The Final Curtain

Well, The XXIX Olympiad is finally over. It was one of the greatest Olympic Games ever. From the Opening Ceremonies to the final USA Gold these Olympics were nothing short of spectacular. Michael Phelps’s Gold rush and the Chinese athletic dominance are but some of the memorable moments. My schedule was very hectic during the games: preparing for the next opponent, strategizing with my manager Jim Lefebvre, and debriefing our games with our Chinese staff. We started off with 3 day games in a row and that was very taxing, not to mention the double overtime and the rain postponed games really threw a wrench into our plans.

It is hard to believe that after spending seven months with each other, day by day, I may never see any of them again. It was a very sobering thought as we said our goodbyes. After an emotional and tearfilled goodbye with the China Baseball Team it was now time to take a break and enjoy my time with my family. It will go down as one of the greatest experiences in my life.

Now that I have had time to reflect I will break down our performances at the Olympics. I have broken it down into three categories and they will follow in order after this post.
On a scale of one to ten, I would consider our performances a perfect ten. Let me explain.

SKILL LEVEL

If you were to judge our record you would think that I had eaten some exotic mushrooms and I was seeing purple lizards on the wall. However, you cannot look at things the way we in America normally break games down. Let me set your expectation level first. This team should not and could not compete on any advanced level of baseball. Baseball in China is a very low level priority sport, period. We do not have any prospects to speak of, just a couple of token players in the minor leagues that teams can say that they have a Chinese player on their roster. Only one of those players may eventually get out of A Ball. The Major League Scouting Bureau (MLSB) has scouted this team for the last five years. I was not involved during that time so I can only relay information given to me by the MLSB. This team originally was at a LOW LEVEL HIGH SCHOOL JUNIOR VARSITY SKILLS LEVEL. They couldn’t hit, run, catch and pitch at the level we grow up seeing at our high schools. I had two pitchers on the final Olympic roster that would have been cut by our local high schools. It was said to me that we couldn’t catch a routine pop up; this I did witness with extreme astonishment. Our pitchers were afraid to throw the ball over the plate for fear that it would be hit out of the park…..and they were. When you throw 77-82 MPH I can understand their fear. Now that you understand where it is from which we started, you might be able to glimpse my assessment of a perfect ten.

ARIZONA PERFORMANCES

When I first came on the scene and I met the pitching staff for the first time in China, I was both surprised and despondent. Surprised at the size of some of the pitchers and despondent at their skill level; I knew it was going to be a major project. I had lefthanders who didn’t know how to make the ball move; they threw only straight 80MPH fastballs. I had to teach them how to make the ball move, how to throw different pitches and when and why to throw them. I was basically doing what I do at Line Drives only I’m not working with 13-20 year olds I was working with 25-30 year olds. Our first four games in the Arizona league were very discouraging and only a portent of what could come. We were beaten 11-1, 10-0, 11-2, and 6-4 in our first four games. It was ugly as the combination of poor fielding, poor hitting and poor pitching led to those scores. As the season progressed our pitching progressed we were starting to understand the nuances of pitching and pitching with their level of pitches. We then went on a string of wins and you would think that we had one the World Series after each one. We had finished the season with a 22-9 record, the same season in which we had won three games the previous year. Our team ERA went from 11.7 in the fall to finish 3.54 during the Spring/Summer season. We had now started to believe.

