The common question this time of year, "is October the best sports month."

My answer: "It used to be."

I believed that and wrote about it nearly a decade and a half ago.

Now, I'm not so sure. I don't have a solid answer, but I do like high-stakes baseball, no matter how much I lament the state of the game today. Watching Comedians in the Car Getting Coffee the other night, there was an episode where Brian Regan rode along with Jerry Seinfeld and said something to the effect of, "I'll watch any do or die sporting event."

Pretty much the same for me, no matter what I think of the state of the sporting world at this point.

As I write this, the ALCS and the NLCS are in Game 7 and Game 6, respectively.

There is also football in the air. Monday Night Football may have already kicked off by the time you read this. The 49ers are visiting the Vikings.

I loved the Niners growing up. Particularly Joe Montana.

I was fascinated by San Francisco head coach Bill Walsh, however. My dad didn't like him too much, though, so around the house, I tempered my "respect" for the Father of the West Coast Offense.

The best theory I have is that my dad dismissed him because of Walsh's prickly personality. My father was a Joe Gibbs man through-and-through.

But as I got into coaching myself, I read as much as I could about the great coaches...in all sports. Walsh is highest on my list, primarily because of his attention to detail. I love this type of stuff.

In the business world, I've been trying to discover what makes an "expert." Coach Walsh says "Expertise is the inventory of knowledge and experience you possess on a particular subject."

There are degrees, of course, and Walsh says, "the greater your expertise, the greater your potential to teach, the stronger and more productive you can be as a leader."

As my 6-year-old son says, "BAM!" Coach Walsh is right on the money here.

A while ago, I made a resource page simply for the best Bill Walsh-related books out there. The aforementioned quotes from the great coach were from The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership by Bill Walsh. I've read it several times.

You can find that link and others here:

As always,

Brian