadership skills.
So, no … Ichiro wouldn’t be on my list.
