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Hall of Fame baseball writer Hal McCoy has retired from the Dayton Daily News after covering the Cincinnati Reds for 37 years. Hal's blog, though, will continue to be a must-read for Reds fans. He'll share his thoughts on the team this season and will file updates from Great American Ball Park. You also can catch Hal in print every Sunday in his popular Ask Hal columnHome > Blogs > The Real McCoy | Cincinnati Reds baseball news > Archives > 2008 > August > 03
Sunday, August 3, 2008
‘Players Only’ meeting a dud
A players-only meeting a couple of hours before the game certainly wasn’t to discuss how best to divide playoff money shares.
The Cincinnati Reds are going nowhere but to golf courses, fishing ponds and hunting fields when the regular season ends.
But give them an ‘A’ for at least trying to talk out their troubles, an in-house clear-the-air chat that came after they lost two straight to the Washington Nationals, who had lost nine straight.
Didn’t work. The Reds were as awful as usual and lost their third straight to the Nationals, 4-2, and have lost eight of their last nine.
More gore? Over their last 12 games against below .500 teams they are 3-9. They’ve had losing records in 21 of their last 24 trips. They are 10 games under .500 for the first time this season. They are a season-worst 16 games out of first place.
In short, they are deader than Abner Doubleday.
Manager Dusty Baker was correct when he said what is discussed must be transferred to the playing field.
It wasn’t on this day.
The Nationals scored four runs in the first, a couple of extra scoring when Adam Dunn permitted a base hit to skip past him to the wall. And Brandon Phillips was picked off second base with the team four runs down with one out and two on. Later he hit into a double play with two on and none out.
Said Dunn, “It wasn’t so much a meeting as an open forum. And everybody had in-put. Things not needed to be accomplished got accomplished. It isn’t like we’re not playing hard. We’re playing hard but just not getting it done. Trying hard doesn’t get it done, apparently. It’s all about production and we’re not doing it.
“We’re beating ourselves,” added Dunn. “They’re making every single play in the field and we’re making none. Like today. First inning. The ball is hit at me and I should at least knock it down and I can’t even do that.”
And the meeting/open forum?
Baker is not big on meetings, but gave his permission.
“As long as they ask permission, which they did, it’s fine with me,” said Baker. “We used to do that in LA, except we didn’t ask. We just kicked Tommy Lasorda out.
“Can’t tell you who, but a couple of ‘em came in and asked if it was OK and I said yes,” Baker said.
Baker, though, says not much happens after these meetings.
“I think we overmeet as a society,” said Baker. “My opinion. You can talk, but you have to follow through in your talking and put it into action. I’ve done motivational speaking and the first thing I tell them is, ‘I can only motivate you for a little while. Motivation comes from within, but one thing I can do is light your pilot light so it burns inside you.’”
Baker said former San Francisco manager Roger Craig once told him, “Don’t let them have a Players Only meeting because it looks as if you’ve lost the team. I love Roger Craig, but I never believed that. Thanks for the advice. If you feel secure in yourself, you don’t have to worry about that.”
Baker agrees that if a manager says no to a Players Only meeting, then the manager feels threatened.
“I had a meeting Friday after Ken Griffey Jr. was traded,” said Baker. “After my meetings, I always ask if anybody has anything to say and invariably nobody does. I hope that’s not the case in the players meeting - I hope they all have something to say.
“We have so many young guys on our team and they need to hear from some of the older players - like I used to hear from Hank Aaron and like when I was with the Dodgers they used to hear from Davy Lopes, Reggie Smith and me,” Baker said.
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