Friday, January 15, 2010

It just doesn't work that way


Chuck Finder of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that the Pirates have hired Dr. Bernie Holliday who is a "mental-conditioning coordinator".

Holliday said that he would bring teaching techniques such as workshops, simulations, on-field exercise, videos and MP3 audios personalized to each player, attention-control technology and biofeedback analysis. Further the techniques cover a variety of mental skill sets from adaptation to analysis, from energy management to establishment of a purpose, from preparation to perseverance, from self-awareness to self-regulation.

Oh brother! Who signed off on this?!

Hello Pirates! It's just little ole' me but this is how you build a winning team and just off the top of my head:

1. Get good players.
2. Get a good manager.
3. Teach* the players hitting.
4. Teach them fielding.
5. Teach them throwing.
6. Teach them baserunning.
7. Demand that the players play hard.
8. Probably other stuff too.

There are no shortcuts!

You can't cut payroll drastically and them throw a little money at a guy like this and hope it will all even out.

No way, no how.

I don't care what this guy told you in that PowerPoint presentation.

DO. NOT. CARE.

*By teach, I mean refine their already considerable skills.

4 comments:

John Bateman said...

I was suprised that the Pirates signed Holliday but it was not the right one.

Contrary Guy said...

Good 1!

TheRealDFG said...

The Pirates gave up on their team 15 years ago. Why start to care now? And for that matter, why hire a snake oil salesman to get the job done.

I agree with you on this one. They should start recruiting local little leagues. At least fundamentals will be fresh on their minds.

Contrary Guy said...

And they have fans why?