DALLAS — “Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing...”
-from Teddy Roosevelt's ”The Square Deal Speech”, April 5,1903 in Dallas, Texas
The job of minor league manager is challenging. Unlike their major league counterparts, who are tasked with accumulating wins and ever flying flags, they've got a job description based on development. Sure, winning games and trophies below the major league level is positive overall but not a necessary end goal. You're not a cultivator but a curator, planting seeds and watching them mature over time before someone harvests your crop.
The difficulties for the Double A manager are magnified in that way, because of their unique location in major league pipeline. The level is a veritable way station for baseball players, representing the biggest challenge point for big league hopefuls. The pitchers throw harder, the hitters hit further, and everything gets faster at a rate previously unseen.
All of which puts a burden on the manager and his staff, making them shepherds of progress along with procurers of success. The mindset is one requiring finesse, understanding, and above all else an honest approach to the situation. The job description is much more “firm yet fair teacher” than “ruthless winning autocrat.”
In speaking with Frisco manager Joe Mikulik (pronounced Mick-Lick, or just Mik as a nickname) at Tuesday's media day, you come away with the impression that those concepts are well in hand.
Mik speaks with a rapidity and inflection befitting a native of the south Texas outpost of Weimar. The cadence and tone reflects a small town, never met a stranger attitude that comes across natural in conversation.
It's friendly and open, but as we've seen in previous stops it's also lacking in fear of telling someone exactly what's on his mind.
The best comparison I can find is that of a firm but fair parent, which is useful since most of his charges will still be within an age range needing a parental authority figure.
He understands his role as a teacher to these young baseball players, since he himself was one. Mik himself never made it higher than Triple A, spending 11 years traversing the country as a minor leaguer. So when it comes to a roster like Frisco, which features a lot of position flexibility, he brings an experience first mindset.
“I've been on clubs as a player (in the minor leagues) I sat a week without playing,” Mik said. “What are you gonna do? Are you gonna just mope around and dig yourself a bigger hole or are you gonna get out and do your route, get your work in, and be ready when called upon?”
He'll have plenty of conflicts to manage this year. While super utility prospect Isiah Kiner-Falefa is on to Round Rock this season infielders like Luis Marte, Michael De Leon, Josh Morgan, and Juremi Profar all need time at the plate and in the field. Where there's potential dissension, however, emerges a chance to teach a virtue.
“Guys are gonna get at bats,” Mik said. “They're gonna have to be patient, wait their turn.”
For a team mixed with players getting their first bite at the Apple along with players like Jose Trevino and Scott Heineman who're back in Frisco getting additional training, the diversity of necessary teachings is something Mik and his staff have to manage. Luckily for everyone involved, that doesn't scare the third year Riders skipper.
“Every day there's teachable moments,” Mik said. “The patience is big, but I think were teaching more at this level now game and situational awareness, routines. Fortunately for us, we've got guys that have really good foundations they've created throughout rookie ball, A ball in our system that they have a good idea.”
Of course, it's only natural that players want those lessons turning into visible success. In a sport that quantifies everything from tangible times crossing home plate to abstract yet important numbers representing individual win values, it'd be odd if players didn't. That conflict makes minor league coaches both manipulators of the physical body and also mechanics of the young mind.
“When I talk to a player, the first thing they want is results,” Mik said. “There's a big issue with wanting results so bad, you just spin yourself into the ground and don't understand the process. Before you know it, it's May and you gotta climb back up the ladder. If we can slow the game down as far as a staff, translate to the player and get him to understand this is the process, this is the process we have to take.”
Of course, baseball is a game of failure bisected by occasional success. It's the same sport that goes bananas when a hitter succeeds at the plate at or around 35% of the time. With that comes the inevitable pall of failure, and with that the natural varied ability of young athletes handling it. Some will be fine, others will suffer its wrath without much tolerance. For those lost in a sea of disappointment, their salvage is a weathered man with an unassailable heading.
“I accept failure,” Mik said. “I think failure is the best teaching tool. I can talk to 'em until I'm blue in the face, but until they fail, until they understand how to fail...they gotta understand who they are, they gotta understand what their role is, and then to make adjustments and be efficient when they play.”
You have to think with a mentality like that, the failures will be temporary.
The main takeaway from a visit to Frisco ahead of season's beginning is different than that of their major league counterparts. While Arlington has a hyper competitive nature of high salaries and expectations, the north Dallas suburb with the quaint ball yard puts off the vibe of learning and growth.
It feels more human, mainly because due to station in life and gross underpayment of the “apprentices” are more relatable to the average fan than the half million plus dollar minimum wage big leaguers will earn this year.
Few people represent that blue collar mentality of doing what you must in order to do what you want than Mik himself. A man that's lived the full circle of minor league existence, going from the doer to the teacher with a smile and enthusiasm for the game resembling that of the fresh faced Little Leaguers who will one day dot fields like the ones on which he played.
It's the grand circle of baseball existence, where players shift into coaches in passing down they game they love. The ones that last, that make a lasting impact echoing through the ages are the ones who do it out of love. After hearing from the mustached mouth of Mik himself, there's reason to believe that his influence on America's pastime will stretch well beyond his years.
Be sure to follow Samuel on Twitter @thesamuelhale for more thoughts on Mikulik and the RoughRiders this season.
