I interviewed John Wetteland Friday night at the A’s game. He’s first-year bullpen coach for the Mariners and as you know grew up in Sebastopol and attended Cardinal Newman High School. Here’s part of our interview.
This is your first year with the club. How did it come about that you’re with Seattle?
Because Don Wakamatsu’s the manager. We coached together for many years in the Texas organization. We understand each other’s coaching style. We understand each other as people.
What did you do the last two years?
I was teaching high school. It was beautiful. 11th grade boys. It was where I wanted to be.
Then why did you come to the Mariners?
Because of Don Wakamatsu. I wouldn’t say yes to anyone else.
(He says friends from Sonoma County came down to Friday night’s game.) I’m the black sheep. Everyone else is doctors or presidents of marketing for big companies and all this stuff and I’m just a baseball player. They actually used their education and I used it in a different way. They went to Stanford and schools like this and I went away to play baseball. So black sheep.
Do you go back to Sonoma County?
No. I have five children and I live in Texas. During baseball season I don’t get many days off. That’s not to say I don’t miss it. It’s beautiful. Growing up where the mom and pop wineries are and driving down the Russian River, stuff like that. It’s gorgeous. I still miss that. I remember it like it was yesterday. We’re having our 25th reunion this year – Cardinal Newman and Ursuline. I can’t make that again. I can never make the reunions because it’s in August. We’ll be in Texas on those dates.
But you’re aware of it.
Oh, yeah, it breaks my heart. We stay in touch. We have our own website.
Did you read the Press Democrat when you were a kid?
No. (Pauses) I still don’t read newspapers. I read newspapers, I don’t read the sports pages. Bores me to tears.
You don’t like the writing?
Think about it. It’s what I did for a living and now I coach it. You think someone who writes probably knows better. It’s not a slight. It’s just how could you? Give me politics. Give me op ed. I don’t read the sports page. There’s so much more going on in this world. Sports is not an escape for me. OK? And I think therein lies the difference. For many people it is. It’s the Roman Colosseum all over again. And that’s OK. It’s awesome. It’s healthy, cathartic. It’s not that for me. It’s something I need to execute. There’s a whole different perspective I have and that’s why maybe I can’t enjoy it the same way. I only watch baseball to learn from it, not to enjoy it. If I saw a sequence of pitches I’d know the batter is perfectly set up for a slider here. The pitcher throws a fastball and the guy hits a home run and I’m sitting there going, “You had him if you’d have paid attention.” So I watch it differently because I understand sequencing and all that sort of stuff and the fan doesn’t, and that’s OK. It’s just I can’t see it the same way.
What was your mentality as a closer – I can get you out.
(Interrupts) It was foregone. I’m going to get you out. Absolutely. A lot of things you could tell from the hitter, if he takes a pitch, where he fouls the ball off – does it go straight? – the hips, the shoulders, does he make his move into the plate, does he step into the bucket? All these things tell you information.
How do you teach as a coach?
It’s the small things that count, the tiny tiny things. Where you shag in the outfield. We shag about 50 feet behind second base, behind the infield. You watch your hitters. You study swings. You understand what their body does. You start to understand with that swing they’re physically incapable of hitting certain pitches. It’s a spot that gets a lot of action – you’ll get a lot of balls there. It just so happens that puts you about 60 feet from the net, which is what we do at the office. We throw the ball 60 feet. Here it comes. You throw a fastball. It doesn’t mean you air it out, but you make sure it’s authoritative. You notice one thing about all people who are great at what they do. They have their routine. Wade Boggs ate chicken at the same time every day. Do you think that eating chicken really made him a 330 plus hitter? It’s the fact he did it always at a particular time and after that he was “Everything’s OK.” For me it was getting to the park and doing all the crosswords. That was my transition from my home life. Now I exercised my brain at something that was neither here nor there. Now I could get into my work. Or think about Tony Gwinn. He was extremely good at one thing. You can add things but always make sure that one thing is always there for you. When I was a rookie I always got to the park early and I sat in the dugout. And he’s out there at 1:00 o’clock in the afternoon and he’s hitting the practice pitcher and there’s one man with a bucket in left center field. Now there’s a couple of balls in center and there’s a couple of balls in left but Tony was taking every pitch and hitting line drives over the shortstop. The bucket would fill up and the guy would run it in and go back out there. This is after all the batting titles and he is still doing the one thing he’s known for. That speaks volumes for anyone who wants to pay attention.
