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Esprit De Corps

noun - is-pree da kor 

:: Feelings of pride in being a member of a group; a feeling of enthusiasm, loyalty, and devotion to a group among members of that group

Dr. D, in one of his other writing gigs, so happens to be collaborating with a U.S. Airborne Ranger on the nature of challenge and commitment.  We trust you can fill in the blanks on that one.  The attitudes of pride, of camaraderie, of confidence, they're elusive.  Rangers believe that they are the best in the world at what they do.  I think they're right.  Try not to tick them off.

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Every time you see another game like Sunday's, it makes you wonder that much more.  The 21-year-old Lance McCullers was taking his warmups, chatting easily and laughing with his catcher in a way you would never see Taijuan Walker do.  "GO OUT THERE AND COMPETE!  YOU GOT A 97-MILES-AN-HOUR FASTBALL, NOW PITCH LIKE IT!"  

Roenis Elias, as he started the game, seemed to be swimming through slop.  His first four pitches seemed nowhere near the plate, his first couple outs were rifle shots to outfielders.  The position players seemed to be moving as if in a dirge.

It was weirdly zombie-like, and that was before we read this little gem from Daddy-O:

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Reportedly McClendon in a team meeting told them, among other things, that if they can't get the job done they will find someone who will. It's a good, standard kind of management line, but any fool who steps back and looks at the last decade plus would have to ask the obvious question: "When in the last ten plus years has this team demonstrated the ability to find players who can get the job done? What makes you think on this sinking ship that suddenly you can do so?"

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:: taps chin ::

Usually -- not always but usually -- a 2nd-level manager walks in and starts yelling like that after --- > he has sat down with his 3rd-level manager and they have agreed that it's the grunts' fault.  His boss has empowered him to kick tail and take names, to get things turned around.

Gotta say, this is Zduriencik's low point for me.  From 2008 to here, the date June 14 2015 is the most pessimistic I've felt about the man.

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As a completely separate issue, I always h-a-t-e-d the type of coaching that growls at a rookie pitcher, "He's trying to take your salary from you.  Man up."  I mean, if you're a football guard, that could help.  But a baseball player?!  You "psyche up" as a baseball player, you go out swinging hard - and miss.  It's a surgeon's game, a game for golfers.  You coach boxers differently than you do golfers.

Lou used to rage at rookie pitchers, too.  But then, he was never known for getting much out of them.  Sometimes Lou's shtick worked, and sometimes it didn't.  It was the right place, right time in the middle 90's.  It was wrong place, wrong time a lot, too.

It was back in the 1960's that John Wooden taught the world that good coaching consists of 10% "why" and 90% "how."  Taijuan doesn't need to want it more.  He needs the right idea out there.  And he needs to believe that it will work, when he does it right.  And he needs to enjoy being a Seattle Mariner.  Not a ballplayer, a Seattle Mariner.

/rant

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He's got a saying, Jack Z does, "talent wins."  He believes that, and it makes sense.  What he means by that is, if he has to sacrifice other things for talent, he'll do so.  Those other things are, like, being good family men, having good makeup, being resilient, having baseball intellligence, and so forth.  Zduriencik simply believes that if you stockpile more talent than the other guy, then you'll be fine. 

And that's fair enough.

But right now, you'd have to say, the evidence is coming in on the other side.  Pat Gillick's touch for a roster composition, Tony LaRussa's knack for pointing his finger at the right player in the right role, Tommy Lasorda's infectious joy for the game of baseball, none of it is mixed into all this "talent" and ... it shows.

Baseball hot dogs apple pie and Chevrolet,

Dr D