On July 28, 2013 the Miami Marlins hitting coach and former All-Star caliber player Tito Martinez resigned due to allegations of being excessively abusive. Rookie second baseman Derek Dietrich submitted a complaint stating that Tito grabbed him by the neck chain during practice. Apparently, Martinez has been using "intimidation" for some time now. He even used abusive language and had previous complaints from other players. Obviously, Martinez's tactics didn't provide any kind of spark for his players other than adding incentives toward complaining. Currently the Marlins are in last place in scoring. The question here really is did Tito Martinez cross the line?
Discipline is not a nasty word. - Pat Riley
Pat Riley, the Hall of Fame coach and general manager ran notoriously gruesome practices focusing on his philosophy of defense. These practices weren't for the faint of heart and Riley never backed down from any player, in fact, he once threw Shaquille O'Neal out of a practice. This was not a coach who had any fear of a player complaint. Riley's stern example of discipline led him to coach 5 NBA championship teams while adding another two titles as the Miami Heat's general manager. Riley's coaching influence remains with the Miami Heat even today. His protege, Eric Spoelstra's defensive style is a virtual mirror of his mentor's. One could even call this defensive mindedness originated by Riley the very DNA of the team.
I've never known a man worth his salt who in the long run, deep down in his heart, didn't appreciate the grind, the discipline. There is something good in men that really yearns for discipline. -Vince Lombardi
Arguably the greatest football coach of all time, Vince Lombardi was no stranger to enforcing discipline when needed. Lombardi would commonly state, "Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect." Note the use of the phrase "perfect practice". Lombardi knew the path to winning championships would come from a hard-edged style founded in grueling training camps and absolute dedication and effort from his players. His Green Bay packers would become one of the most envied franchises of the 60's leading them to five NFL championships.
But, when does being a tough coach cross the line into being an abusive coach?
Mike Rice the former head coach for the Rutgers basketball team, was fired for being overly abusive. Rice did cross that line resulting to juvenile prejudicial laced slurs and he was overly physically confrontational to these players. What makes this even worse was in the fact that Rice was working and molding the minds of boys on the verge of growing into men. There wasn't any meaningful lesson learned; there was only this violation of trust. What's lost with this style of coaching philosophy (if you can call it that) is the deeper understanding where garnering the respect of your players is absolutely necessary when producing a tough discipline based program and there wasn't any of that. A true leader has to earn the respect of his players just as much as they have to earn his. This video illustrates the thin line between a healthy dose of discipline to that of abuse being crossed:
Anyway, back to the original story, did the Marlins hitting coach Tito Martinez have to resign? He probably should have been let go due to poor job performance, but unless his strong language involved racist slurs or if he physically assaulted his players (grabbing a neck chain is a little over the top, but not like actually kicking or punching someone), he probably should have stayed the course.
Perhaps Tito should have "spared the rod" in his case, he simply wasn't able to develop any kind of trust or respect among his players and frankly this lack of leadership showed on the scoreboard at the end of each game. And, that is the larger tragedy for the Miami Marlins this 2013 season.
Respect is a two-way street, if you want to get it, you've got to give it.
- R. G. Risch
- R. G. Risch
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