Ah, a closer: what a relief!

We live in a world that respects the innovator: the one who takes the first step and the one who gets the job done. We venerate and idolize the trailblazer who gets the ball rolling, kicks the switch and shifts the project into high gear.

Yet, frequently, he who starts the exercise isn't there to complete it. Indeed, all too often, the initiator, the one who sets the program in motion, either due to lack of ingenuity, resolve, resources or willpower, fails to follow up or follow through. To see the game won, the victory gained, the job done or the goal reached takes not just a starter, but a ... closer.

In baseball, a "closer" is a pitcher selected to pitch the final inning(s) of a game to protect the lead and ensure a win.

In life, a "closer" is the guy or gal you call upon (though more often than not that guy or gal volunteers and steps forward) to resolve some outstanding issue, avoid a debilitating pitfall and make certain that the job at hand is handled.

Beyond the ball field, in the arena of business or law or finance or education or medicine or public service, closers are those to whom we return to in order to close the deal, wrap it up, work it out and top it off.

Closers don't know from "I can't" or "they won't" or "something came up" or "there's a glitch of some sort." Closers challenge the devil that lies in the details, and proceed to wind up, round off and finish up that which has to be done.

Never inclined to table an issue or pass the buck or hide in a committee or obfuscate by using words like "obfuscate," closers use every trick in the book to leave nothing hanging and leave no loose ends. Closers pull the chestnuts from the fire and put the icing on the cake without waiting for mittens or worrying about calories.

Closers don't march at the heads of parades, rather they see a finish-line and they cross it. When they do, they may not be first and may not do so gracefully, but they do so with the satisfaction of knowing that he who asked them to join the relay was confident of eventual victory ... if victory means neither failing nor faltering and definitely not quitting.

Interestingly, my pal, Retsel, is a closer by profession, avocation and inclination.