Loyalty is a concept that can take a lifetime for many people to perfect. In baseball, however, it is extremely complicated and can come in between winning.
Many can see loyalty in the sport a different way which makes it all the more complicated.
Take Pirates reliever Jared Hughes for example. He has been on both sides of the coin where he was kept on the roster and early in his career had stints in both the major and minor leagues.
For Hughes, the loyalty is about the battle and the willingness to defend a teammate at any time.
“You just have everyone’s back and if something goes wrong somewhere, you pick them up somewhere else,” Hughes said. “If there was ever anything someone did and disrespected a teammate, you’ve got to stand up for them as well. Loyalty is what makes the team click and we have a lot of it here.”
At the same time, however, Hughes acknowledged that at the end of the day it comes down to winning games and cited the team’s bullpen dynamic stating that if someone was sent down that they would still be in touch that way they would be up to speed once a potential call-up occurred.
Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Cole Hamels looks at loyalty in a different way.
“You’re supposed to have more loyalty to your family than anything else, but unfortunately in the baseball world, they become your family because you’re with them more than your legitimate family,” said Hamels. “You do have to battle those sort of emotions and there’s nothing that can really prepare you for it.”
The idea of having multiple families is one that many in sports can relate to.
“I think you want to have the best of everything, and it normally doesn’t exist, so you have to weigh your options a lot and I think getting the best understanding of what type of person you are and what type of caliber of person you represent and how you can be represented from an organization’s standpoint, a team standpoint and an individual standpoint,” Hamels said.
Hamels is in his ninth season and has 113 wins in his career. His Phillies team, however, has struggled this season and currently own the worst record in baseball. This brings another layer of loyalty to the table, the idea of loyalty when things are not going well.
“Winning is the reason we play the game and that’s the excitement, when you’re not doing that, it can stretch your sanity,” said Hamels. “If you don’t see that there’s effort being put in on both sides, players and management then you have to start asking the very difficult questions of how loyal do you want to be? Ultimately you don’t really ask those questions unless you’re losing and that’s kind of the case.”
Pirates general manager Neal Huntington noted the balance between loyalty and winning. Huntington called it hard to find a line between two.
There are things that are unseen that can allow a player to hold a spot on a major league roster.
“It’s easy to be a fantasy league GM and get rid of players when they’re not performing,” Huntington said. “They may be doing something way below the surface to bring your group together or we see things that either aren’t there or others don’t see that make us think he is turning a corner. It’s not blind loyalty but there’s a full picture evaluation process beyond the batting average or ERA that gets shown.”
That being said, Huntington once again acknowledged the line and said that at the end of the day he wants to wins games and at times this can lead to tough decisions.
“You want to make it for the right reasons and because you believe you’re going to be better and not be disruptive,” said Huntington. “At the same time, holding on to a guy because he’s a good guy can be disruptive so it is a delicate balance and that’s where we work to have a full grasp of the entire picture beyond what the batting average or ERA might be.”
Pirates manager Clint Hurdle provided a different take, not one of seeing a line as Hamels, Hughes and Huntington did, but rather seeing no separation between the two.
“I actually think they go hand in hand,” Hurdle said. “Anytime you can get a group of men whether it’s a front office, a scouting department, your player development staff, your coaching staff, your players that actually play the game. If they are committed to one goal and they don’t care who gets the credit, that’s what loyalty is all about. That’s usually when men do crazy wonderful things when no one gets the credit and they commit to one another.”
While there are many different schools of thought when it comes to loyalty, Hamels knows that the end of the day it comes down to executing when the opportunity arises.
“It’s difficult but you do have to understand that as long as you want to play this game, there’s always moments and time if you don’t ruin your chances,” said Hamels.
