| REGISTER TO WIN | |
 |
It didn’t matter Thursday that Ryan Shealy had just hit a game-ending homer for a 4-3 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks at Surprise Stadium. Or that the Royals had just won their fourth game in a row. Or even that it’s just spring training.
Hillman had seen too many base-running mistakes earlier in the game.
His solution was to gather the entire team at the plate for what amounted to a 15-minute lecture in full view of the Diamondbacks and the departing crowd of 5,539. Hillman then spent another 10 minutes in discussion with veteran second baseman Mark Grudzielanek near third base before initiating his postgame news conference at the dugout.
“I was just talking about running the bases,” Hillman told reporters. “We had a couple of mistakes today. I’m not displeased. We won the ballgame.
“We’ve got to run the bases the right way all of the time. And today, we had a couple of mistakes. We could have been in a better position.”
Hillman declined to elaborate and soon ended discussion of the matter by replying, “Done,” to a follow-up question.
The public display caught the players by surprise. Such critiques in pro ball typically take place behind closed doors in the clubhouse.
“It’s just one of those things,” Grudzielanek said. “He was unhappy with some base running and other things the last few days. He had everyone there, and he wanted to make sure that we chatted.
“It brings back the younger years, doesn’t it? But that’s all good. He wanted to get it off his mind right away.”
Other players also likened the on-field reprimand to their days in high school and college, although none disputed the merit of Hillman’s criticism.
“If he’s going to do that after a game-winning homer,” DH Billy Butler said, “then he’s going to do it at anytime. That means no slack. That’s what we need.”
Players said Hillman focused on what he perceived as inattention and a lack of hustle, including his demand that players run hard on routine ground balls.
“It’s stuff that we’ve talked about before,” Hillman acknowledged, “and we need to do a better job of (doing) if we want to win ballgames and be consistent in winning ballgames.”
Players also said Hillman indicated the problems were an accumulation of things over the last few days. If so, that seems odd because he made a point repeatedly to compliment the club’s improving fundamentals after victories Tuesday and Wednesday over the Rockies and Giants.
If nothing else, the on-field meeting put players on notice that Hillman is willing to embarrass them in public as a penalty for sloppy play.
“At least we got it done in spring training,” outfielder David DeJesus said. “Now we know. We’ll take it from here, and we’ll change it. He won’t need to do that anymore.”
Join the discussion
Share your observations and experiences about news. Lively, open debate is the goal, but please refrain from personal attacks or comments that are racist, vulgar or otherwise inappropriate. If you see an inappropriate comment, please click the "Report as violation" link to notify a KansasCity.com editor. Thanks for your feedback.