The Pittsburgh Press from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 63

D3 The Pittsburgh Press Sunday, January 19, 1986 L1Z.1 IwlN liiii asg II a a J. JBL M. A i 11111111 HM'lfy'H wwf iii.i!i.,'uiinn!lNiiWIM,ii,il Rich SteinhauserThe Pittsburgh Press Picture this: Pirates winning through technology nir-t fWathlnn rhamnion Bill pics decathlon champion Bill By Bob Hertzel mmm i fa "4 IP I Mi i 1 i .41 7 Mf 'W Toomey and he maintains that he can build an athlete out of even a broken-down sportswriter. "We will have drills to improve quickness, to improve the first step," Thrift said. "There will be specialized drills for each individual Ideally, every player will have a specific program designed for his body type and his specialized baseball needs." That means catchers and shortstops will not mix.

Outfielder R.J. Reynolds, for example, has been plagued by hamstring pulls throughout his career, so his exercise program will address that problem. "What I've found is that players work diligently on conditioning to get to the major leagues," Thrift said. "Then, when they reach that plateau, they stop doing what got them here. They start pacing themselves.

"It stays like that until they get to the twilight of their careers and then they become born-again believers in conditioning." To back up that observation, Thrift pointed to Rick Reuschel, the Pirates pitcher who was last year's Comeback Player of the Year, and Carlton Fisk, 37, who emerged as a home run-hitting star in the American League. "I realize I can't get this done overnight, that major-league players have habits of their own and they all won't accept this," Thrift said. Thrift is planning to take matters far beyond the playing field and the skills required to excel upon it He has instituted public relations training for his players and plans to carry them to even greater extremes, offering instruction in financial planning, tax laws and public speaking for players and wives. This, too, comes out of research at the baseball academy, of which he was the lone director until its demise, some say from pressures of traditional baseball men in the Kansas City organization. "We think it's important to take the time to instruct the players in areas beneficial to them off the field," Thrift said.

"We'll also have classes on drugs and how they can affect a player's performance. The classes on public speaking are important because we are in the entertainment business. It just makes for a better person." As for the finances, Thrift said mismanagement can affect a young player's performance. Financial counseling also will allow players to have an intelligent say when discussing business matters with their agents. "It's all part of the confidence fht Pittsburgh Press Call it "2001: A Baseball Odyssey." Forget Jim Leyland as manager.

Hire Stanley Kubrick to direct this show. Pirates baseball is becoming hightech baseball. Once they talked about hitting, throwing, catching and running. Forget it Went out with the St. Louis Browns.

I Come spring training, the Pirates are going to be into visualization, kinetic training, financial planning and public speaking. It's all part of the package being designed by Syd Thrift, who is rapidly becoming the Rod Serling of major-league general managers, i Thrift was the director of baseball's grandest experiment, the baseball academy run in the early 1970s by the Kansas City Royals. The idea was to create ballplayers out of raw athletes and, while doing so, develop means to improve the breed. The academy was ridiculed by traditional baseball people, men who $ould not understand what relation science had to the game that bad Survived a civil war, two world wars 2nd Gen. Spike Eckert as tgmmissioner.

mi But Thrift brings academia with Mm. He has lofty ideas built out of hours of think-tank sessions and already has begun springing them upon the Pirates. To understand where Thrift is Heading, begin on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, in the coastal town of Laguna Nigel, a tiny city that somehow has become Pirates country. It the home of former General Manager Joe Brown, left fielder Steve Kemp and Dr. William Harrison.

Harrison is an optometrist who Blayed college baseball at Cal-Berkeley with Andy Messersmith jind against Tom Seaver. He became intrigued with Ted Williams' eyesight and how it helped make him a superior hitter. ie From that seed grew what has become almost a new science visualization. "A lot of people think it's for tutters, but it's not," Thrift said. "It's everyone.

Quarterbacks can use Golfers. It improves the performance of your visual system." "There are inaccuracies in the $ay we see things," Harrison explained. "Take 10 professional and give them a 10-foot putt. They'll all see it differently. Some Vjrill see it as a 9V4-foot putt, others as a lOtt-foot putt." The idea is to eliminate the inac-.

(curacies and increase concentration. "We are trying to improve what you see," Thrift said. "You can look a baseball and see it as part of a Carol MorionThe Pittsburgh Press Pirates General Manager Syd Thrift thinks there's more to baseball than playing the game from those who already are doing well. It would be very hard to convince Don Mattingly that he isn't concentrating to his fullest potential. "Players seem to want to accept it," Harrison said.

"Rarely did I have to go to a player in the academy. They all initiated the program themselves." Visualization is just one aspect of the program Thrift is trying to initiate with the Pirates, albeit one of the more radical. He also envisions a conditioning program that would be revolutionary to a game that still has pitchers running foul line to foul line, just as they did a hundred years ago. He has engaged Jim Toomey to help devise a conditioning program. don't wear the lens when I play.

It seems that when I was hit, my cornea was caved in. The lens will be used to push the cornea into its normal position. I wear it for two or three' hours before the game." it help? Kemp doesn't know. He does know it's worth a try. Kemp also has tried some of Harrison's bio-feedback methods to hfilp improve concentration.

However, when he has tried to put them to fcse while hitting in the batting cage tat Cal-Irvine, "I have not been swinging the bat good. Maybe it has to help subconsciously. You have to be relaxed to hit." Will Harrison's methods work with the Pirates? "It's not for everyone," Kemp said. "It is going to be a matter of what you put into it." Certainly, there will be some re-sistence from the traditionalists or big picture and that's what you call soft centering. Or you can just see the ball, cut out all the background.

