Jeff Long

@chloe_walks Inner game of tennis is the most underused book in all of sports. Great thread!

The best pitching cue is often no cue at all. Recommended to me in my first week at Driveline, The Inner Game of Tennis (1974) is still the most underused book in baseball. Here's why it matters for developing pitchers (a thread):

You have seen Teddy Roosevelt’s famous quote about the Man in the Arena. But have you really read it? Have you absorbed it? “It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.” Soak it in. “…there is no effort without error or shortcoming.” “…if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.” My goal, this week and every week, is to keep you from becoming one of those cold and timid souls. Sure, there might be less heartbreak, but there is also no joy in that life. It’s a life that puts you on the sidelines. You live in a constant state of mediocrity. Since a life without putting yourself into the arena doesn’t experience the lowest lows, it also cannot experience the highest highs. It’s a constant middle-ground, a life of “blah.” It numbs you. It’s why people who never step into the arena themselves are always trying — and failing — to find joy in other people’s failures. They want to feel something, like they know the people in the arena do, but they aren’t willing to take the risk required to feel something real. I don’t want any of you to live that middling, numb, mediocre life. I want you to feel the highest highs. And for that, I need you to learn that you’ll also have to experience the lowest lows. It might not seem fair that the same map can lead you to either brutal heartbreak or total greatness, but that’s life. We saw it in the Super Bowl. Haters will call the Patriots losers. But there are no real losers who play in the Super Bowl. I don’t mean that in the participation trophy sense, because I can’t stand the idea that everyone deserves a trophy. I mean that everybody who goes all out, who steps into that arena and gives everything, is a champion, even if they don’t deserve a trophy. They have lived life fully, rejecting the numb mediocrity most people accept. The only real losers are the ones who never leave the safety of the sidelines. After these Olympics, Lindsey won’t go home with a medal. She will go home with the heart of a champion. I hope she knows that she did a great public service for all of us. She demonstrated that thriving means being comfortable on that razor’s edge of victory and defeat. She reminded us that coming up short in a worthy cause beats becoming one of those cold and timid souls. She showed us how to live, not just to exist. They don’t have a medal for that. Life’s greatest wins live inside you. My challenge to all of you this week comes in two parts, and one is easier than the other. Let’s start with the easier one: don’t be a loser who hates from the sidelines. I have a feeling most of you can already check this one off, because this is the positive corner of the internet. But if you find yourself naysaying or enjoying other people’s failure, it’s the first sign that you are falling into that numb, cold, timid life. Stop it. Now, the harder one. Take the risk. Put yourself out there. All of you have something you’ve shied away from, something where you thought about jumping into the arena but hesitated when you thought of the risk of failure. You might fail. But I promise you’ll find that even failure means a fuller life than the sidelines. It’s time to start living. arnoldspumpclub.com/blogs/newslett… 2/2

I love the Olympics. Winter, summer, every single games, I tune in. I love it because we see how sports bring us together. I love it because we are reminded that sports are the ultimate equalizer. Look at weightlifting in the summer Olympics or downhill skiing now. The weights and the mountain don’t care what country you come from, how much money you have, or what religion you are. The weights and the mountain are the same for every single competitor. I love it, most of all, because the Olympics remind us of a core life lesson: greatness and heartbreak live right next door to each other. You can’t find greatness without a few meetings with heartbreak and failure. We saw this very clearly over the weekend. Like many of you, I’ve been following my friend Lindsey Vonn’s inspirational comeback. She’s 41, one knee is completely rebuilt, and now she went into the Olympics with a freshly-torn ACL. As storylines go, you can’t get any better. It is gutsy. It is brave. It is a little bit crazy. And it brings out all of the losers to do their naysaying. “Why would she do this?”  ”She must be missing something in her life.” “It’s irresponsible.” What these people don’t understand, because they’ve never tried anything great, because they’ve never pushed themselves to the absolute edges of their limits, because they’ll never know their real potential, is that there is no such thing as risk-free greatness. Yesterday, when her Olympic dreams ended in that horrible crash that left all of us praying for her in front of our televisions, the haters were out in full force. I don’t need to repeat it. Twitter has given losers enough of a platform; I won’t be amplifying them in this newsletter. (1/x)

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@drivelinekyle @jjcoop36 @ryantheryno_ Billy Koch was the guy when I was a kid. I remember seeing him throw 102 at Camden Yards 25 years ago.

@jjcoop36 @ryantheryno_ Yes, would agree with this as well

The levels of self-delusion you have to possess to watch Misiorowski and believe that pitchers throwing "93 MPH" on "slow guns" had the same velocity as this guy back in the 1970s-1980s is insane. Or that Misiorowski's 93 MPH sliders existed in their same form back then. 🙄

@McFranchisee @stevehunsaker1 Multi-year is the right way. Obviously Wall Street doesn't agree but as a franchisee you're in it for the long haul so sustainable growth is the key. Running good restaurants and treating your people right is the key to that, I think. Insulates you from volatility.

@JeffLongBP @stevehunsaker1 Don’t know the percentage but it’s a large percentage. I rather look a 2 or 3 year comp. One year comp has way too much noise. Too much yo-yo effect. One year you are #1 and the next you are last having the same sales trend.

I want to hear it from the actual owners in the SMB space… not these anonymous ragebait X accounts: Are your company sales up or down year to date in 2025 compared to 2024?

@McFranchisee @stevehunsaker1 How often do you beat corp in quarterly comps? 3/4 of the time? More? I'm assuming you're a top quintile operator based on how engaged you are in the business.

@stevehunsaker1 Up

I've yet to see any data suggesting Nate Wiggins isn't elite

@MidwestGolfJake This is the way

Alright, we are about 2 months into the shorter driver experiment and we're officially declaring it a success. Much more accurate, hitting the center of the face a lot more, and I've noticed no loss in distance. If you struggle with your driver, I highly recommend experimenting with a shorter club. Just remember to add weight to the head to offset the loss of shaft weight.

"I'd use the first $70 million to get rid of Kalen Deboer" It just means more, etc. etc.

@srbrown70 @903124S Let's assume a pitcher like Halladay starts a pitch on the outside edge of the zone. If it's a cutter, it's a ball. If it's a sinker, it's a strike. Which is it?! (It's a cutter, and a ball, but it's a no-hitter because the batter couldn't tell) youtu.be/H9YyJxmaZgk?si…

@srbrown70 @903124S In theory 2 pitches with the same starting point that end in different parts of the strikezone would be very valuable. Or the opposite! Halladay was hard to hit because he could finish his FC & SI in the same spot but start them in very different ones. Very hard on the batter!

Upon discussion with @srbrown70 here I'd briefly mention why I think a broader sense of pitch tunnel could also not be a thing though I'm very welcome people to post rebuttal since just a rough approach. 1/n

Marketers shouldn't be letting an app icon drive their brand assets & I don't think they are. Clean designs that show up well on small viewports also work as building signage or in ads. Most of the time a simple design performs better & that's the job for QSR CMOs. Drive sales.

In general these modern logos and design systems are more app friendly as a result of them broadly being more digitally-friendly because that's where the world has gone and is going. The apps aren't driving these brand design changes IMO but it's certainly not a negative for them

This is, in my opinion, not quite right for a couple reasons. I think what you really have here is a several things coming together: 1. Consistency - it's much easier to have the brand show up in a consistent way across thousands of touch points with a simple & clean design.