OLYMPIC PERFORMANCES

We felt we were prepared and ready to take on the Canada team. If we could play baseball at the same level we did in Arizona we would be able to stay close to them and then maybe sneak one out. I had the opportunity to view some scouting reports and I also was able to see them play so I had a pretty good idea of how to attack their lineup. We did exactly what we had prepared for the first three innings. It was 0-0 in the fourth when things got ugly. A three run home run deflated us (it was a MONSTER BLAST) and it was downhill from there. I was very surprised at how the bullpen performed all tournament. Our bullpen was our strength and if our starters could get the ball to them late in the game I felt good about our chances. I didn’t take in to consideration how nervous they would be. They significantly underachieved but yet we still competed in most of the games. As the games progressed and the nerves somewhat subsided, we played good baseball. We took the eventual Gold Medal Korean team to the limit and lost a close game 1-0 in 11 innings. Our next game we put together a miraculous comeback in 2 overtimes (12 innings) and beat China’s biggest rival, Chinese Taipei, 8-7. In our next game we lost a close game 6-4 with the bases loaded and a deep drive to right center that was caught 10 feet in front of the wall. We then took on the “mighty” USA baseball team in a dogfight until the 5th inning. USA had a 1-0 lead before the game was broken open. The next two games were the worst performances we had all year. We lost 10-0 and 17-1 to Japan and Cuba respectively. From the 5th inning of the USA game to the end of our last game I have never seen one man have such a huge impact on a team. Our catcher, Wang Wei, had severely hurt his leg in a clean, hard collision at home plate. He would never see action again. He was the field general for our team and had the confidence from our pitchers on how to call a game. Between the loss of their leader and the emotions of the “fight”, there was nothing left in the tank from our team. We fell haplessly to our next opponents. For a short time, China was the talk of the baseball community and we actually had caused concerns for our opponents. After the Korea suspended game and our victory over Taipei, we faced the number one pitcher from each team. When we resumed the suspended game we faced their opening day starter, we faced the Netherlands best pitcher, USA’s game one starter and Japan’s game one starter. Not too bad for the “Bad News Pandas”
Members of MLB and USA baseball had commented that this team had one of the biggest turnarounds that they had ever seen. We went from being a joke to a team that could beat them if taken lightly. There were serious concerns that we could beat them, and we nearly accomplished that. So, in light of the way we performed and the concerns that we had caused, I can go on record as saying that our performance in the XXIX Olympiad was a 10. We certainly gained the respect of the International baseball community.

"And That's All She Wrote"

Well the Olympics are officially over for the China Baseball team. We lost to a Major League team today, Cuba: 17-1. They are impressive! Every hitter that walked up there reminded me of Manny Ramirez. Great athletic and strong bodies, great batting stances and even more impressive swings. They had 21 hits off of our pitchers and 20 of them were over the middle of the plate. I told our pitchers before the game that we have to live on the corners. If you miss, go right back to the corners. Never feel the urge to just throw it over for a strike. We will take or chances on them swinging at our pitches or we walk them.

I have never seen so many balls hit hard even though they were down the middle. A lot of times the hitter gets anxious to hit a home run and pulls off of the ball and hits a pop up or a ground ball. Not today, it was literally batting practice. Every time but one when we made a good pitch we got them out. Good pitches always gets good hitters out. A mantra that I have been preaching to the boys since my insertion as pitching coach. For most of the year and most of the Olympics they took hold of that mantra and executed their pitches.

I am extremely proud of what our boys did in the Olympics. We played good hard baseball and ended up winning one game and scaring two and a half teams of defeat.

I will recap our accomplishments and put them into perspective in a future post but now I am going to the museum. My wife asked me to take her and Eve to the museum. See the photo below to view my reaction.

Dog Day Afternoon

It was a tough day for the Chinese baseball team the day following the USA game. There were a lot of spent emotions left on the field after that game. It was difficult to sleep that night. We were not prepared to play a game today. I have never seen us so flat and unemotional. there really is not a whole lot to say about the game other than we did not come to play. We mustered only 2 hits for the game and our pitchers left too many balls over the plate that were well hit. I still had many communication issues with my young catcher as I tried to take command of calling the game. Still only about a 50% success rate on him calling the right pitch. We lost 10-0 in seven innings and never threatened the whole game. Their pitcher was very impressive as he moved the ball around very well and made us chase bad pitches, which we obliged. Their hitters did not impress me even though the score was impressive. They did what they had to do to get the barrel on the ball but it was not much of a task as out starter was throwing 76-79 MPH. Yes that was his fastball. If you have any velocity on your fastball you could pitch them inside quite easily. They don't have much power, just guys who make contact and have good speed. We would have had a bettter match up for them but we had to use our pitcher for the Korea rain game. The game got out of hand early so we pitched our second tier pitchers to make sure they got to play in the Olympics.
I have never seen our team play as poorly as I did today. There may have been many contributing factors: We lost our leader, catcher Wang Wei, to a knee injury that will require surgery, We lost our close who has been suspended for 4 games due to hitting the batter in the head the previous night and one of our starting pitchers hurt his ankle in the Chinese Taipei game and could not perform. The biggest loss by far was our catcher. He was the stanilizing force for our pitching staff and did a wonderful job calling the game. Let's hope the next game against Cuba brings us better fortune.

