‘10 feet tall and bullet-proof’: Eric Wedge on his mindset for Wichita State baseball
It has been a little more than 10 weeks since the Wichita State baseball team played its last game of the season, a 10-9 victory over Louisiana Tech on March 8.
The thrilling, come-from-behind win extended WSU’s winning streak to 12 games, its longest in more than a decade, improved its overall record to 13-2 and moved its RPI up to 16th nationally. But the next night, on his weekly coaches radio show, Eric Wedge told the WSU fans in attendance that it would have been better for the team if it had lost.
Wedge, the catcher for WSU’s 1989 national championship team, was back with his alma mater three decades later to restore the Shockers to national relevance again. And despite the victory, failing to protect an 8-0 lead and needing two runs in the bottom of the ninth for the walk-off win was not going to cut it in Wedge’s estimation.
In his first season with WSU, Wedge was focused on process over results.
“It would have boded better for us if we didn’t win that game and I know it sounds horrible,” Wedge said, “but if you’re going to be a championship team, which is what we’re going to do in time, you can’t have games like that.”
That’s not to say Wedge was entirely unhappy with the result. After WSU had allowed an 8-0 lead to slip away, Wedge admitted he was impressed by his team’s resolve in the dugout for the ninth-inning rally.
“Our kids were all in and that’s pretty special,” Wedge said. “That’s what we had back in the day and that’s what we’re starting to get back.”
The coronavirus pandemic canceled the rest of the season before Wedge could see just how far the Shockers could take that in his first season.
But Wedge had several other entertaining takes on his coaching philosophy and the mindset he’s trying to bring to Shocker baseball players. Here’s a collection of Wedge’s best quotes:
On what he wants his players’ mentality to be: “I believe when I walk in a room I’m 10 feet tall and I’m bullet-proof. There’s nobody in here that’s going to kick my (behind). I want the kids to feel that same way.”
On what he wants his players’ mentality to be: “I’m a big believer in heartbeat. You have to have a good heartbeat. When it’s getting thick, you have to slow it down. Most of these young kids don’t understand. When it’s getting thick and it’s starting to speed up, you’ve got to slow it down. Everybody talks about the fastest shooter. That doesn’t matter. It’s about (the heartbeat). We’re not working from a Division I level, we’re working on a Major League level and that’s why we’re going to have success.”
On what he looks for in a player: “I’m not a big showcase guy. I don’t care how hard you can hit and how hard you can throw it. I want to know how hard you can compete. I want to know who can go out there and defend themselves. That’s different than what’s been going on here in the past. We’re still working through that. When these kids go out there, I’m not going to kill them if they don’t do well because I know they all want to do well. I just want them to go out there and compete. Act like they’re taking food off your table with your kids at the table. We don’t accept that.”
On the catcher-pitcher relationship: “One of the reasons why we won the championship that year was because I knew every pitcher. Not just them on the mound, but I knew their girlfriend, their family, their brothers, their sisters. That’s what I talked to (WSU junior catcher) Ross (Cadena) about. You have to their personality to be able to talk to them. If you do that, then that will separate you.”
On winning at a championship level: “People don’t understand how hard it is to win a championship. To be a champion. LeBron (James) used to talk to me about this in Cleveland. He was a young kid when I was a manager for the Cleveland Indians (from 2003-09). He said, ‘I just don’t understand what it means to be a champion.’ I said, ‘Listen, for you to be a champion, you have to be a leader, you have to be unselfish and you have to go after your teammates and piss them off.’ Most people don’t do that. They just go out there and make their $15 million a year and just play. He made that choice and he became a champion. Good for him.”
On how to improve a swing: “You’ve got to be slow back and slow forward. You have to practice slow, that’s what most people don’t get. You have to practice slow. If you’re really good, you practice slow because you’re adamant about what you’re working on.”
On batting with two strikes: “It takes courage to bat with two strikes. You have to stick your nose in there, man. Joe Carter got hit by more change-ups and breaking balls in the history of the game. That’s because he was all in. That’s why Joe is an all-time great. We have to get our kids to do that. We have to be better with that.”
On hitting philosophy: “Robbie Alomar used to talk about this a lot. If you’re a really good hitter and Robbie was a Hall of Famer, you look outside in. So if you throw me a fastball away, I’m on it. If you throw a fastball in, you got me. But if you throw anything from the middle in and away, I got you. If you’re really good as a hitter, that’s what happens.”
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