Hitters can have great vision and still not be focusing on the ball. We have a system to improve that." It is called concentration, which is a term that means different things to different people. "Everyone talks about concentration. But what is it?" Harrison asked. "The problem is that we are only aware of it when a person doesn't have it." "Talk to hitters," Thrift said.

"The good hitters will tell you the ball looks as big as a grapefruit. Talk to the bad hitters and they'll tell you they have trouble picking the ball up. It's not what they re seeing, it's how they're using their eyes." Harrison said that with the player's cooperation, he can improve visualization. "There are drills," he said. "You can have a man concentrate upon just the outside of the ball or just the top of it.

We've found that if a man wants to be a pull-hitter, he should watch the outside of the ball. He will get much quicker. A man who is popping up will watch the top of the bail and it will level off his swing." Harrison already has begun working with Kemp, who three years ago was hit in the face by a batting practice line drive off the bat of Omar Moreno. It was a career-threatening injury, requiring surgery and leaving Kemp with blurred vision in his left eye. Harrison has told Kemp he thinks) he can help him with a contact lens which all other doctors had told hirn would be of no value at all.

"It's confusing," Kemp said. JI. level the player has in himself," Thrift said. "It also teaches them independence. If we can help the players now, maybe we won't have If the surname is familiar, it is piayi because he is the brother of 01ym- problems later." i' Ivlazeroski's Hall of Fame hopes hurt by his defensive brilliance I i nnA Tnm ITnmo? Tnhn fanHplaria h.

and Tom Hume? John Candelaria has hander with "a winning fastball and losing Tho nrnhlpm is sprnnd base almost record, to teu mm tney were going to mane him their top selection in the January draft with their second pick. They didn't get the chance. The Cleveland Indians drafted him on the first pick. NOTEBOOK agents, maybe they ought to call Allstate to see if they can come up with a $200 deductible collusion insurance Now that the Pirates have drafted Felipe Alou's son, Moises, it is time to get him a nickname. Greg Johnson, the Pirates' publicist, suggests he not steal Boog Powell nickname or he, will be known as Boog Alou.

always has been thought of as an offensive position. Think of the greats at the position and you think of Frankie Frisch, Rogers Hornsby, Joe Morgan, Charlie Gehringer and Jackie Robinson, men who were known far more for their offensive prowess than their defense. Yet baseball is a game of 27 outs, and to, get them you need defense. "Bill Mazeroski's defensive statistics are probably the most impressive of any player at any position. He led the league in 35 positive defensive categories," said Bill James, the baseball statistician, in his new book, "The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract." But when Hall of Fame thinking comes around, defense is a dirty word.

A Harmon Killebrew or McCovey can get in on their offense alone, but try to get the best '7 purchased a home in California and is going -to move there soon The Pirates said they interviewed as many as 75 candidates to fill their coaching staff There were 215 players eligible for arbitration this year, but don't expect to see many of them go to hearings. Only 13 of 97 who filed went to arbitrator last year, and since 1974 there were 71 percent settled without a hearing The Pirates named former catcher Ed Ott a minor-league catching and outfield instructor. Last year he managed at Prince William. The New York Mets received the ultimate scare last week when it was learned Dwight Goodcn was on crutches after tripping over a lawn sprinkler. At first, Gooden's agent, who is in the process of negotiating his contract, denied the injury, then admitted to it after it was diagnosed as not serious The San Diego Padres brought in Bip Roberts, the second baseman they drafted out of the Pirates' organization, to meet the press and, according to General Manager Jack McKeon, he charmed them.

CHe's got that smile that you have to McKeon said. By Bob Hertzel The Pittsburgh Press Although all the attention was focused on the Hall of Fame near-miss by former Chicago Cub Billy Williams only former 6an Francisco Giants great Willie McCovey as elected another player was badly overlooked by the voters, and it pointed out a basic injustice in the system. A player needed 319 votes from the 10-year members of the Baseball Writers Association of America to be elected. Bill Mazeroski the greatest second baseman in Pirates history was named on just 100 ballots. "Hey when I was playing I wasn't thinking about making the Hall of Fame, just about making a living," Mazeroski said.

Is he surprised he isn't even coming close to being elected to the Hall of Fame? "I didn't hit that much. The Hall of Fame is a hitter's thing." If it is, then there is the injustice. Mazeroski was the best second baseman of his day, and probably the best in history at turning a ilouble play. He also was not, as he put it.an automatic out." Joe Onmlak led the Venezuelan winter league with a .331 batting average. Tony Pena won the Dominican Republic home run title with eight.

Pena played first base and designated hitter Jose DeLeon did not pitch winter ball because of a contract dispute Pete Rose never runs out of goals. Now No. 1 in lifetime hits, he is fourth on the all-time runs-scored list. Ty Cobb is the leader Chuck Tanner said he will be going with unproven young pitchers in Atlanta in an effort to shore up his staff. This will mark the first time Tanner has gone to spring training on the East Coast of Florida.

Baseball management is talking about fiscal responsibility. So how come the Philadelphia Phillies have $1.7 million of aging right-handed relievers in Kent Tekulve Syd Thrift has been toying with the idea of scrapping the Pirates' odd-shaped baseball caps, but apparently can't do it this year because uniform changes must be given to the league office by July 10 of the previous year to protect the licensees who mass produce uniform items Pirates President Mac Prine said he's considering limiting his duties with the Pirates to concentrate more on his position with Ryan Homes, but it will be the middle of the season before a decision is made A month ago the Pirates called Jeff Shaw of Ri(i Grande College, a right- aeiensive secona oaseman in uie game the Hall of Fame, even with a dramatic World Series-winnine home run to his credit! and a creditable .260 lifetime batting aver- age, and you only nit into a aouDie piayj With all the complaimWby the vario as.