Message to Anonymous (Is that Greek?)

Thank you for responding to one of the posts of my blog. It is very brave of you to list your real name. Is that your first or last name? In China the first name is last and last is first. Or, it could be that you just go by a single name such as Madonna, Prince, Ichiro, ...etc.
I will gladly try and help you understand baseball, I thought I was pretty clear in my post of how the game is to be played.
In your reply to the post (in bold) you mentioned:

"Steve, although the hits to your catchers were hard and the second one may have been a little over the top, that is part of the game. although you may not teach it to your young athletes it is how the game is played at this level. and if your team was not ready to compete at this level of play you should not have competed."

Maybe this will help shine light on the Olympic situation. I made reference to this in my first post "A bad day at the office. We are not very good, the kids experience level of baseball is about High School Jr. Varsity level. They play only 30 games a year in a very poor baseball league. We did not win any qualifiers to be able to play in the Olympics. We would have lost if we did. We were allowed to compete in the Olympics for the simple fact that their country was hosting the Olympics. It is a courtesy that is extended to all of the hosting countries of the Olympics. For example, when they were in Athens, they didn't have to qualify and the next Olympics in London, they won't have to qualify either. Do you see how that works? That is why when I said in my "Oh...." post that they don't understand that part of the game , the dark side, it meant that they wouldn't know when, how, or why to hit someone in that instance. Aren't you curious why our catcher didn't get up and exact his revenge? It is because he didn't know how to act, the cheap shot was foreign to him. So, again you made mention to that is how the game is played, I remind you again to reread the post. If this was the real "game" Schierholtz would have had to fend off around 25 players and he would have to do this for about 2 years. If the umpires cannot handle the situation, the players will conduct their own court with their own rules to get their justice. That is not good baseball it is bad baseball at any level.

"your statements lead me to believe that you teach your players to watch where the ball is when tagging???? cuz thats what your telling me.... as a college athlete i have always been taught to not watch the ball while attempting to steal/tag up. By saying that Schierholtz was wrong to hit your catcher is wrong. your catcher was 1. blocking the plate and 2 the ball was not cut off but relayed. "

Huh? Bong resin kicking in? It would be easier to reply when the sentences reflect more concise content and intent. What are you doing again? Tagging up and watching the ball? I won't waste any more time trying to decipher your incoherent remarks on this one.
In reference to your 2 points:
1. Blocking the plate. Blocking the plate would mean that the catcher would be in between the runner and home plate thus blocking access to the plate. He would therefore have to straddle the third base line and move toward the foul side to stop the runner from sliding in "the back door" That means that he would slide away from the catcher, avoiding him, in hopes of catching a finger on the back side of the plate. Unfortunately that does not exist in this situation. In an article in the USA TODAY there is an Olympic picture gallery on the same page of their article on this game. It shows that our catcher's left foot was a foot inside
the foul line in fair territory. Exactly where it should be when he won't be involved in the play, conceding that the runner will score. Another picture on the NBC site has your favorite player, Schierholtz, leaving the path home to make a left turn toward our catcher and his body is diagonal to the horizon when he made contact. Maybe he was trying to slide on the inside of the plate instead of the back side of the plate away from a possible tag. Sure sound like he's avoiding a tag there. So if you were to go to another game look at the foul line. When they meet the plate you will see that there is about 90% of the plate exposed. Look a foot to the inside of the baseline and you will see that the runner has 100% of the plate. In fact even better, when you are playing baseball on your playstation, switch to an aerial view and you can see the line intersect the plate better. So don't tell me or anyone else on this blog that he was blocking the plate. You lose Mattlock.
Here are couple of questions for you:
1. If you were truly trying to retaliate who would you choose as your target?
a. Matt Laporta who is currently hitting .067 and struggling badly?
b. The perpatrator of the whole incident Nate Schierholtz. Nate was due up the next inning and there would be an opportunity to exact our revenge.
(Here's a hint b.) With the score still close in hand why would we put someone on base especially with an 0-2 count on a struggling hitter?

