As a former Major League pitcher, Bill Krueger has an inspiring story of “Finding Greatness.” He provides personal leadership insights from the various relationships he built over his career with coaches and business professionals.
As a former Major League pitcher, Bill Kruger has an inspiring story of “Finding Greatness.” An exceptional storyteller, he provides personal leadership insights from the various relationships he built over his career with coaches and business professionals. From these experiences, he shares principles that help successful individuals and teams reach higher and achieve more. Bill is a co-founding partner of 4 Seam Leadership and remains highly visible in his role for ROOT SPORTS Northwest as a Senior Analyst for Seattle Mariners Baseball.
Bill Krueger has come a long way from that skinny kid growing up in McMinnville, Oregon. With little fanfare, Bill entered the University of Portland on a basketball scholarship in 1975 and was a four-year starting guard. Sophomore year, he decided to turn out for baseball, and played three years of first base for the Pilots. After graduation, Bill hoped to extend his baseball career into the professional ranks, but had no takers in the 1980 amateur draft. Despite not pitching in college, he made a quick assent up the ranks, joining the Major Leagues with Oakland in April 1983.
As a left-handed pitcher, Bill played for 13 seasons and was a member of the 1988 World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers. He won the American League Pitcher of the Month Award twice: July 1991 – Seattle Mariners and April 1992 – Minnesota Twins. He played in Seattle in 1991, finishing with an 11-8 record, with a starting staff leading 3.60 ERA.
Bill and his wife Jo, who are parents of a child with autism, were instrumental in establishing the Pacific Northwest Chapter of Cure Autism Now, a coalition of athletes, community leaders, board members, celebrities, and parents for private fundraising events and legislative lobbying activities.
Today, Bill is the Strategic Relationship Officer for Northwest Center, a non-profit organization focused on supporting kids and adults of all abilities from every step of the way: Early Intervention and Early Learning, Employment and School-to-Work Transition services, and a Social Enterprise business model that creates jobs as it provides valuable services to customers. A spokesman on the powers of inclusion in the workplace, Bill advocates for hiring people with physical limitations or developmental delays—not as a compromise, but as a business advantage.
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by, and it has made all the difference.”
-Robert Frost (1916)
Presentations
Finding Greatness in Others
Bill provides personal leadership insights from the various relationships he built over his career with coaches and business professionals. From these experiences, he shares principles that help successful individuals and teams reach higher and achieve more. “Leaders have found their greatness…..the key is to find that in those on your team to find that elusive greatness for you as a leader.”
Building Successful Teams
Great insight through the numerous teams Bill played on from both baseball and basketball at the Division 1 Level to his 16+ years in professional baseball, Bill will share a step-by-step approach on the keys to winning that worked on the playing fields and courts and will do the same with your company.
When Life Throws You a Curveball
Bill and his wife Jo’s daughter Chanel was diagnosed with autism at 3 ½. Today she is an attorney working for the Puyallup Tribe! Bill will share this incredibly challenging journey that they as parents took to help pull her out of the darkness and find her potential. Today, Bill is the Director of Individual Philanthropy for Northwest Center, a non-profit organization focused on supporting kids and adults of all abilities from every step of the way: Early Intervention and Early Learning, Employment and School-to-Work Transition services, and a Social Enterprise business model that creates jobs as it provides valuable services to customers. A spokesman on the powers of inclusion in the workplace, Bill advocates for hiring people with physical limitations or developmental delays—not as a compromise, but as a business advantage.