The Matheny Manifesto by Mike Matheny

Author:Mike Matheny [Matheny, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-553-44671-5
Publisher: Crown/Archetype
Published: 2015-02-03T05:00:00+00:00

I HADN’T BEEN told there would be nine highly touted catchers at Michigan that season—my third unpleasant surprise. That made it all the more gratifying to win the job and be honored as Defensive Player of the Year at the end of the season.

The following year, former Detroit Tigers all-star Gold Glove catcher Bill Freehan was named the new head coach at Michigan, and Todd Winston, the kid I had met in South Dakota, and I would go head-to-head again for the starting catcher role.

Over the summer of ’89, I played for legendary coach Joe Hayden on the Midland Redskins national champion Connie Mack team. Returning to Michigan in the fall at almost nineteen years old, I was eager to win the respect of a tough catching critic in Coach Freehan. I had no idea so much went into calling a game and handling a pitching staff. I had caught hundreds and hundreds of baseball games by then, but our teaching sessions seemed to be endless, and they often took place right in the middle of a game. I would be struggling to get my gear off and my batting helmet on, all while defending why I had chosen the pitches that I did.

Right off the bat I realized how fortunate I was to have a teammate like Todd Winston, a quality guy who loved to compete as much as I did. He wanted my job, and we even raced to the water fountain when it was time to get a drink! Every drill every day was a battle between the two of us, yet somehow we remained friends my whole time at Michigan.

I can say with certainty that there’s no way I would have improved as much as I did without him pushing me like that every single day for three years. Todd was so talented that even though he didn’t often get a chance to catch, he was eventually drafted as a catcher by the Houston Astros. It didn’t surprise me either to learn that he went on to become a very successful high school coach.

What amazed me right from the start was how frustrated Bill Freehan was that my previous coach had called all the pitches. That coach had trained me like one of Pavlov’s dogs to look to the dugout after every pitch. Finally Coach Freehan yelled, “Quit looking at me! Your pitcher is waiting for you to give him a good suggestion!”

That forever changed my philosophy on pitch-calling. If an all-star big-league catcher believes in using the guy behind the plate, why would anyone argue? If anyone had the credentials to call a game, it was Bill Freehan. But he knew doing that would not be the best for our team, and he also knew that would retard my growth as a potential professional catcher. It wasn’t as if he didn’t want to do the thinking. He spent so much time analyzing opposing hitters and teaching me how to get them out that he would have been the ideal pitch-caller.

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