I've seen Smoke go to the mound on a few occassions to remove a pitcher but not when it's time to talk to a pitcher about mechanics, pitch count, etc. He let's his pitching coach do that. Just like Torre and Cox let Mel S. and Leo. I think that is very smart. Let the guy who specializes and who actually works with the pitchers go give them advice. The most improtant thing a HC or manager can do his let his players know he is not rattled, that he has confidence in them. All of the fans that want to see a coach stomp and spit and such must have been big fans of Lou Pinella and Billy Martin. The only 2 very successful managers I can remember that werre consistently successful who behaved that way were Earl Weaver and Whitey Herzog. Most of the consistently successful guys have a calm demeanor for the most part and show complete faith and confidence in their players.
Two of the most successful managers in history had flammable personalities...John McGraw and Leo Durocher. And Billy Martin, like him or not, pretty much won wherever he went. In the 2000 NC game against Stunford, going into the 8th trailing 5-2, Turtle called an impromptu meeting on the dugout steps. He got in some faces and challenged some people. You know what the end result of that ad hoc meeting was. These are college kids, not professionals...they play the game with emotion. Sometimes they need a fire lit under their asses. A calm demeanor is one thing, Cajdav...borderline narcolepsy is another. That's what it appears we're getting from Smoke.
G_Mann, like I said their have been some who are successful. And some of the more successful ones have had a middling personality and were calm most of the time with an occasional blow up. Every guy has to be true to himself. But they also have to be a calm, steadying influence on their team and to say they are young and need to play with emotion is true only in the context of concentration. As soon as these guiys start thinking of any thing other than the task at hand they have lost. Baseball is a game where complete concentration is usually required and the ones who let their temper, nervousness, excitement, etc. get the best of them are not going to be successful. I love the way someone picks out one thing that a coach did at some point in their career and says Smoke needs to do that. I would be willing to bet he has had several "talks" with his players similar to that over the years. And by saying that Turtle had to do it is actually taking a swipe at Skip, who also had a very calm demeanor in the dugout.
We are 6th in the SEC West. We wouldn't even qualify for the SEC tourney much less the NCAA. That is pretty damn sad. Baseball America has us WAY overated.
I think that the SEC is loaded from top to bottom, with no gimmes, especially in the West. Success breeds expectations and LSU has had a ton of success in all sports in the very near past. My team is 6-6 with two series won and two lost and I am thrilled. At Baton Rouge, it is cause for cries of Alex Box is falling! Of course, if they don't get the ship righted, LSU will miss the SEC tourney, which would be a cause for alarm. Who do y'all have this weekend? Auburn is on the road at UK, which is the closest thing to a trip to Auburn in basketball. I am not sure who Bama (who leads the west by some fluke and great pitching) has for the weekend.
Not necessarily. If you ever knew anybody who played for Skip, you'd know that calm dugout demeanor was for show. He was hell on wheels with those boys. And if you'll recall, if Skip didn't like an umpire's call, he had absolutely no problem making his displeasure w/ the ump known. And he was so respected, that a lot of times, it would plant a seed in that ump's mind, and the next time a similar close call occurred, it would go Skip's way. Many's the time I'd see Skip come out of the dugout (especially around regional time) to point out to the home plate ump a flaw in the opposing pitcher's delivery or pickoff move that could be construed as a balk...and sure enough, within the next inning or two, invariably, the pitcher was called for a balk...which would then cause him to change his delivery and throw his rhythm off. Or make him gunshy about going to first. You don't see these little things w/ Smoke. I don't know the circumstances behind that famous dugout steps meeting, but I'm guessing Turtle took it upon himself to challenge the players...with Skip's blessing, of course.
i have ALWAYS thought that smoke was not a good motivator at all. and i'm not talking about his actions that we do or don't see. i'm talking about the way it reflects in the disposition of the players/team. they used to have that serious killer instinct. if a team screwed up early in the game...walked a couple, errors, etc...the tigers would absolutely punce on them and destroy their will to compete. that fire has NOT been there in a few years. i've seen it a few times, but not nearly as common as it should be. they seem very complacent and it drives me nuts.
Ok, I had a MAJOR Blonde moment. I have no idea what LSU is ranked, but I doubt it is 8th. I looked at that poll again and realized that is last weeks poll. For some reason, this weeks isn't on their site yet.
