Throughout history, when things don’t go as planned, people tend to create a scapegoat. One definition for scapegoat according to Webster’s dictionary is: a person or group made to bear the blame for others or to suffer in their place.

I’ll mention two people who were made to be scapegoats in major league baseball.

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Who can forget the ground ball that Bill Buckner didn’t stop in game 6 of the 1986 World Series. The Boston Rex Sox fans just knew that they had finally won their long awaited championship.

They finally did win 2 championships which broke the curse of the Bambino and also released Bill Buckner from being the scapegoat.

Bill did make an error, but fans overlook the fact that the manager normally put in a defensive replacement, Dave Stapleton in the later innings because Bill had chronic ankle problems. The manager also left the closer in the game for a third consecutive inning, which retired the first 2 batters on fly balls; however, with 2 outs, he gave up 3 consecutive hits. The manager brought in the former closer, who threw a wild pitch that allowed a run to score. The fans forget all of the other factors; they only remember Bill missing the grounder.

Another famous baseball scapegoat incident happened in game 6 of the 2003 National Championship series between the Chicago Cubs and the Florida Marlins. The Cubs were up 3-0 and only needed 5 more outs to win the series. They had arguably their best pitcher on the mound. A batter hit a foul ball that was going into the stands, several spectators reached for the ball and the left fielder did as well. The ball bounced off of the hands of Steve Bartman.

The outfielder pitched a fit by throwing down his glove and glaring back at the fans in that section. The Marlins scored 8 runs after that deflected ball. The Chicago fans became very hostile toward Steve. Many fans started calling him an ugly name. Some fans spat at him while others threw beer or other objects. Many Chicago fans have never forgiven him. They place all of the blame on him. In their minds, it had nothing to do with the pitchers giving up 8 runs.

In baseball, the entire team affects the outcome of the game. In 1986 the entire Boston Red Sox team lost and in 2003, the entire Chicago Cubs team lost. It was not Bill Buckner and it definitely was not Steve Bartman.

People create a scapegoat on a regular basis. The reason they remain in their current state of affairs is because of their circumstances or other people.

Are you ready to find out who the biggest scapegoat of all time is? The answer: it’s always someone else.

Quit establishing a scapegoat for your failure and do something to change it. You need to look yourself in the mirror and say, “It’s not the scapegoat; it’s ME”! Change yourself and you no longer have need of a scapegoat.

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       James Barber

       Author of The Networking Guru

       Networking-Guru.com