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Riggleman irate over reports of "pettiness, jealousy" within clubhouse
Posted
at
4:36 pm
by By Kirby Arnold
Mariners manager Jim Riggleman just spent 15 minutes responding tersely to a newspaper report today that clubhouse tension became so great this season that some players considered "going after" Ichiro Suzuki becaues of what they considered "selfish" play by the star outfielder.
The story, in the Seattle Times, quoted an unnamed "clubhouse insider" who pointed out the turmoil that led to a team meeting to settle the situation.
Riggleman said there was never a team meeting, although he met individually with nearly every player on the team to discuss multiple issues, including vibes he got that some players felt others should be doing more.
Mostly, though, Riggleman scorched players for airing gripes in the media and not directly with him or Suzuki. Here's what he said:
“We’ve had a real tough year and lost so many games. These type things surface when a ballclub loses a lot of games. You’re going to have some griping and finger pointing.
“I can honestly tell you that I don’t remember any time when I was coaching or managing here where it was at the point where somebody was going to go after somebody.
“People saying those things anonymously need to look in the mirror about their own performances.
“Everybody has got some deficiencies, starting at the top. I feel like that I prepare myself as much as you can prepare, but my preparation pales in comparison to Ichiro’s preparation. Sometimes, if everybody prepared as hard and worked as hard as Ichiro and Ibanez, we probably wouldn’t have lost so many games.
“The things they’re referring to, it’s almost a style of play, using the word selfish and stuff like that. It’s hard to comprehend that somebody is looking at 200-plus hits and it’s (considered) not helping the ballclub. If there are aspects of his game that people are upset about, they need to bring that to Ichiro or to me, not anonymously.
“Just to snipe at each other, that’s junior high rumoring and cliques and stuff.”
Riggleman was asked what would drive a player to say something.
“Pettiness. Seventh-grade mentality. Jealousy, pointing fingers, deflecting responsibility, lack of accountability. It’s a lack of character.
“You’re not seeing this happen on winning teams right now. But if those winning teams go out and lose 100 games next year, you’re going to see some of it.
“Your character is tested in bad times, not good times. I feel like for the most part our guys have held up very well. There are examples of a lack of character when people take shots at each other in the paper.
"You get a feeling for who those people are and try to eliminate those people. The rats are the first ones off the ship. They’re the ones scavenging everything on the ship while it’s floating good, but when it’s sinking the rats are the first ones to abandon ship.
“Talk is cheap. You can go on and on about somebody pointing fingers, somebody who didn’t lead, all those things.
“But the bottom line is we didn’t pitch good enough and we didn’t hit good enough. We as managers and coaches have to play attention to detail -- make sure the cutoff man is in the right place, make sure that we are doing our fundamentals, that we’re lined up right on a rundown, throwing to the right place. If we do all that and we don’t pitch well enough and don’t hit well enough, we’re going to come in last. If you pitch good and you hit good and you pay attention to detail, you’re going to have a chance to win.
“We’re 11th in the league in pitching. I’ll guarantee you that some of those people pointing fingers are pitchers. Some of that sniping that’s going on is from pitchers.
“If I was a part of a staff that’s 11th in the league in pitching, I don’t think I’d be saying too much.”
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