Tracy changing thought processes

12/07/2005
DALLAS -- Since being hired as the manager of the Pirates on Oct. 18, Jim Tracy has made it clear that the old way of thinking that permeated the Pittsburgh clubhouse for many losing seasons would no longer be tolerated.
However, rather than take a "my way or the highway" stance that has been popular with managers and coaches seemingly since the dawn of sports, Tracy's approach is more along the lines of a paradigm shift. He wants the Pirates players to open their minds to new ways of thinking about the game.
"I'm really interested in getting that message out there to our players that what has taken place in the past [is] great, fine, and dandy, [but] it's all over with," Tracy said. "We're going to turn the page and we're going to start doing things just a little bit differently. We're going to have a real understanding of the fact that losing more than you win in any given season is really not acceptable."
A simple message to be sure. And Tracy had others.
"The cliché of 'We're young. We're inexperienced' and having that as a built-in crutch to go out there and not perform up to capability, that's not acceptable anymore, either," he said.
Tracy stressed the need for his club to understand, on a basic level, what it means to play winning baseball. Tracy expects his players to know how to drive home runners from third base with less than two outs, when to take a pitch or swing away, when to take an extra base, how to hit the ball to the right side of the field to advance a runner -- the basic fundamentals of the game that can mean the difference between winning and losing on a nightly basis.
Tracy doesn't expect his approach to be a tough sell for his new players.
"I feel like I'm beginning in Pittsburgh with a little bit of a track record that there has been some success realized over the last five years," said Tracy. "There has been a method to the madness that we've been up to over the course of the last five years in L.A., and you'd be hard-pressed to convince me that it doesn't work."
And the Pirates players -- many of whom have never experienced a winning season in the big leagues -- don't exactly have much of a foundation to resist the changes.
"[The Pirates] haven't had a winning season in 13 years. There's a reason for that," Tracy said. "There's a different mindset that needs to take place. There's a different belief that you have to have coming to the ballpark every day.
"You have to be able to let go [of the old ways of thinking]. You have to be able to turn the page and allow someone to steer you in a direction as much as to say, 'You know what? We haven't tried this before.'"
Philosophical theories aside, Tracy is very much a pragmatist. He realizes that the odds are long that he'd be able to make up 20-plus games in the standings on the Cardinals and Astros in one year. But, as was the case during his first two seasons in Los Angeles, Tracy believes he already has a solid foundation of talent in place with which to build around. He's not thinking along the lines of any five-year plan for success.
"I want the thought process to be that you are chasing after those two clubs much sooner than later," said Tracy. "How much sooner? That is what remains to be seen."

Source: http://pittsburgh.pirates.mlb.com/