Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
May 03, 2007
Why do you Think They call it Dope?

A comment to this post on the Yankees firing their strength coach was so good I had to promote it to the front page:

This has nothing to do with the merits or demerits of Marty Miller, or the apparent desperation of the Yankees in making such a move so early in the season... but how in the world, given the atmosphere of suspicion hanging over major league baseball, could a team give someone the title "Director of Performance Enhancement?" I understand the tendency to create new and longer titles for old jobs, but "performance enhancement?" You can almost hear the Jay Leno material: "Miller wasn't the Yankees' first choice for the job, but Victor Conte turned them down." "Kirk Radomski may be in line to replace Miller; he has the performance-enhancing expertise, plus years of experience in big-league clubhouses."

Not to mention the acronym: DOPE. Yeah, that's good for the old image

.

It reminds me of this classic scene from the Flintstones:

Remember when Fred and Barney won a boat on a game show, and they couldn't decide what to name it, so they took the first 3 letters of Barney's choice, "Nautical Lady" and the last 3 letters of Fred's choice, "Queen of the Sea" and called the boat Nau-Sea?

Hiring a new conditioning coach: Four hamstring injuries.

Giving his position a stupid name: Priceless.


Posted by David Pinto at 10:37 AM | TrackBack (0)
Comments

And doing it right at the beginning of spring training:
Completely DOPEy.

Posted by: rbj at May 3, 2007 10:52 AM

Following up on this repost of my comment... According to the NY Times, Marty Miller's previous job was as fitness coach at a country club in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. His last job in baseball was as a minor league trainer for the Montreal Expos from 1995 to 1997.

Rather a thin, Mike Brown-type resume, no? ("Marty, you're doing a heck of a job.") How did this guy become a coach with the Yankees? Does he know somebody?

And at least for now, Miller's replacement is his assistant, who presumably shares his approach to fitness training. I'm sure that'll work out just fine.

Posted by: jvwalt at May 3, 2007 03:31 PM
Post a comment









Remember personal info?