SARASOTA, Fla. -- If you have played baseball or softball, then you know all about running to first base. Easy, right? Hit the ball, fling the bat away -- without separating the catcher from his teeth -- and go like crazy down the line.
Turns out it's far more complicated than that. Much more. Tom Trebelhorn, the former Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs manager hired by the Orioles to teach base running in spring training this year, has broken down the five-second sprint into increments.
Twenty increments.
It's all typed on a sheet that Trebelhorn carries with him: How you drop your bat, and with which hand. How you get out of the box. Where you look, and when. How you move your arms.
This is what you get when you hire an expert temp; Trebelhorn, 47, will tutor Orioles minor-leaguers until April 15, when he'll leave to manage a team in the fledgling independent Western League of Washington.
"We're lucky to have a guy like that," said Syd Thrift, the Orioles' director of player development, "with his level of knowledge."
Or his experience. Ten years in the big leagues managing and coaching. He got his start under Thrift in 1975, managing the Oakland Athletics' farm club in Boise, Idaho.
Trebelhorn's first notable student at Boise was an outfielder with explosive speed and so much talent that he overwhelmed his flaws. A guy named Rickey Henderson, who went on to become baseball's all-time leading base stealer and give much credit to Trebelhorn for his development as a base runner.
"I'm here to pick up a few holes [in the base running]," Trebelhorn said, "and present some things to the staff. I've managed for a long time, and I've got an idea of what does and doesn't work. . . . As it turned out, I'm glad I'm working with an organization that has a perspective [on replacement players] that makes sense."
And, he adds, he's happy to be employed -- a little jab at himself. Last October, Trebelhorn was fired by the Cubs, who had one of the stranger seasons in their rather skewed history.
On the road, they were solid; 29 wins, 25 losses. But at Wrigley Field, Chicago was terrible -- 20-39. The Cubs were an afterthought in the NL Central race when the strike began Aug. 12.
Trebelhorn waited for word of his future. Nothing was said after the Cubs hired Andy MacPhail as team president in September. There was still no word in the days immediately after MacPhail picked Ed Lynch as general manager.
Trebelhorn was preparing to leave for a promotional tour Oct. 14, a Friday, until he got a message from the Cubs. Please come to the office for an important meeting Monday. Trebelhorn canceled his trip and went to Chicago.
He walked into Lynch's office, was told his contract would not be renewed, and then walked out. All in five minutes. "I put on a coat and tie for nothing," Trebelhorn said.
"I can understand it -- they had a new president and a new general manager and they wanted to make some changes. I've been on the other end of that myself.
"The situation talent-wise on the club was not as good as it was when I came in. Talent-wise, we didn't keep up. . . . We lost [Greg] Maddux, we lost the leadership of Andre Dawson, we lost Ryne Sandberg, and we didn't have the replacement parts that we thought would do the job."
Trebelhorn talked with other clubs about minor-league positions. But in mid-November, he decided to take a job as manager of the Tri-Cities Posse, for one year. Trebelhorn's taste for the minors, he said, was whetted by his scouting trips to Des Moines, Iowa, and Orlando after the strike began.
"I enjoyed going back there," Trebelhorn said. "The players were all playing hard, the fans had fun. The whole thing jump-started me again.
"I think it's a good opportunity. We need to enhance the game of baseball, and this will help get [independent leagues started]. You go past a basketball court and you'll see kids out there playing. You drive past a baseball field and nobody's there, whereas in the past, you might see people playing 5-on-5 or 6-on-6. We need to make baseball viable again."
ORIOLES SPRING ROTATION
These are the Orioles' five starters for spring training exhibitions against other minor-leaguers. "If we can't win with these guys," said pitching coach Mike Flanagan, "we deserve to be fired."
Pitcher, Comment
1. John DeSilva, RHP Acquired from Dodgers for John O'Donoghue
2. Frank Seminara, RHP Signed as minor-league free agent in off-season
3. Rick Forney, RHP Pitched perfect game for Double-A Bowie last July
4. Matt Jarvis, LHP Won 10 games for Single-A Frederick in 1994
5. Garrett Stephenson, RHP Averaged 8.9 strikeouts per nine IP over his career