March 06, 2008
Public Reprimand
Trey Hillman very publicly reminded his team how to run the bases after their win today:
Hillman had seen too many base-running mistakes earlier in the game.
His solution was to gather the entire team at the plate for what amounted to a 15-minute lecture in full view of the Diamondbacks and the departing crowd of 5,539. Hillman then spent another 10 minutes in discussion with veteran second baseman Mark Grudzielanek near third base before initiating his postgame news conference at the dugout.
"I was just talking about running the bases," Hillman told reporters. "We had a couple of mistakes today. I'm not displeased. We won the ballgame.
"We've got to run the bases the right way all of the time. And today, we had a couple of mistakes. We could have been in a better position."
It looks like he got through to the players:
Players also said Hillman indicated the problems were an accumulation of things over the last few days. If so, that seems odd because he made a point repeatedly to compliment the club's improving fundamentals after victories Tuesday and Wednesday over the Rockies and Giants.
If nothing else, the on-field meeting put players on notice that Hillman is willing to embarrass them in public as a penalty for sloppy play.
"At least we got it done in spring training," outfielder David DeJesus said. "Now we know. We'll take it from here, and we'll change it. He won't need to do that anymore."
Trey is going to keep this team on their toes.
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Posted by David Pinto at
11:49 PM
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