NEW YORK _ It can be gut-wrenching to witness what a toll pennant-race pressure takes on a manager, particularly one who has never been through it before. Just last week on an off day before the season's final road trip, Rocco Baldelli, clearly reeling from the burden of leading a team two days from clinching, succumbed to the strain by ...
Falling asleep. On a park bench. In Detroit.
"Yeah, he's about as chill as it gets," reliever Trevor May said.
Chill is good, Twins players say. Chill is calming. Chill is restorative. But more than that; chill is empowering and confidence-building.
"Players play their best when they're comfortable and confident. And he made it clear on Day 1 that you were going to be welcome here if you're on this team," May said. "Just do what you do when you're here, and you'll be fine."
Baldelli has created a pervasive aura of trust in his team, players say, a culture that has only a couple of tenets: Give your best during each day's nine innings, and take responsibility for whatever works best to prepare for them. The specifics are up to the individual, and the restrictions beyond that are minimal.
"He's done a very good job of letting this be the players' clubhouse. He believes you can't try to manage a clubhouse from above, you have to let the players do that," said Derek Shelton, Baldelli's bench coach and second-in-semi-command. "If something happens, we'd deal with it as a staff, but we're big believers in letting people be themselves."
Including the manager, at 38 the youngest and perhaps most mellow in the majors, a man who talks about the "love inside that clubhouse" and describes his relationships with players as "beautiful." Not exactly the archetype of a vein-popping screamer who demands things his way.
"I don't think I've ever seen him raise his voice," veteran second baseman Jonathan Schoop said with a shrug. "Maybe he gets mad on the inside."
Yeah, he is probably a cauldron of stress under there. Baldelli once spent an off day sitting on a rock, listening to music, and watching the workaday world pass by. He is motivated by a couple of things, notably exceptional roasted coffee _ he will drive a considerable distance, friends say, to drink his favorites _ good sushi for dinner, and getting extra sleep.
Next time you're in a coffee shop _ a small local roaster, not one of the big chains _ take a good look at the lanky bald guy in sneakers and a T-shirt, peering into his laptop in the corner. It just may be the leading candidate for American League Manager of the Year.
"There's something he loves about coffee shops," Shelton said. "They fit his style."
Well, in a decidedly decaffeinated way, perhaps.
"The way he treats people is definitely not how I was treated as a player," said Jeremy Hefner, the Twins assistant pitching coach whose own career as a major league pitcher ended just five years ago. "It was always, 'You need to do this and this and this, or you're going to be out of here.' And here, it's not like that. Giving guys space to grow and even space to fail is important."
One Twins official pointed to the blossoming of Eddie Rosario and Miguel Sano, two of cornerstones of the lineup and two of the biggest personalities in their clubhouse, as a consequence of Baldelli's trust. Coming up through the minors, they encountered plenty of conflict as they chafed at restrictions, dress codes and appointments placed on them. Removing the supervision _ relaxing daily practice requirements and arrival-time deadlines, for instance _ helped them feel trusted.
"A lot of rules," Rosario said. "Not so many now. Rocco wants you to be yourself."
