Sunday, February 7, 2010
All of the instruction that young baseball players receive is not done on the playing field by coaches wearing a uniform
Rob Rains
Which is why, in the middle of winter, four Cardinals’ prospects joined 100 other young players from every major league organization at a resort outside Washington, D.C. to spend a weekend learning about life in the major leagues.
It’s a program which has been in place for 10 years now, a joint venture of Major League Baseball and the Player’s Association. Its purpose is to educate the players on the environment and the experiences they can expect when they make it to the major leagues.
One of the former players serving as an instructor at the camp, as he has done for all but two of the 10 years, was former Cardinal pitcher Bob Tewksbury.
The fact that he spent 13 years in the majors would be enough to qualify Tewksbury to speak on this subject, but add in the fact that after retirement he went back to graduate school and earned a masters degree from Boston University in sports psychology and counseling, and his credentials are even more impressive.
Tewksbury is convinced the program is worthwhile, and that the lessons which are taught are ones which every young player matriculating to the major leagues should learn.
“These guys are not really worldly athletes,” Tewksbury said this week in a telephone interview from his home in Concord, N.H. “In general they are fairly pigeon-holed in their existence. They play baseball. People tell them what to do and where to go. They have not had to do a whole lot for themselves.
Bob Tewksbury pitched for the Cardinals from 1989-1994. His best season was 1992, when he went 16-5 with a 2.16 ERA.
“When you get thrown into the real world it can be an adjustment, whether you’re coming to a city like St. Louis, where it’s much more low-key and friendly if you will, or to New York, where everything is magnified. All baseball teams tell a rookie when he gets to the majors is ‘there’s the team hotel, be at the stadium at 4 p.m.’”
This program answers the questions that players need answered, even if now, they don’t even know what the questions will be.
“It’s really helpful if you know who the traveling secretary is, and what does he do,” Tewksbury said. “How much do you tip the clubhouse guy at home? Who do you tip on the road? That’s the little stuff we cover. Who do you talk to if something happens? How do you find a place to live?”
During the weekend, the Second City improv troupe from Chicago entertained and educated the young players at the same time, acting out skits and situations the players might encounter once they arrive in the major leagues.
These presentations included everything from how to deal with an upset wife or girlfriend, to how to handle somebody who wants the player to invest in a “get rich quick” scheme.
Allen Craig was one of the four Cardinal players who attended the camp, along with Jon Jay, Bryan Anderson and Francisco Samuel. He said he found the experience and the lessons learned invaluable.
“We talked about financial planning, about dealing with the media, about relationships,” Craig said. “It was things every player needs to know. The biggest thing I took away from it was the importance of developing relationships, with the media, with the people around the clubhouse. They taught us ways to handle ourselves and do it in a professional manner.”
One of the biggest lessons was about how to deal with the “celebrity” status of being in the major leagues, and the knowledge that anything the players do will now very likely become instant news because of Youtube and the technology of taking pictures and video with cell phones.
“Look what happened to Rex Ryan (the coach of the Jets),” Tewksbury said. “He flipped somebody off and there it is on the front page of the New York Times.”
Allen Craig of the Memphis Redbirds
Said Craig, “It’s kind of interesting how the sports world and the TMZ world are kind of overlapping now. They taught us how we have to be really careful about what we do, and where we go. It’s good to have all that information before you get to the major leagues, and before you get in a situation where you make a mistake that you didn’t think was a big deal. I liked the whole message. They told us to be cautious, but not to be afraid.”
The shame of this program is that only four of the more than 150 players in the Cardinals’ system got to hear it, the same percentage of every organization. Not all of those players, of course, will one day play in the majors, but the life lessons which are taught would be valuable to them no matter how far their baseball careers progress.
The Red Sox are one of the few teams in baseball that do run a similar program for their entire farm system, bringing their players to Boston for two weeks in January. Tewksbury, who works full time for the Red Sox as a sports psychology consultant, is one of the instructors. He delivers the same message to those players as he does at the rookie camp, speaking mainly about how to handle failure.
“It’s probably the single biggest thing that happens (to a young player),” Tewksbury said. “Why do they fail? Because they have unrealistic expectations. They can’t possibly be perfect, which every player thinks he should be every day. You’re not going to win every game and you’re not going to get a hit every at-bat. Players put so much emphasis on saying that having a good game means they are a good player and having a bad game means they are a bad player. That’s taking it to the extreme. They judge everything they do on the results.
