Life Lessons from an Extraordinary World Series

On belief, the power of the human spirit, and peak performance.

The 2025 World Series may have been the best playoff series in recent sports history.

The Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays played each other neck-and-neck all the way to the end of a deciding Game 7. (And beyond, the game went extra innings.) There were so many great plot lines, from the underdog Blue Jays team cohesion to the Dodgers staying with it even when their backs were against the wall.

But there are two stories in particular with extraordinary lessons for baseball, for sport, and really, for all of life.

You Never Know What Could Happen Next
(And The Power of Evidence-Based Belief)

Toronto Blue Jay’s rookie pitcher Trey Yesavage started this season playing Single-A baseball in a Florida league. Six months later, he was breaking records on the biggest stage in baseball.

For those who don’t follow baseball, that means Yesavage made it from one of the lowest leagues to starting in the world series in a single season. It’s unheard of.

After striking out 12 Dodgers in a pivotal game 5, including future Hall of Famer Shohei Ohtani, Yesavage was asked what led to his success.

Yesavage answered with two things:

1. Relentless self-belief.

2. Keeping at least 2 of his 3 pitches in the strike zone.

Note the combination of a lofty ideal (self-belief) with concrete, gritty, and simple controllables (keeping your stuff in the zone). This is where the magic happens.

If Yesavage steps on the mound against the best in the world without a plan and process, he’s in trouble. The idea of facing greats like Ohtani would be utterly overwhelming. But keeping 2 of your 3 pitches in the zone? It’s something within your control. When you give your mind something to focus on that you know you can do it decreases anxiety and makes the challenge manageable.

Control the controllables.

Focus on what is in your power.

Try not to worry about what isn’t.

Yesavage also repeatedly remarked how much he trusted the team behind him, and what a boost it’s been to have his parents in the stands (they’ve traveled to all of his games). Herein lies another crucial lesson: self-belief almost always involves more than oneself. The people with whom you surround yourself are so important.

When you focus on what you can control, do what you know you can do, and have the right people in your corner, you give yourself evidence for your unwavering self-belief.

Belief without evidence is delusion. Belief with evidence is a superpower.

Yesavage striking out Ohtani and confidently heading to the dugout before Ohtani was even finished swinging.

Excellence is not perfection.
Excellence is not certainty.
Excellence is not the secret.

Just because you think it doesn’t mean it becomes reality. If you try to manifest your way to a World Series win, reality will hit you hard—figuratively and literally.

Belief is still everything. But you’ve got to have a process. You’ve got to give yourself the evidence.

The Power of Letting Go—and Letting it Rip

Yoshinobu Yamamoto threw a complete Game 2, came back for 96 pitches and six innings in Game 6, and then—on no rest—thew another 34 pitches to close Game 7, leading the Dodgers extraordinary comeback to win the World Series.

Unreal. It’s hard to find words. It’s the kind of performance that reminds us what humans are capable of when everything is on the line.

Some context: Pitchers’ arms are among the most studied and protected limbs in sports. A pitcher who throws too many innings is a recipe for inaccuracy, not to mention injury. Throwing 100 pitches in three hours is like sending a lightning bolt through your elbow again and again and again.

Most starters rest four or five days before throwing again. But game 7 is game 7. Sometimes you don’t worry about optimization or your recovery score. Sometimes you stop counting and show up.

The worst thing an athlete—or really, anyone—can do is believe that if conditions aren’t perfect, there’s no way they can perform.

“I can’t take the mound, I pitched last night.”

“I didn’t sleep well, I can’t race.”

“It’s a bit loud in the house, I can’t write.”

This mindset makes you fragile.

Have standards, routine—yes! But be willing to let go of the idea of “perfect” and do it anyway. When it’s time to meet the moment the worst thing you can do is overthink it. Yamamoto didn’t ask whether he was rested enough, what his “recovery score” was, or whether the data said he was optimized.

He stepped up. He trusted his training. And he gave what he had to give.

The greats aren’t great because they always have perfect conditions to get the job done. They are great because they show up and give it their best shot even when they don’t.

After Yamamoto finished game 6 he said he’d be ready to go in game 7. Everyone laughed it off. Commentators called it “an insane” thing to say.

But then… game 7 turned out to be insane. Nobody planned for 11 innings. And when the plans were thrown out, Yamamoto came in. The rest is history. An iconic effort.

The lesson for all of us, on and off the field:

One of the best things you can do for your confidence is not have things go to plan and still perform well. It frees you from the need to have perfect conditions to give it a go. You give yourself the evidence that you are resilient, durable, robust, and can get the job done. Optimize, track, measure, and plan to your heart’s desire. But also be willing to let all that go.

At its core, true excellence—in sport and in life—is an utterly human endeavor.

You dream. You practice. You prepare. You stay ready. Sometimes the world won’t line up the way you want it to. That doesn’t mean you shrink. It means you adapt, seize the moment, give what you can, and let it rip.