The Role Peter Brady Never Wanted

You are one of the leading players on the team.  Your win/loss record is significantly better than any other pitcher on the team.  Everything would be great except the managers don’t recognize the talent you have.  Sure, you’re narcissistic, arrogant, you give yourself too much credit, and if it were not for those wins, you might not be in your position.  Some even say that you are difficult to play with.  So what should be done?  Should your manager bench you, and risk losing more games?  Does he trade you, just hoping that by doing so, he gets rid of a major headache?

If you know me, then you know there is a historical angle to this opening scenario.  As much as I love baseball, this is not a baseball story.  It is, instead, a story of a general who could have been famously great.  However, greed and arrogance got the better of him, until he spiraled out of control, landing in our textbooks as one of the greatest traitors in history.  

Benedict Arnold did not start out as the guy we love to hate.  He was talented, even described by some as one of George Washington’s best generals.  Arnold was a man of action.  When hearing of the Boston Massacre, he exclaimed, “Good God, are the Americans all asleep and tamely giving up their glorious liberties?”  As action was needed, Arnold acted.  Following the clashes at Lexington and Concord, Arnold organized a militia and marched to Fort Ticonderoga, joining forces under Ethan Allen, and easily defeating the small British detachment.  More than 80 cannons were transported from the captured fort to Dorchester Heights, overlooking Boston, which would eventually help force the British out of the city.

During the fighting at Saratoga, Arnold’s spirited actions contributed to a British surrender.  Unfortunately for Arnold, he suffered a serious wound, sidelining him for months.  In a brilliant move earlier in the war, Arnold pieced together an amateur naval force for a battle near Valcour Island on Lake Champlain.  He knew he was outgunned so his objective was to delay the far superior British Navy just long enough to get American forces time to prepare better defenses.  Arnold did better than that.  His maneuvering delayed the British long enough that they abandoned any plans to attack that year.  

With all of these accomplishments and more, Benedict Arnold should be a hero in our history books.  And yet, he’s not.  He was unscrupulous in his time as the military commander in Philadelphia.  He profited from dishonest business dealings.  Even worse, was the fact that he felt owed the money.  Why?  Because he believed junior officers were being promoted ahead of him.  Whatever the case, it was the beginning of the end of Arnold’s command in the American Army.  The last straw came when, after being appointed as commander of West Point, he set plans in motion to surrender it to the British in exchange for 20,000 British pounds and a commission as a brigadier general in the British Army.  As fate, or Providence (as George Washington called it) would have it, the Americans discovered the plot and foiled Arnold’s plan.  The man who could have been so much more, was now the villain in the story of our country.

What is it about ambition for power and prestige that destroys some men?  Arnold had an insatiable appetite for power and honor, and when it did not come, he turned his back on his countrymen for the equivalent of $400,000 today.  Think about what that means.  He was never able to return to his country.  For the most part, history is in no way kind to him.  Whenever you hear someone called “Benedict Arnold”, you know that the person is accused of being a no-good traitor.  In his hometown of Norwich, Connecticut, all of his family’s gravestones, with the exception of his mother’s, have been destroyed.  I don’t know about you, but there is no power worth having if it results in this kind of legacy.  Proverbs 11:2 says, “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.”  Pride certainly ran deep in Arnold’s veins.  And because of that, he is a portrait of a disgraced individual.

Leaders today face many of the same challenges Benedict Arnold had nearly 250 years ago.  When the need for power and prestige outweighs the desire for service to others, then trouble is right around the corner.  Leaders can ill afford to make the same mistake.  Instead, leaders should be reminded of the necessity of humility in their daily interactions with others.  For in that there is wisdom.

**Now, let me explain the title of this blog in case you are not a Brady Bunch fanatic like myself.  In a season 4 episode, Peter auditions for the role of George Washington in the school play.  Feeling that Peter could handle the tougher role, his teacher gives him the part of Benedict Arnold instead.  Peter grudgingly accepts the role at first, but decides to quit when all of his friends start calling him a traitor.  Of course, mom smoothes things over, and persuades Peter to stay in the play as Benedict Arnold.