McGee Connects 1982 to 2015

At Busch Stadium to throw out a ceremonial first pitch in conjunction with his bobblehead night, St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Famer Willie McGee turned down one request by manager Mike Matheny.

“I was sitting there wrestling with him a little bit, trying to get him suited up to come out here and he gave me the ‘oh no, man,'” shared Matheny. “He’s one of those guys, I think every time we have him around here we have a chance to get better.”

“That sounds like Mike,” smiled Willie. “He’s one of my favorite people in the game–him and John Mabry, they’re excellent people. Quality people and they care. I just told him–he wanted me to go on the field. He’s been asking me but right now I don’t feel comfortable doing it. Next year, I’ll phase myself in–come in, slip on a uniform and go out sometime during BP. Come back in and sit under there and watch video, be kind of an eye in the sky. This time, I just don’t feel myself that the time is right. I’m not comfortable right now.”

McGee has been in contact a couple of times with Matheny and Mabry this season to share some of his observations and Tommy Pham shared that McGee helped him a couple of seasons ago with his mental approach–letting the game come to him.

“That kid deserves all the credit–that kid has worked his butt off,” stated McGee. “I saw him play in Double-A a couple of years ago and I thought right then, out of the whole organization, that he could’ve held his own in the big leagues. That’s just my opinion. I’m not saying he could’ve done it then, but he looked like he was ready to hold his own and he’s got a great work ethic. He prepares himself well mentally and physically.

“He’s come a long way mentally–that’s the most impressive part of his game to me,” continued McGee. “All these guys talent. When I go into these cities, all I do is talk about the mental game: preparation, everyday routines, keeping an even keel, not cussing, not getting mad–you get upset, but you’ve got to control it.”

The knowledge and approach from McGee is well-earned. Despite his accomplishments which include an MVP award, Gold Gloves, and batting titles, Willie can also relate to the setbacks of the marathon that is a baseball season.

“You deal with it,” he advised. “There’s many nights I didn’t sleep, for weeks on end. You don’t sleep because you’re not doing what you’re supposed to do. If you take pride and you put in a lot of work, especially in the offseason, it’s hard to accept failure.”

The relationship with Ozzie Smith is well-known, but McGee also praised George Hendrick and Gene Tenace among other veterans for what they taught during that 1982 World Championship season.

“He was a big brother, a mentor, an experienced figure who knew what it takes,” he said of Tenace. “He’d be walking up and down the dugout making sure that we were paying attention to the game back then. What’s the score? If you couldn’t answer it right, then you felt bad so you started paying attention.”

And while the wording is slightly different than the mantra we hear from Matheny and the players in the clubhouse today, the message from 1982 seems very familiar.

“You’ve got to worry about doing your job and everybody did their job,” said McGee. “It’s just a game. If I don’t play the game today for what it is today, tomorrow doesn’t matter or the day before that doesn’t matter. We just worried about today. Getting that day done and everything else takes care of itself.”

“It’s all about today’s game–just like these guys. It’s not about tomorrow. It’s not about two weeks from now, it’s not about the playoffs. It’s about their job is to go out there and play the best game they can today and try to score more runs than the opposition. It’s simple as that. If they do that, say we’ve got 20 more games left. We do that 20 times, we don’t to worry about anything.”