White Sox sports performance coach Cristian Guzman.
MINNEAPOLIS – The question is often asked about the White Sox’ clubhouse.
What’s it like in there?
It’s Cristian Guzman’s job to know. And as the Sox’ first mental performance coach, it comes with unique challenges with a team that entered Monday’s game against the Twins with a 6-22 record.
“The game is hard,” Guzman said in a recent conversation with the Sun-Times.
Keeping the big picture in mind, that it’s a boy’s game played by grown men paid handsomely to play and coach it lightens the darkness of despair for all involved. And for the most part, the clubhouse has remained upbeat. It was like that – quiet postgames aside — even before a weekend series sweep of the Rays cast a ray of sunshine on the Sox.
That said, several players are enduring poor individual starts, some veterans are trying to squeeze a few more months out of established careers, and first- or second-year players are in the intense career phase of trying to carve a niche.
And they know there are lifelong fans who pour their emotions and money into the team. The scrutiny gets heavy. There’s daily pressure and stress, even if it is a child’s game.
While pitching for the Sox in 1977, broadcaster Steve Stone said he talked to Sox general manager Roland Hemond about the psychological aspects of baseball and they agreed the game is about 75 percent mental. Stone suggested to Hemond the Sox hire a mental skills person, which didn’t happen. Stone said he is thankful he had his own system for dealing with the mental side of the game.
“Your mind does control your body,” Stone said. “And when your body, for whatever reason isn’t good enough, you have to let your mind take over.”
Guzman, who previously worked for the Mets and Mariners in mental skills capacities, travels with the team and wears a uniform. With a start like this, having him around could be money well spent. Sometimes he approaches players, sometimes they come to him. Some players seek him out, some don’t at all.
“It’s trying to meet guys with where they are at for what they need,” Guzman said. “Most guys know themselves pretty well to be able to, ask them a couple questions and they can self-correct pretty quickly. I try to teach being who they are and playing within the skillset that they have.”
When accomplished players like Andrew Vaughn, Martin Maldonado and Andrew Benintendi – until he broke out of a slump over the weekend in a big way – and on and on with a team batting .207/.274/.313 entering Monday – you can bet your favorite Guaranteed Rate Field giveaway that manager Pedro Grifol or hitting coach Marcus Thames will say they’re “trying to do too much.”
It sounds like a mechanism to lessen pressure, but perhaps it’s actually true.
“That’s probably the biggest piece [what I do],” Guzman said, “so guys can stay consistent with themselves and trust what they’re doing. This game specifically, over the course of the year short runs don’t say as much as what they’re capable of doing. Some guys will start to search and try to do more than is needed, or do less than what is needed, so it’s trying to find that balance of who are you, what works for you and building on the strengths they have. So they can stay consistent.”
Grifol and his coaches have conversations all the time about balancing the physical with the mental. Sometimes they’re brief, perhaps in the dugouts. Others are behind closed doors.
Grifol said Monday it weighs on him knowing his players and staff are working as hard as they do but being rewarded with so few wins. He knows the game is hard enough, so he’s not going to maintain a healthy work environment.
“People think, go in there and flip a table or something like that,” he said. “What are you going to flip a table for? For effort? They’re giving us everything they’ve got. It’s just not happening for us right now.”