Brooklyn’s batters have struggled as of late, giving the Coney Island faithful flashbacks to the 2015 season and that team’s collective tightening of a certain muscle.
Yes, folks, the sphincter factor is back.
It is a team-wide epidemic, but manager Tom Gamboa said the two players with the tightest derrieres are third baseman Blake Tiberi and outfielder Arnaldo Berrios.
“There’s people like Berrios and Tiberi that are squeezing the sawdust out of the bat, they’re pressing so bad. And that makes it virtually impossible to get a hit,” Gamby said. “So they’re going to have to find a way to just, as we say, loosen up the sphincter factor so that their ability can come through.”
The sphincter factor — according to Gamboa — is when a player tightens his sphincter so much because of the pressure to succeed that the game moves too fast. It’s the core of both Berrios and Tiberi’s problems, but they each have other obstacles in front of them as well, according to the skipper.
Gamboa believes respect for the opposition is good, but added that Berrios seems intimidated by the New York-Penn League. He has struggled at the plate and was doubled off second base in a crucial moment during the Cyclones 4–0 loss to Lowell on July 16.
“He’s acting like this is the big leagues and he doesn’t belong here,” Gamboa said. “He’s giving the league way too much credit for being better than him, and he’s playing very scared and very intimidated and I don’t know why.”
Tiberi, meanwhile, is trying to get used to the professional game.
“He had a great year in college at the University of Louisville and nobody has struggled on our team from game one to game 27 more than Tiberi,” Gamboa said. “And now it’s to the point where he’s just pressing so bad.”
Despite all the stats and information available, much of the game is mental and success comes to those who feel most comfortable on the diamond.
Second baseman Nick Sergakis has been an emotional sparkplug for the Cyclones this season, but Gamboa said he’s noticed the 23rd-round pick has struggled to maintain his focus at the plate.
“One of the things that all the coaches were trying to get Nick to do is to get more on an even-keel,” Gamboa said. “Because he’s an emotional type player. He plays with a lot of passion and we’ve got to get him off the roller-coaster and just level off a little bit.”
Any players struggling for confidence can look to pitching coach Billy Bryk Jr, who reminds the team that they should have a shark-like mentality.
Brooklyn has been streaky at best this summer, but the squad is confident things can still turn around.
“The majority of our team is coming around and becoming sharks,” Bryk Jr. said. “We have a thing here, we don’t want guys being a goldfish and we have a little symbol with our hands where they’re like a goldfish. And then the next step is a turtle. But we want everybody to come together and be sharks. Because sharks in the ocean, those are the cream of the crop. They’re the top of the food chain so we want to make sure everybody in our locker room are sharks.”
