April 27, 2026·3 min read·FREE ESSAY
When the Joy Evaporated
This was the leading cause
At only 20 years old, Zack Greinke made his debut in Major League Baseball (MLB) in 2004. This was big news because of two reasons.
First, he was the youngest baseball player in the major leagues. Second, unlike other pitchers who spent 4-5 years in minor leagues before progressing to major leagues, he had conquered this in only 23 months.
Greinke was a purist at heart. He was curious about the sport and often questioned the conventional wisdom adopted in the game.
Greinke famously ignored the "velocity" obsession of scouts. When asked about his mid-90s fastball, he would often pivot to talking about the geometry of the strike zone. To him, the radar gun was a distraction from the actual "game theory" of pitching—solving the hitter’s intent.
The Soul of Baseball
Zack was motivated by the sheer love of the game. At some he would tell his teammates that he wanted to try “throwing a curveball in his next inning at 50mph, just to see whether he could do it.”
No one was pushing him; only his own desire to learn about pitching. And this desire bore fruits as he was awarded the Gatorade National Player of the Year in mid-2002 while still in high school.
Then he joined the major leagues in 2004 and the joy of playing evaporated.
In his 2005-2006 season reflections in an interview with minor leagues baseball, Greinke would recount how the clubhouse environment focused only on stats and metrics. Everything had turned into a metric that could be optimized.
The organization focused on optimizing his Earned Run Averages (ERAs), strikeout ratios, and wins.
"I just hated being around attention and stuff. In the clubhouse, I hated being around that. I didn't like anything to do with being around people... that would make it even worse."
The Soul of Baseball
Focusing on the utility of his wins crowded the joy of solving the puzzle of playing baseball.
By 2006, he was already drained and walked away from Spring training and was even looking to join colleges in vacation places such as Hawaii.
He would later return to the league in 2007 as a changed man, citing that he loved baseball and hated the rules and justifications that he had to live by.
"When I was growing up, I would go to the field and play. It was like that in rookie ball. You went to the field, played catch... and left. I always thought that’s the way baseball was. I kind of realized it wasn't baseball that I didn't like [it was the rules and expectations]."
Zack’s performance also indicated that he was indeed back as he threw 8 scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts and 0 walks later in September 2007.
The Children who Loved to Draw
Away from the field, we find a similar finding in the work of three researchers; Lepper, Greene, and Nisbett in 1973.
They investigated whether rewards would enhance hinder the passion of children who had a high desire to draw.
The children were divided into 3 groups:
Group A - they were told that they would receive a reward if they drew
Group B - they were given a reward after they drew but were not informed about it beforehand
Group C - they simply drew without any mention of a reward
After two weeks, the children in Group A drew less than those in Groups B and C.
What had happened?
Those in Group A categorized their drawing as “work” which would be either rewarded or not. The metrics had crowded out their love for drawing.
Takeaway This Week
This week, we focus on the idea that not every activity needs to be optimized, for doing so reduces our motivation to engage in it.
As we embrace digital tools and AI to optimize our processes, we may be influenced to track everything and optimize it.
For example, you might start counting the number of steps you take as you go for a walk rather than allowing your mind to wander.
As Zack’s story and the experiment showed us, this shift will drain our motivation to engage in these activities in the first place.
Of course, some activities need to be tracked to make strategic decisions.
However, for others, let them be autotelic, having their purpose within themselves and not a means to an end, as Aristotle tells us.
