Lately, George Horton’s postgame press conferences have taken the form of therapy sessions.
A reporter will ask a question about the team’s focus, and the frustrated coach will launch into a two-minute speech about mental toughness, noise in the dugout, how he can challenge the team, and even Oregon’s ability to bunt in key situations.
The answers can be so long-winded that they become difficult to follow. It doesn’t make the job of a reporter any easier, but you can hardly blame Horton for letting his frustrations out.
The inconsistencies of Oregon’s 2011 season are enough to drive just about anyone into real-life therapy.
It is easy to forget, now, that this was a team expected to travel deep into the playoffs. Some even began to dream of a run at the College World Series in Omaha. The pitching staff was dynamite, the hitters young and talented and the roster well-balanced with veterans and fresh faces.
And, of course, the team had one of the nation’s best coaches in Horton. Two full seasons after the program was resurrected, it looked as if Oregon was finally ready to break out.
Now, here they are, sitting one game above .500 with a 5-13 Pac-10 record. Any chance at a playoff berth was all but eliminated with last weekend’s sweep at the hands of UCLA, and everyone from Horton to the last man on the bench is left to wonder what went wrong.
It wasn’t coaching. Let’s just get that out of the way right now. Managers are particularly vulnerable in baseball because, when things go wrong, there are very few tangible adjustments they can make. Basketball coaches can tweak their offensive and defensive styles; football coaches can bench the starting quarterback or blitz the living daylights out of an opposing team.@@They will not gain another yard. We will BLITZ ALL NIGHT!@@
Baseball managers? They are left to stew in the dugout as things go awry, with nothing but a lineup card and overly complex hand signs at their disposal. Far fewer tactical adjustments can be made in the midst of a baseball game, and each game is so full of individual battles that a “rah rah” speech has minimal effect on team psyche.
So you can see why Horton is upset and why he rattles off the team’s problems like a grocery store list as the losses pile up.
He has literally tried everything. He yelled at his team after a lackluster practice last week. A few weeks back, he told them to relax and approach the game like they did when they were children. This past weekend, he even poked them with subtle challenges like, “We’ve never come from behind when its past the sixth inning. Let’s do it now.”
None of it worked. This is not an indictment of Horton, but rather an indication of a harsh truth:
This team simply isn’t very good.
Not yet, anyway. The talent is there, and we’ve seen promising glimpses from young guys like Stefan Sabol, Ryon Healy, and J.J. Altobelli. Amidst all of the turmoil, the pitching staff still ranks third in the conference with a 2.86 collective ERA. @@http://www.pac-10.org/portals/7/images/baseball/stats/2010-11/HTML/lgteams.htm@@
Horton has said that he doesn’t like the “competitive personality” of the team, and blames himself, in part, for that. It may be true that this team lacks mental fortitude, and he certainly has a better viewpoint than I do.
Yet, as I’ve watched Oregon all year, I’ve simply seen a team that wasn’t quite ready to fulfill its massive preseason aspirations. No one player or coach is at fault. This season can be effectively summed up as a perfect storm of unrealistic expectations, the perils of youth, and small mistakes adding up.
Things won’t get any easier this year, but the future is still bright. At some point, fans will see the Oregon baseball team they all hoped for.
Until then, the postgame therapy sessions will likely continue.
Malee: Youth, not Horton, source of Oregon baseball’s pain
Daily Emerald
May 9, 2011
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