What Dummy Taught Baseball
By Peter LloydWhy wouldn't the Cincinnati Reds pick up William Ellsworth "Dummy" Hoy from the Boston Beaneaters in 1894? He couldn't hear and he didn't speak, but he was a great ball player. His last play with the Boston team clinched them the pennant. A spectacular outfield grab in thick, San Francisco fog.
Hoy was an outstanding fielder and base stealer. In one game he threw three players out at home, each time rocketing the ball to the plate from the outfield. He stole more than 600 bases in his brief, major-league career, leading the National League with 82 steals in his rookie year with the Washington Senators.
According to Hall-of-Famer "Wahoo" Sam Crawford, left, Hoy was also an innovator, responsible for umpires using hand signals. Since Hoy couldn't hear, a teammate at third base would signal balls and strikes when Hoy was at bat. Eventually umpires started signaling for Hoy. Now they all signal for everybody, because it has advantages for everybody.It's claimed that all the signaling we see from sideline coaches, mangers, and catchers was inspired by Hoy's special needs. It didn't take long, it seems, to see the value in creating a language that only you and your teammates could understand.
Whenever and wherever human beings are restrained from getting what they want, innovation prospers. Specifically, whenever diversity is introduced, as in the case of William Hoy, inventions like hand signals arise. Better yet, it's not just the person introducing the diversity who gains. In the case of Hoy, the game of baseball gained.
Creativity doesn't just thrive on diversity, it is diversity. When we're forced to adapt, we innovate. And we always are forced to adapt when we bring people with different ways of doing things into our world of homogeneous habits.
Peter Lloyd is co-creator with Stephen Grossman of Animal Crackers, the breakthrough problem-solving tool designed to crack your toughest problems.