He was there for curiosity reasons along with potential educational benefits and catching up with someone who welcomed him when he first came to town. Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is a baseball fan as said they talked before the workout and Shelton was really interested in how the Steelers run practice.
“It was kind of cool to see them put it in play, how they start their practice with the 7 drill (seven shots drill with offense getting the ball at the defense’s two-yard line getting seven opportunities to score) was interesting, because he and I had talked about it and he kind of explained it to me. And then the intensity of football players, there was some trash talking going on which I really enjoyed.”
He explained how Tomlin told him he likes to do the seven-shots drill early in the practice because it helps raise the intensity from the beginning. That way you make sure everyone is ready. Shelton has tried to do replicate with a drill or two where there is a winner or loser, but it’s hard to have baseball practices at game speed.
“That’s the biggest difference of what we always try to figure out in baseball is how we can do that,” Shelton said. “But we have tried to implement how we can create those situations, especially defensively.”
Shelton said they’ve tried to use machines to replace game conditions, but it’s hard especially when you play every day.
The Pirates manager mentioned trash talking a second time, you feel it’s something he doesn’t mind even if his team would do it a little. He chuckled in thinking of putting his roster in college dorms during a training camp. Essentially, that’s what some of the minor leaguers do, but there are likely hundreds of MLB players who have never been in university housing.
He called the morning with the Steelers at St. Vincent College a great time as along with talking with Tomlin, former Steelers general manager and Pittsburgher Kevin Colbert.
“There’s a definite friendship, and I appreciate that,” Shelton said of Tomlin. “He reached out as soon as I got the job five years ago, and that means a lot to me because he’s been here a long time and has had a lot of success. The fact of being able to develop that.”
“He likes baseball. When we sat down today and started to talk, he’s very well aware of what we’re doing. He’s excited about our guys. He wanted to talk about specific players.”
“That’s cool. That means a lot to me. If you spend any time around him, you walk away better because he’s got a ton of energy, he’s very thoughtful about what he’s doing and he’s been able to be very successful at it, so I appreciate any time I’m able to get around him.”