This is Arizona, USA. The San Diego Padres’ rookie league is conducting an expansion spring camp. This time, I would like to introduce how they strengthen the roots of players.
Minor league camps spend a lot of time in meetings and training. An incumbent San Diego scout said, “You can find any number of players who are good at baseball. His attitude toward baseball, character, and harmony with his teammates are more important than his baseball skills.” It is a word that gives a glimpse of what kind of values they have in forming a team.
All minor league players, staff, and employees all had time to watch the video together. In the past, I wrote controversial content on my social network service (SNS) account and showed examples of players who quit sports, players who gave inappropriate interviews, racism and sexism.
The education instructor said, “Professional players’ SNS is not their own space. where anyone can see He is free to write his thoughts, but he must also take responsibility for them. One careless article can be the fastest way to quit baseball,” he explained, emphasizing the professionalism of the players.
It also teaches how to behave outside of baseball as a professional player. A representative example is voluntarily picking up trash that fell into the dugout after a game. If the players do not move, the head coach and coach step forward and remove the trash such as water bottles. Players naturally participate in the coaching staff’s example. I also joined. It was impressive to see him set an example for the players with one action rather than a hundred words.
The method of accepting new members as part of the team was also noticeable. When I first came here, memorizing the names of the many players, coaches and staff was the most difficult task. In particular, I wasn’t used to it because I didn’t have many opportunities to train with pitchers. 메이저놀이터
One day assistant director Mike Daly asked me, “Coach Lee, can you help me? There are a lot of pitchers, so I would like to split the group and hit fungo together.” To help him, he went to the ballpark where pitchers train.
Daley introduced me to all 100 pitchers. After asking a player who can speak English or Spanish to interpret his words, he rhymed, “Coach Lee from Korea.” With the word ‘preparation’, Daley spoke English, the player spoke Spanish, and I spoke Korean, and we had time to learn each other’s languages.
After about three days, the pitchers greeted me in the Korean language I taught them and said “Coach Lee” and “Ready” whenever they saw me. A short time of about 5 minutes became an opportunity to let the players know my name and even our language. The skill of introducing new people and languages was intense and stayed in my head.
A winning team has a culture. Focusing on the process and sticking to the basics, respecting each other and adding individual character to create results. I feel once again why they emphasize work ethic here.
A variety of educational programs are needed to produce many excellent players with both skill and personality. Above all, players must think and learn for themselves. I look forward to seeing many professional players who are loved by fans, moving on the right path in Korea as well.
Lee Dong-wook, former director