In baseball, mental coaches were once seen as for the ‘weak-minded.’ Now they’re essential.
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They’re not introduced in the opening-day pageantry. They don’t wear uniforms. They don’t have lockers in the clubhouse. Some even have weird titles, just to protect their anonymity. Yet, behind the scenes, there are proving as invaluable as any staff member in a Major League Baseball organization.
Mental skills coaches, employed by a record 27 baseball clubs to open the 2018 season, are valued more than ever.
“If you said mental skills before,’’ Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon says, “that was an absolute sign that you were weak among the old-school guys. Deep down, there were a lot of guys who wanted to talk to them, but they knew that if they were seen talking to them, it would be seen sign as a sign of weakness. And the manager might think less of him.
“That was an absolute fact, and even today, I don’t think that stigma has been totally erased. To think that psychology is an indicator of weakness, truly is an ignorant statement. When people are fighting it, it’s only because they don’t understand it.
“It’s no different than your hitting coach, your pitching coach, your infield coach. A mental skills coach is going to help you think better, think more clearly in the moment, and control your emotions.’’
In the words of the late Yogi Berra: “Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical.’’
I saw the movie “One million arm” which tells about the story of a US visionary manager willing to discover talent for baseball in young people who practice other sports. He believes that India is the country still less exploited for this search and convinces a rich Chinese to fund this research. Who will throw a baseball ball 80 miles will attend a training camp and then the two best athletes will win a prize and will move for a year in the United States to train. At the end of the year the two Indian athletes fail to pass the audition organized with the best baseball scouts and the story seems failed. The manager, however, obtains financing for another year, after which instead the two boys convince the experts with their launches. Conclusion, they have been the first two Indians to play in the Major League.
This is a true story that tells how the search for talent is still anchored in too rigid scientific stereotypes that prevent that stories like this are much more frequent. The British have understood for a long time and over the last 8 years have enriched their national teams of about 100 athletes using a system like the one described in the movie.
In Italy, I’m trying to introduce this concept but sports organizations are rigid, the biomechanicals and coaches believe that we should always start from the children and basically everyone wants to protect is knowledge rather than to try new paths. Patience!
Alex Rodriguez, Yankees baseball player, suspended for 211 games with other players suspended for “only” 50 games are another sensational case of doping. This fraud continued apparently without the players care about the sanctions that can affect them. They are still convinced of their decision to take drugs. Here are some reasons that continue to motivate them to this choice.
- Desire to accumulate richness – is possible if the performances are exceptional or are perceived as such.
- Willingness to take risks – to make decisions that involve penal risks counting on the low probability of being caught.
- Opportunity to fraud – many other players are doped, it’s a common practice and there are companies that offer products that serve this purpose.
- Awareness that the controls are ineffective – the probability of being condemned is poor and the large law firms are fundamental weapon of defense.
The board which decides what the players have to enter in the baseball Hall of Fame has denied the entry of some of the most successful players in the history of this sport for their documented problems with doping (Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens). Among these was also found Mike Piazza, who hit 396 home runs as a catcher, more than any other player at the role, for doubt that his performances have been influenced by the use of steroids, despite he has never been officially involved in matters of doping. But this vote indicates a suspicion about the origin of his record. Some judges have voted in favor of Bonds and Clemens because they believe that these players would get their records even if they had not made use of doping, while they believe that Piazza would never have succeeded if he had not been helped with anything.
Doping has been said, that stacks the match, is bad for health and propose a model of successful athlete that can destroy the lives of many teenagers.
I recommend also reading another article that shows how the Hall of Fame baseball is also composed of alcoholics, cheaters, drug addicts, racists, certainly not positive figures despite their sporting success.
“There are some professions where women aren’t just underrepresented and underpaid. They are completely shut out. That’s how it is with our national pastime- baseball, particularly Major League Baseball and its minor league affiliates. As I type this, in the year 2012, there are precisely zero women playing major league baseball. There are zero women coaching major league baseball, or managing or serving as general managers. Even in the “official” minor leagues, among the thousands and thousands of players from Triple-A to “Rookie Ball”, it’s easy to count the number of female players: that number is Zero. No woman has even been signed to a major-league affiliated minor league team since 1952, when Major League Baseball banned all teams from signing female players.
It seems astonishing that in the year 2012, as we find women heading several Fortune 500 companies and holding some of the most powerful positions in government, that a major employer (major league baseball) would ban individuals from obtaining jobs because of their gender. Honestly, the ban is almost certainly unenforceable because of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned discrimination based on “sex” for employers with more than 15 employees, but it is unclear whether the ban has ever been overturned.
Regardless of whether this deplorable ban has been “officially” overturned, the effect remains the same: there are no women playing baseball in the established major leagues and their farm systems.
Women who dream of someday leading the Clubs to a world series victory must instead look to the independent leagues, where they will make less money, receive less press coverage, and have even less chance of obtaining their big league goals.
But that hasn’t stopped Eri Yoshida, who now plays for the North American Baseball League’s Na Koa Ikaika Maui, based in Maui, Hawaii. Yoshida is a 5-2, 20 year old knuckleball throwing sensation, and as of today, is the only women playing professional baseball in an otherwise all-male baseball league. After a 2009 debut in Japanese independent leagues (at age 17), she burst on the scene in 2010 with the Golden Baseball League’s Chico Outlaws. While she struggled with her control in 2010, in 2011 she altered her delivery from “sidearm” to “three-quarters” and her control significantly improved. Moving to Na Koa Ikaika Maui in 2011, she became the first woman in 13 years to win a game in an otherwise all-male league. This year, she is back with Na Koa Ikaika Maui and pitching even better: last night, she got the win, going almost 8 innings, while giving up only 2 runs and 4 hits. To learn more about Eri Yoshida, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/… ”
(By Susan Gardner per www.dailykos.com/…/-Eri-Yoshida)
