I like where Beltrans head is at: Beltran Fights Off Slumps With a Bat at His Bedside By PETER KERASOTIS 18 March 2014 NYTimes Feed Copyright 2014. The New York Times Company. All Rights Reserved. BRADENTON, Fla. — There are people who keep a baseball bat next to their beds to fend off potential intruders. Carlos Beltran does so to fend off bad thoughts that have invaded his mind. The thoughts that will follow him home from the ballpark, lying dormant while he is with his family. “When I’m home, I can put a smile on my face and act like nothing’s wrong,” he said. “But then at night, when I’m in bed, everything comes to my head: ‘Man, I was horrible today. How come I’m in this slump? Why am I hitting .220 this month? What’s wrong?’ “No matter how many years you’re in baseball, how much success you have, when you hit a bump, you worry.” When that happens, when those worrisome thoughts settle into his synapses, Beltran will reach over the side of his bed and find his baseball bat. “I’ll just feel my grip, work my grip, thinking, thinking,” said Beltran, who has also been known to hold a new bat close to his ear, listening to its tone. “Sometimes, a thought will come to me, an answer.” Sometimes not. So in the quiet darkness, with troubling thoughts in his head and baseball bat in hand, Beltran will slip out of bed and stand off to the side. “I’ll get in my stance,” he said. “I’ll feel my grip, feel my stance.” As he looked up from his locker at the Yankees’ spring training complex in Tampa, Fla., Beltran’s eyes narrowed. “This is my life,” he said. “You’ve got to care.” That he cares, sometimes too much, is something Beltran has had to learn to manage. He is in his second stint in New York, having signed a three-year, $45 million contract with the Yankees this off-season. In 2005, it was the Mets he signed with, spending seven years in Queens and receiving an education in big-market baseball. “I learned that you have to be strong mentally,” he said. “Don’t worry about what people say about you, what you hear on TV, read in the newspaper. I came from a small-market team, the Kansas City Royals, so that first year in New York was hard for me. I was too nice. I tried to accommodate everybody. I forgot about the reason I was brought to New York — to play baseball. Instead, I tried to please people.” Including, he said, the news media. “If somebody wanted to talk to me, I would talk to them, even if it meant cutting time off my job,” he said. “My second year, I knew I needed to focus on baseball. Not that I would disrespect anybody. But do my work first.” Beltran, who will turn 37 on April 24, finds himself passing those lessons on to others, particularly the Latin players in the clubhouse. Mostly, he shares his the knowledge he has gained in 15 years in the majors. It is not only a part of his caring nature to do so, it is also something he enjoys doing. The Yankees are glad he does. “I think it’s really important that he does that,” Manager Joe Girardi said. “He shares a lot of experiences, what it’s taken and what he had to do as a young Latin player coming to our country to play. But he also sits around and talks to the veterans, too. This is not a guy who is only able to speak to young kids. He’s going to talk to everyone. He’s got a ton of baseball knowledge.” Girardi and the Yankees are hoping, too, that Beltran will continue to be a great player — a right fielder who puts up solid regular-season numbers and comes through in the postseason. The Yankees did not have that kind of consistent production with Ichiro Suzuki last season, when they missed the postseason for the second time since 1995. They did not have it with Nick Swisher, whom they let leave as a free agent after the 2012 season. Swisher would perform well in the regular season, but would drop off in the postseason. In 158 postseason at-bats, Swisher hit .165. Beltran, a career .283 hitter, has a .333 postseason batting average in 180 at-bats, including 16 home runs in 51 games. Beltran’s thoughts about that, about his successes, are different from the thoughts that visit him at night when he is struggling. He tries not to ruminate on what has made him a clutch hitter. Like so many athletes, Beltran is not one to dissect success. Only failure. “When it’s the postseason, when there’s a lot of pressure, I try not to think too much,” he said, “because that’s when you try to do too much. I just try to be me.” Only when he is not himself does he search for answers. And for his baseball bat. INSIDE PITCH The Yankees’ road game against Pittsburgh was rained out Monday. Hiroki Kuroda was scheduled to throw 75 pitches in the game. Instead, he threw five innings and 75 pitches in a simulated game at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. His catcher was Brian MCCann. He did not face any batters. ... Jacoby Ellsbury was scheduled to hit in a batting cage, and Joe Girardi said he thought Ellsbury could play Tuesday against Boston, his former team. Ellsbury is nursing a tight calf. Brendan Ryan, rehabilitating a lower back strain, took infield and hit live batting practice.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 14:17:35 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015