Warning: What you are about to read is different from what many others have written on this subject. If you are expecting this post to lay blame on twenty years of losing because of four days of training, or pander to the “I hate Bob Nutting just because its easy” crowd, please turn back now.
There’s a lot of things the Pirates have done wrong over the last two decades to get to where they are today. The combination of being a small market team, failing to draft the right players, and failing to develop talent has led to the worst losing streak in sports history. At this point in time, the franchise has a lot of talent but sorely lacks development among some of the most basic fundamentals; discipline at the plate, stealing bases, and throwing out base runners.
They also lack something else: toughness.
That’s about as clear as the whites in the eyes of the 25 players on the major league roster when the season turns to August. For two years now, the Pirates have built up a winning record only to see it evaporate in the final two months of the season. As the games got bigger and bigger, the Pirates got smaller and smaller.
Head of Pirates’ development, Kyle Stark, thought it would be a good idea to invoke some Navy SEAL training into the program to create more mental toughness.
For the last two years, the minor league players have engaged in “Hell’s Week”, a three day exercise program supposedly designed after the BUD/S program the SEALs use. According to Dejan Kovacevic, this is a typical day for the Pirates during “Hell’s Week”…or three days:
Wake up and 5 am
Clean Locker/Room
Pushups and Sit-ups
Serpentine on the grass
Crab Walk
Run along the beach carrying a telephone pole
Pushing a truck tire
Get sprayed with a hose
Dive into a sand pile
If this is supposed to be a representation of the Navy SEALs training program, it is in name only. In fact, if the Pirates called it “Fluffy sleep land training” with the same exercises, I’m confident people would be too critical over how easy the players have it.
After reading article upon article from people bashing the Pirates over this training program, one thing has become apparent. None of them understand what actual Navy SEALs training looks like. To get an idea, there’s an excellent documentary on what they go through here.
This is day one of in BUD/S:
Wake up at 0500
Run back and forth around the housing compound. If they fail to do it in a certain time, they have to do it over again.
Jumping jacks, pushups, planking (2 min increments), leg lifts while being sprayed with a hose.
Pull ups, diving through a water-filled raft, then more pull ups.
Dips
Class muster
Run 4 miles in 32 minutes on beach
Jump into ocean then cover themselves head to toe in sand
Mountain climbers
0925 6-man raft races. Trainees must race to get over the 10-15 foot waves in a rubber raft. Push ups for the losers. Multiple races.
1300 inspection. Punishment is pushups.
1450 running with telephone poles. Note: poles weigh 150; however, if units fail to keep their arms straight, they will have to lift “Old Misery”, a 450 pound pole, and hold it up for 45 seconds.
That’s day one, folks. That’s training to become a Navy SEAL.
To be fair, the Pirates are training for a sport while the Navy SEALs are training to fight around the world. Asking the Pirates to replicate that type of training would be futile and it would increase the chances of an injury.
Still, the purpose of the training is not just physical conditioning but mental conditioning. Most kids drafted out of high school or college have little experience in failing. Players like Gerrit Cole and Jameson Taillon have been the best on the field since they started playing baseball at a young age. Asking your body to push itself beyond your comfort zone is a great way to push the mind as well.
The Pirates made a mistake with the “SEALs” training program; they allowed Gregory Polanco to participate despite recovering from a sprained ankle. Anyone with nagging injures should not be allowed to participate because, overall, having a player on the field is way more important than any exercises required for conditioning.
But the overall message has been lost by the media covering this situation. Instead of expressing outrage over allowing Polanco to participate, everyone is wrapped up in the training program, despite the fact that multiple teams have done this before. It sounds like a witch hunt to have the front office fired for failing to produce a winning season.
With all this being said, the Pirates should can this program. The idea of having athletes train under adverse conditions is a good one; however, with the egos, agents and money, the message will never be received. Players don’t like being told what to do. They want to be coddled. The training program should not be viewed as a waste of time, nor should anyone sane believe this is getting in the way of learning how to steal a base. Asking players to do push ups at dawn is hardly appalling.
The Pirates have a lot of development issues, but this training program isn’t one of them.
Photo courtesy of Harisingh.com
