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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/26/sports/baseball/26proctor.html?_r=1&ref=baseball&oref=slogin
By Listening, Proctor Gains a Mental Edge
By TYLER KEPNER
Published: August 26, 2006
ANAHEIM, Calif., Aug. 25 — Scott Proctor was always fiercely competitive,
much more than the other kids in his Jensen Beach, Fla., Little League. When
he tried to pull an outside pitch, or committed another infraction, his coach
would let him know it. It was one voice Proctor did not need right then.
“He’s a perfectionist, and I’m a perfectionist,” said the coach, Gordon
Proctor, Scott’s father. “When he was little, about 9 years old, he said,
‘I love baseball, but all you do is yell at me during the games.’ I said,
‘You know, he’s right.’ ”
From then on, Gordon decided he would let his son play, and wait until the
drive home to dissect the details. That was when Scott needed and craved
another voice.
“After the games, we’d talk forever,” Gordon Proctor said. “And we still
do.”
Those conversations began Proctor’s journey to find the mental edge to
complement his physical gift of an exploding fastball. Even after a rare
three-day break in Seattle, in which he never got into a game, Proctor led
American League pitchers in appearances, with 65 after Friday’s game against
the Los Angeles Angels.
“He’ll never turn down the ball, that’s for sure,” said the Yankees
bullpen coach, Joe Kerrigan. “We’re careful with him, but he’s been a
lifesaver for us.”
Proctor, 29, who prepared to be a minor league starter in spring training
this season, insists he can handle the physical toll of his job. Staying
mentally sharp is the challenge.
He still talks to his father almost every day, and he bounces ideas off
teammates like Mariano Rivera. But the person who helps most is probably Chad
Bohling, who joined the Yankees last season as director of optimal
performance.
When Bohling was hired, some Yankees dismissed him. His presence seemed to be
an outgrowth of the hoary motivational sayings that cover the walls of
Legends Field on orders from the principal owner, George Steinbrenner.
“I don’t believe in it,” Gary Sheffield said of Bohling’s hiring. “I
think it’s for people who are weak-minded.”
Bohling is based in Tampa, Fla., and usually does not travel with the team.
When he showed up in the clubhouse last season, he seemed to have little to
do. But this season, especially, Proctor has taken to him.
After a game one night, Proctor carried several DVD’s that Bohling prepared
for him. Two featured roundtable forums with top athletes — including
Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and the Yankees’ Derek Jeter — discussing their
mental approach.
Another, which Proctor carries on every road trip, is a personal highlight
reel set to songs like “Eye of the Tiger,” with positive comments from
broadcasters piped in.
Proctor and Bohling communicate often, talking on the phone or sending text
messages. After Proctor pitched in both games of a doubleheader last Friday
in Boston, he found a text message waiting from Bohling: “Good job, stay
strong.”
General Manager Brian Cashman hired Bohling and does not allow him to speak
to reporters. But for a team with multiple bullpen catchers, batting practice
pitchers, a strength coach and a full-time massage therapist, it made sense
to have a mental-skills coach.
“The goal is to provide every resource possible to put our players in the
best position to reach optimal levels of performance on a consistent basis,”
Cashman said. “Chad is another resource for players to utilize if they
choose.”
Bohling’s lessons, and those from Proctor’s father, who runs an accounting
firm in Florida, have become ingrained in Proctor’s psyche. After bad games,
he said, he may think of his father’s advice: everybody fails, but the best
never dwell on it.
Proctor was drafted by the Mets out of high school but opted to go to Florida
State before being drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers. He spent five years in
the Dodgers’ farm system before the Yankees acquired him for Robin Ventura
in 2003.
The next July, he struck out Boston’s Nomar Garciaparra in the sixth inning
of a one-run game at Fenway Park. The moment was lost in the mayhem of a day
that included a brawl and a game-ending home run, but it had enormous value
for Proctor.
“When I honestly felt like I could pitch here was when I came in to face
Nomar,” Proctor said. “I was successful, and it gave me the confidence to
know, ‘O.K., I can do this.’
“And then from there, you go out and you struggle and you doubt yourself.
But Chad talks about just trying to stay off that emotional roller coaster:
‘Hey, I’m only human, I’m going to screw up, I’m going to go out there
and give it up.’
“When you’re warming up and you have a bad thought go through your head —
‘Oh no, it’s a one-run game, I can’t give up any runs’ — you step off
and say, ‘That’s not going to benefit me. All I’ve got to do is take one
pitch at a time, throw strikes; the pressure’s on him.’ It’s just
transferring the pressure from what I feel myself and putting it on the
hitter. He’s got to hit the round ball with the round bat and hit it
square.
“You know,” Proctor concluded, “I’m not easy to hit.”
It seemed that way through May 20, when Proctor had a 1.84 earned run average
and earned the trust of Manager Joe Torre. Over his next 21 games, though,
his effectiveness waned. From May 23 through July 4, his E.R.A. was 7.99. His
ability to reverse that trend and settle back into a groove (he has a 1.76
E.R.A. since) has impressed his teammates.
“You can tell a lot more about people when they struggle as opposed to when
they do well,” Jeter said. “He never changed, and he bounced back.”
Proctor uses more off-speed pitches than he did in past years, but the
biggest improvement has been his command. That, says catcher Jorge Posada, is
where his growing confidence shows itself.
“The stuff was always there,” Posada said. “When you have a guy who’s got
that confidence, that good mentality, they’re a lot crisper. They can put
the ball where they’re supposed to put it. Execution, location — everything
behind it is thrown with a purpose.”
Proctor missed time at the end of spring training when his newborn daughter,
Mary Elizabeth, was hospitalized with a life-threatening heart condition. The
baby needed an operation to repair a constricted aortic arch in her heart.
After five days away from the team, Proctor flew to Oakland, Calif., from
Florida where the Yankees opened the season. He lost in his first appearance,
on April 4, and nobody blamed him. “He never makes any excuses,” Cashman
said, “but it was unfair to expect him to succeed at that moment.”
Proctor, whose daughter is healthy now, said his family helped him focus by
giving him a pleasant distraction from baseball. But the credit keeps coming
back to the wisdom of Bohling and his father, who have nurtured the mind of
the league’s most durable pitcher.
“Most guys that come up here — really, all these guys — have the ability
to pitch up here,” Proctor said. “But it’s the mental side that is going
to make you successful and keep you here.”
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