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“Hey, Jochen, got a few minutes?”
I step off the mound as our manager comes out to talk to me during practice. It’s hot, steaming actually, and I am grateful for the opportunity to breathe for a minute. Late July in Houston’s really not something my body’s used to yet ... and to think, I thought southern Indiana was humid!
“Sure,” I say, as we walk toward the dugout. “Is there anything I need to be doing?”
“It’s not that at all,” he says, taking a second to spit his tobacco juice into a nearby spitoon. “I’ve been talking to everybody. We have to stay focused on getting better, not on whether we’re winning or losing.”
“Haven’t I been doing that?” I ask, confused. That’s all I’ve been doing, is trying to get better.
“You’re working hard, we all see it, kid,” he says, grabbing the ball out of my hand and spinning it. “But the whole clubhouse has been playing like we’re under a storm cloud, and I want to see you guys out there working on your skills but having some fun too. It’s a long year, and it hasn’t much gone our way. But you learn more from your losses than you do from your wins.”
“We’re learning a lot then,” I laugh ... and then I worry I said too much, relaxing only when he laughs back.
“That’s what I’m saying, Joke, we’re losing so we clench up and get pissed off which can be good. But it’s starting to create a bad training atmosphere. You’re wanting to make the bigs, and you have a great chance of doing it. But you have to take the rough patches like you do the good streaks, and learn from them. But at the same time you have to learn to let them go too.”
I nod my head, it makes a lot of sense. “I’ll work with the other young guys and see that we take ourselves less seriously,” I say.
“Good, good. Now about that splitter of yours,” he says, as he tosses the ball I was holding into the air. “I think it’s a good idea that you let that one go, son, it’s not really working for you ... but that slider and curve you’ve got have real potential. I’d like to see you working on those the rest of the season with your coaches, see if we can get those up to major league level between now and the end of the offseason.”
“I can do that, sir,” I grin. “Whatever it takes!”
“That’s the spirit. Go on and get back out there, kid, I’ve gotta go catch some of the vets and give them the same spiel.”
And that’s the end of that. He walks off, and I’m left thinking about the end of the season coming up like a freight train. It’ll be good to get through it and focus, I tell myself. Then we’ll see what I can really become. I’ve had a rough month, a lot of it coming from the long breaks betweeen outings because of our mid-month break. But I feel like I’m getting back into my groove. We’re so far out of the Texas League race, it’s time I take all that advice in stride and work on what’s in my control.
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