### I was wrong. 
 
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At times, those three words seem incredibly difficult to say. In fact, they are so difficult, that sometimes people choose to engage in very emotionally charged and damaging arguments rather than simply stepping back and saying them. I am not  a psychologist, but I am guessing that it has something to do with one's self esteem and the feeling that if you admit to being "wrong" you are admitting to being "less". Perhaps it makes a person feel less intelligent, less empathetic, less considerate... or simply less "right".  But I will leave that up to the experts.
 
### I will leave that to the experts
 
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That is another phrase that people sometimes have a difficult time saying.  Look around your place of business right now. Is there someone there who is absolutely convinced that he/she could run the company better than those in charge? Have they ever tried? Do they have access to all of the information and concerns that those in charge have? Maybe they do and maybe they don't. Perhaps they would be the greatest boss ever and lead the company to tremendous success. Perhaps they would be in over their heads and drive it into the ground. I don't know.
 
### I don't know.
 
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Three more difficult words to say. Does this fall under the same category as "I was wrong"? Does it hurt one's self esteem to appear less knowledgeable? I don't know. 
 
What I do know is that it can be uncomfortable to talk about these ideas using real life personal examples. Luckily in our world we have a proxy for "real life". We have sports.
 
Today, all over the internet, there will be plenty of people celebrating the Cubs World Series win. There will also be plenty of people writing about the "losers" of the series (who bested 28 other teams in their attempt just to reach the final game of the year). I'd like to write about that too... but from a little different angle. 

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Reflecting on the last few days here in Chicago, I think back to several of the conversations I had leading into and during the World Series. 
 
The first conversation centered around the Cubs management's decision to include Kyle Schwarber on their World Series roster. In the third game of the season, Schwarber tore his ACL. He had surgery, missed the remainder of the entire season and rehabbed every day. Approximately one week before the World Series began, Schwarber was cleared to resume batting and running (but not fielding). Before the final roster decision needed to be made, he played in two minor league games. 
 
My fiends and I talked about what we thought the Cubs should do. Most of us thought adding him would be a huge mistake. He hadn't faced major league pitching in nearly 7 months. How the heck could he possibly have his timing down? He wouldn't be able to hit at all. In addition, he was not allowed to play the field so he could only star 4 of the 7 games at DH. Why waste that roster spot? 
 
The Cubs decided to put him on the roster and start him in game 1. My friends and I shook our heads. "I hope they know what they are doing... but there is no way I would put him on the roster". In that first game Schwarber hit the hardest ball of the night: a screaming double that missed being a homer by two feet. He then went on to bat .412 with a .971 OPS for the series. For those of you who don't follow baseball, that means he was the best offensive player in the entire series. **I was wrong.**

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Conversations continued during the series. In Game six, the Cubs Manager (Joe Maddon) chose to use his closer in the seventh inning of a game in which his team was leading by 5 runs. According to sports talk radio, he was clearly an idiot. Two days before, he was the smartest manager ever. Apparently during the day off, he had lost his freaking mind. How the heck do you waste your closer's arm when you are up five runs?  But perhaps Maddon knew something we didn't. Perhaps there was a reason he used this pitcher. Perhaps he had seen his other pitchers throw and they seemed "off" that day. Perhaps Maddon did not believe his other pitchers could get the heart of Cleveland's lineup out. Perhaps Maddon's decades of experience in Major League Baseball had made him more qualified to make this decision than me or a random fan on the radio. It turns out he was right. The Cubs won. Good thing the organization chose to say **"We better leave that to the expert."**
 
Now many will use last night's game to prove that they were right. After all, the closer (Aroldis Chapman) did blow the save. Clearly he should not have been used the night before. If he were not used the night before, he would have absolutely come in and helped the Cubs win in 9 innings. But does anyone *really* know that for sure? He did pitch a perfect 9th inning to get the Cubs to extra innings. Because of this he earned the win in game 7 of the World Series. Would this had happened if Maddon hadn't used him to shut down Cleveland the night before? **I don't know.**
 
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Wow! It turns out that wasn't hard at all. I managed to write "I was wrong", "I'll leave that to the experts", and "I don't know" all in one post and I didn't hurt my self esteem at all. But could I have done this as easily if I were writing about my job, my family, or other truly important things?
 
I don't know.