My nine-year-old son and I were having breakfast this morning and talking about how our home-town San Francisco Giants just won the World Series. He said he remembered how the Series MVP Edgar Renteria struck out a lot during the regular season and that he couldn’t believe the important home runs he was hitting in the World Series.

That led to a nice conversation about “stepping up.” When the stage gets big and the crowd watching gets even bigger, what happens to your performance? Some of the best players in the game shrink; others step up.

The San Francisco Giants won because they were the team that got better and better. They played well in September and just cleared the hurdle to get into the post season. And with each series (NLDS, NLCS, WS), their performance became more inspired and more dominant. That, my son, is stepping up.

Photo via SFGate