“When they fail, they feel like a failure, and that’s not true. I work on getting them to separate the player from the performance. I try to get the players to understand those feelings are totally normal and they can be helped.”
When he is not at baseball’s rookie camp or working at the Red Sox’ session in January, Tewksbury is roaming through the Red Sox’ farm system, working with players who are struggling with either on-the-field or off-the-field problems.
“My job is to help the players by educating them on the importance of the mental part of the game, and to work through anything that is preventing them from playing their best,” Tewksbury said. “A lot of the perception of the players is ‘Why do I have to do this?’ It’s like dealing with a teenager. ‘What do you mean I have to wear my seat belt?’ Three years later they get in a fender-bender and they say, ‘I’m glad I was wearing my seat belt.’”
As long as baseball is played, Tewsbury knows there will be a need for people to do what he is doing. But if the day comes for another challenge, he also has that waiting at the other end of the baseball spectrum -- working with former major league players as they transition from playing in the majors to life out of the game.
“Maybe that’s my next mission,” Tewksbury said. “It’s so difficult, and players go through various stages. A player thinks, ‘I’ve got a million dollars in the bank, what am I worried about? So why do I feel like crap?’ Who does an ex-player talk to about that? You can’t talk to a regular guy because he will say, ‘You’ve got a million dollars in the bank, I’d be happy as hell.’ The issue is about self-worth, and self-image, and having a purpose in your life.”
That’s not an issue Tewksbury has to worry about.
Schumaker headed for hearing?
It’s been two weeks since the word was that second baseman Skip Schumaker and the Cardinals were close to a contract agreement. The deal didn’t happen before the two sides exchanged arbitration figures, and there has been no indication from either side since that the deal is about to get done.
Arbitration hearings will begin Monday in Florida, but both the major league club and the player are discouraged from revealing when their particular hearing is scheduled. The two sides are $1.3 million apart with Schumaker asking for $2.75 million and the Cardinals offering $1.45 million.
The Cardinals have not gone to an actual hearing with a player since 1999, with Darren Oliver. They came close last year with Ryan Ludwick, with an agreement not being reached until just before the hearing was scheduled to begin.
More arbitration blues
The Cardinals are not the only team in this situation. It appears certain the Giants and Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum are going to a hearing, and their difference is a historic $5 million. Lincecum asked for $13 million while the Giants offered $8 million.
The Cubs have not gone to an arbitration hearing with a player in 17 years, with Mark Grace in 1993, but it looks very likely they will have one this year with shortstop Ryan Theriot. Theriot wants $3.4 million while the Cubs offered $2.6 million.
The Cubs feel pretty strongly about their case. Their offer to Theriot would pay him more than 18 regular shortstops in 2009. The 11 who made more money have all been All-Stars and a couple MVP’s,, except for 13-year veteran Orlando Cabrera.
Where will Damon land?
Has any free agent had a worse winter than Johnny Damon? Think he and agent Scott Boras are still on friendly speaking terms?
Damon, through Boras, turned down the Yankees’ offer of a two-year, $14 million deal. He wanted $20 million for the two years and the Yankees said no.
Damon is 36. He did hit 24 home runs last year, but 17 were at the home-run friendly new Yankee Stadium. He, and Boras, should have realized that no team was going to offer him more than the Yankees. Thus, as spring training camps are about to open, Damon is still sitting at home without a job.
It appears the two most likely landing spots are Detroit or Atlanta, but without teams beating on Boras’ door to sign him, both those clubs are comfortable with waiting, allowing the eventual price of the contract to keep dropping.
Some of Boras’ other clients are still on the market too. That list includes pitcher Jarrod Washburn, infielder Felipe Lopez and first baseman/DH Hank Blalock.
Of the nine Cardinals who became free agents after last season, only two are left on the market – pitchers John Smoltz and Todd Wellemeyer. It appears increasingly likely that Smoltz will not sign with anybody before spring training, and may wait as late as June or July to sign – following the pattern established by Roger Clemens and Pedro Martinez.
Wellemeyer said this week he has received interest from the Mets, Rockies and Giants, and reports in Denver said he most likely will end up in San Francisco.
Contact Globe-Democrat.com Sports Editor Rob Rains at rrains@globe-democrat.com
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