2. How many catchers that you know will block the plate without the ball? (Here's a hint...0.) Don't let your patriotism cloud your judgement. The ball was cutoff at the pitchers mound while your boy could moonwalk and sing Karaoke all the way home.

"you made yourself and your team look bad when Laporta was hit. his colision was perfectly legal as was shown when he was not ejected."

Apparently I went too fast as I mentioned exactly that in my post. Go to the "Oh what a night" post and this time read more slowly. I know that can be confusing if you try and speed read.

"However when your nobody of a pitcher decided to thrown at him ,at his head no less, that was wrong."

Only nobody I see is you. He's out there competing in the Olympics while your wiping the ketchup off of the side of your mouth spewing inane comments. I will state again, they don't know what retaliation is, we don't teach them any part of the "dark side" of baseball. They are not ready for that. It is a large enough challenge just to get them to throw a quality strike let alone teach them how to throw a ball on purpose.

"You failed to mention in either of your posts that this clear act of retaliation put Matt LaPorta (the key player in the trade that sent CC Sabathia to the Brewers) in the hospital with a concussion"

I wasn't aware at the time of the post that he was in the hospital or that he had a concussion. Apparently you must have insider information. Yes that was very tragic and I am very relieved that he is not injured. Matt is a great ball player and nobody wants to see him get hurt. He is a class act, bar none. After the game he heard that our catcher had to be escorted out of the game. He is actually undergoing surgery today to repair a torn ligament and his career will in all likelihood be over. Matt sent over a signed bat and batting gloves with a personal note to Wang Wei our catcher. Now that is baseball! It is truly irrelevant who the batter is, whether he is a superstar like Laporta or you, no one should ever get hit in the head.

"Also it did not appear that you were too disappointed with your pitcher as you appeared to congratulate him on your way to the clubhouse."

Disappointment wasn't even on my mind at the time. Disappointed? Boy you are high. When he came to the dugout all I wanted to do was find out what happened. I was calling pitches and I called for a curve ball. Why did he throw a fastball? the next thing on my agenda was damage control. This kid is clearly shaken up having to pitch in the Olympics. He is our best reliever and we need him to perform at the level he is capable of. I was trying to calm him down and keep him from turning into Steve Blass or more recently Rick Ankiel. He didn't understand why he had to leave the game. He kept saying he didn't try to hit him in his broken English. I tried to explain to him why he was taken out and it didn't make sense to him. AS a coach you can't always beat the kid with a rod. Not everybody kicks the dog for not bringing the stick back fast enough like you do. The kid was nervous, it was a very unnerving game. The USA delegates were nervous and so were the Chinese. It was a tense game. Let me see if I can help you relate.
It's like when you are playing in an Internet Playstation baseball tournament and it is a close game. You accidentally push the wrong button and you miss the ball. Or when it is your time to make a play and your thumb slips off of the joystick, causing you to err. Your mind wanted your body to do something but your body did something entirely different. Only in this case it was REAL. It's called nervousness and the moisture on your hand while on the joystick is sweat, a natural secretion of the body when there is unnatural stress involved.

the olympics are supposed to put nation vs nation. the chinese should have hired a national to coach their team and not two washed up nobodys from Arizona. "

Are you coherent? So you're telling me that our table tennis coach and our gymnastics coach and all other foreign coaches should quit the USA team and go back to their native land? Oh that's just beautiful, thank you for that one.
It sure is nice to be given recognition, thank you. It feels good to be washed up nobodies like Jim and I who collectively made 2 ALL STAR teams, won the rookie of the year, won the American League ERA title, managed 3 Major League teams and were on 6 World Series teams. It sure is good to be washed up nobodies. As they say, it is much better to be a "has been" than a "never was."