Pittsburgh coach’s memory trip, “Jitter and his colleague,”
- user
- 0
- on Jul 13, 2023
“Wow…that was a really long time ago.”
Pittsburgh Pirates coach Derek Shelton (53), whom we met at the All-Star Media Day held at T-Mobile Park in Seattle, Washington, USA on the 11th (Korean time), was locked in memories for a while.
Shelton played catcher in the minor leagues before turning into a coach. In 1993, he played for the Single A Greensboro affiliate of the New York Yankees. Here he was with special players. Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera.
When asked about her memories of the two players, Shelton said, “It was a long time ago. It was a story when we were all young,” he recalled.
Unfortunately, I don’t have many memories of Rivera. “Mo (Ribera’s nickname) was building up after the surgery at the time. If he thought he could be a great closer then, I’m not sure,” he said, not having any special memories.
Instead, I heard a different story about Jeter. “At that time, most of us were college graduates, but we were only high school graduates. We knew he was going to be a really special player.”
He said, “I felt that he would become that kind of player who would later lead the major leagues while playing with Jeter.”
This prediction was not wrong. Jeter, who debuted in the big leagues in 1995 and won Rookie of the Year in 1996, played 2747 games for the Yankees for 20 seasons, winning 14 All-Stars, 5 Gold Gloves, 5 Silver Sluggers, and 5 World Series championships. and was inducted into the Hall of Fame.
“It was really fun,” he said, recalling the time.
If Jeter took the sunny side, Shelton took a different path. His playing career ended in 1993. Injuries caught on. He made all 46 appearances in two seasons in the minor leagues.
He chose the path of leadership instead. He looked back on his coaching life, saying, “I started coaching at a young age, and thanks to that, I was able to learn good things while working with many good people.”
He started out as a minor league coach and gained 15 years of major league coaching experience before taking over as Pittsburgh manager in November 2019. He had difficult times, such as recording 100 losses for two consecutive seasons, but finished the first half with a relatively better record of 41 wins and 49 losses this season.메이저도메인
A mediocre playing career can be a hindrance to managing a major league manager. But he quietly shook his head.
“Athletes, regardless of their background, look and argue to see if that coach can help me. If you think it’s helpful, you’re bound to follow. Can I help the players, this is the biggest concern I have as a leader.”
Philadelphia Phillies manager Rob Thompson, who coached the National League All-Star, had been with Shelton as a coach during the Yankees’ minor league days, and invited him to the All-Star coaching staff because of the relationship he worked with even after he turned into a leader.
Thompson described Shelton as “a baseball student” and praised him as “a really smart guy and a great leader in my heart.”