{"id":820686,"date":"2026-07-23T11:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T11:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/820686\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T11:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T11:10:10","slug":"like-pulling-a-tractor-trailer-what-its-like-to-play-on-an-awful-mlb-team-mlb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/820686\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Like pulling a tractor trailer\u2019: what it\u2019s like to play on an awful MLB team | MLB"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you ask professional athletes, they\u2019ll tell you. Losing is no fun. But in Major League Baseball<\/a>, losing big can be especially tedious.<\/p>\n

An MLB<\/a> seasons boasts a whopping 162 games (twice as many as the NBA and NHL) and even the best hitters fail two-thirds of the time at the plate. If a pitcher wins half his starts, he\u2019s an All-Star. Because of that, says decorated starter Jamie Moyer, a losing campaign takes on a particular consequence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like pulling a tractor trailer with no tires behind you all season,\u201d Moyer tells the Guardian. \u201cIt\u2019s just heavy!\u201d<\/p>\n

Moyer would know. The former All-Star and World Series champion saw it all over his 25-year career. He was on the team with the best regular-season record in baseball history (the 2001, 116-game-winning Seattle Mariners) and he was on some dogs (the 64-98 2012 Colorado Rockies). Winning covers over a team\u2019s ills. But losing only exacerbates them, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re not playing well, having a tough season, whether it\u2019s individually or as a team, things tend to rear their ugly heads a little differently,\u201d Moyer offers.<\/p>\n

But while casual baseball fans may think to change a losing season from bad to better takes a well-timed home run or a ninth-inning comeback, Moyer, who retired in 2013 as the oldest player in MLB history ever to record a win, says it\u2019s about subtler things.<\/p>\n

For example: maybe a player notices his teammate isn\u2019t running to first base fast enough on a ground ball. When a lack of effort like that is shown, the player might call the other guy out on it. \u201cMaybe it\u2019s happening far too often,\u201d Moyer says. \u201cSomebody might grab somebody and take them down into the tunnel. I\u2019ve seen it happen a lot of different ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moyer says he\u2019s seen guys come into the dugout after making a lazy effort to first and another teammate yells, \u201cHey, blankety-blank-blank-blank! Are you hurt? Then why aren\u2019t you running hard out there?\u201d<\/p>\n

Anything from a brief conversation to fisticuffs may ensue afterwards. \u201cIt goes on from there based on the answers,\u201d Moyer notes. \u201cI\u2019ve been on teams where a guy didn\u2019t hustle to first base and the manager, as soon as he got back into the dugout, would walk over to him and say, \u2018Hey, I\u2019m going to replace you right now, have a seat.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In baseball, a number of factors determine the outcomes of games \u2013 almost too many. Talent, chemistry, preparedness, resilience. Then there are umpires, the weather, and whether or not the team made it to the hotel the night before to get enough rest on a road trip. For Moyer, success (and sanity) comes down to controlling what you can control. For him, that meant looking in the mirror.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are times in my career when I felt it,\u201d says Moyer, who finished his time in the majors with a record of 269-209. \u201cWe\u2019ve lost four games in a row and now it\u2019s my turn in the rotation. I\u2019m having that self-talk, like, \u2018Hey, pal, it\u2019s on you tomorrow. If you want to contribute to your team, wow, what a great time to do it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Most players will say baseball is more a mental game than a physical one. It\u2019s often what\u2019s between the ears that gets a player through a long year. For former All-Star catcher Alex Avila, to sustain a long campaign, it\u2019s essential to avoid wallowing when things get tough.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy to fall in a trap of feeling sorry for yourself, feeling sorry for the team when things are going poorly,\u201d the former Detroit Tigers<\/a> backstop says.<\/p>\n

But Avila has a cure \u2013 a mantra to remember when the future looks bleak.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always important for major league players to remember \u2013 when you\u2019re in the big leagues, you\u2019re the best of the best,\u201d Avila says. \u201cWhen you\u2019re at that level, you\u2019ve never that far away from turning it around.\u201d<\/p>\n

A pro\u2019s pro, the catcher knows that whether or not a team achieves the overarching goal of making the playoffs, there are always little wins to shoot for.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were some years that by the middle or end of the season we knew we weren\u2019t in contention,\u201d Avila says. \u201cAnd that\u2019s a difficult pill to swallow. But there\u2019s still quite a bit to play for throughout the rest of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every team wants to win the World Series, but it doesn\u2019t simply happen by wishing. \u201cHow do you get there?\u201d muses Avila, the son of a former MLB GM. \u201cYou can\u2019t just snap your fingers. You have to be able to work toward those goals. Stepping stones.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a catcher, Avila knew it was his job to play well on offense and defense. It was also his job to help others play well. Sometimes that meant dealing with personalities, sometimes that meant calling impromptu team meetings when a dark cloud hung over the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were times we struggled with the Tigers even during some of our best years,\u201d Avila says. \u201cWe\u2019d have player-only team meetings. Not something formal or announced. It\u2019s just that we had a tough game and now six or seven of us are in the clubhouse figuring out what we need to do, how we can change it.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than any other sport, the baseball season is a slog. Moyer calls it a \u201cmarathon\u201d. This season, the Mariners and the (expensive) New York Mets<\/a> have endured painful losing stretches that have affected their standings. Other teams, though, including the Tigers and the Boston Red Sox, have seen bad springs turn into fruitful summers.<\/p>\n

Playing for the Phillies in the late 2000s, Moyer says he learned a lot from his manager, Charlie Manuel, about dealing with the peaks and valleys. He picked up tips on how to navigate poor stints \u2013 and even how to stave them off before they arrived. Again, it was about smaller interactions.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would pull players aside or talk to you early in the afternoon at the ballpark,\u201d Moyer remembers. \u201cLike, \u2018Hey, how you doing? Hey, did you ever think about this or about that?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

When Moyer got to Philly in 2006, the team just missed the postseason. In 2007, they lost to a buzzsaw Colorado team. But all the work and all that time sitting with the bitter taste of loss helped the team win it all in 2008.<\/p>\n

\u201cFailure,\u201d says Moyer, \u201cpropelled us into \u201908.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that mental edge is key not just in good times, but in lean ones, as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cPre-game, during a bad year,\u201d Moyer says, \u201cI\u2019m not thinking about losing. Whether you believe it or not, I have to believe I\u2019m going to be successful. I have to believe the four days of work between starts has gotten me to the point where I\u2019m ready to make my next one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of that work comes off the field. Dealing with planes, hotels, workouts. Enduring that marathon season can drain a person. But Moyer tries to put it all in perspective. \u201cI liken it to somebody working in a mill,\u201d Moyer says. \u201cYou can\u2019t compare playing baseball to putting out a fire or operating on a human being. I didn\u2019t look at it as drudgery.\u201d<\/p>\n

That veteran mentality can keep a team\u2019s season afloat even in choppy waters. Sometimes there is no controlling a bad season \u2013 fate may yield a result no one intends. But that can\u2019t stop a roster from trying to right the ship.<\/p>\n

\u201cYoung guys would seek out my advice,\u201d Avila says. \u201cA season is long \u2013 162 games is a lot. You never really know how to navigate it until you actually have to go through it. It\u2019s a grind. But it\u2019s a great grind.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you ask professional athletes, they\u2019ll tell you. Losing is no fun. But in Major League Baseball, losing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":820687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-820686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=820686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/820687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}