“I was in awe every time I walked onto the field. That’s respect. I was taught you never, ever disrespect your opponents or your teammates or your organization or your manager and never, ever your uniform. You make a great play, act like you’ve done it before; get a big hit, look for the third base coach and get ready to run the bases.”

Sandberg motioned to those inducted before him, “These guys sitting up here did not pave the way for the rest of us so that players could swing for the fences every time up and forget how to move a runner over to third. It’s disrespectful to them, to you and to the game of baseball that we all played growing up.

“Respect. A lot of people say this honor validates my career, but I didn’t work hard for validation. I didn’t play the game right because I saw a reward at the end of the tunnel. I played it right because that’s what you’re supposed to do, play it right and with respect ... . If this validates anything, it’s that guys who taught me the game ... did what they were supposed to do, and I did what I was supposed to do.”

nice
Brooks uses this as an example of "institutional thinking" I like it and the article as valuing community and community values as a counterweight to individualism. He comes to this from a center-right perspective and I from a center-left perspective. Whilst I profoundly believe in individualism as a well-spring of liberty I also believe individualism can lead to egotistical behaviour and that individualism is not an unalloyed virtue. I believe in community and society and I like aspects of Eastern philosophy which emphasize surrendering the ego and social harmony (the latter an aspect of more traditional conservative thinkers who emphasized tradition and social cohesion).
I like what Brooks quotes as a sort of Tao of Baseball. 8-)