The Alternate Site model is much different than a true minor-league season in many ways, and even now as it’s in its second year of use (at least for another week or so), it can still difficult for some to really focus on the goal there.
“I would say (it’s tough), but it’s a battle you have to have every day with yourself; you have to hold yourself accountable and use the time you have to work on what you work on,” Mike Ford, who started this season at the Yankees’ Alternate Site, said prior to Monday’s game in Baltimore. “You can’t really get too caught up in the other stuff because it will ruin your day.”
Some of those days, for the Yankees’ squad, are games against the crew from the Phillies’ Alternate Site at their Triple-A Lehigh Valley affiliate – a difference from last year where no games were played, but a situation Ford compared to “high school baseball” in a sense.
“It’s tough to take an hour and 15-minute bus ride three times a week to go play Lehigh Valley – it’s kind of like high school baseball again,” Ford smiled. “It’s interesting, but if you go about it the right way, you can get a lot out of it. I used my time wisely there and really focused on getting back here.”
Red Sox manager Alex Cora has said that some of his players shuttling back and forth from the Alternate Site have doted on the fact that it’s tougher to get competitive at-bats in that model, but that’s where Ford says the internal struggle comes in again.
“That’s an interesting one; during a normal year, once you’ve played here and you personally know what you can do at this level, that’s when at-bats get competitive again,” Ford said. “It’s difficult at the Alt Site because you’re facing the same guys every third day; they know you, you know them, and you probably don’t get the sequences you get in a normal day – I think one time I got six sliders in a row there. It’s the best they can do right now, but even in a normal year, this is just a different level.”
So, what have the Yankees done to help fight that malaise? Well, that’s where Ford’s mustache comes in – it’s both proof of, and rebellion against, an Alternate Site team bonding exercise.
“We grew these as a joke at the Alternate Site, and the joke was that the first guy up was definitely going to shave it,” Ford laughed. “I said no, and kept it around for the boys a little bit.”
And that’s where one other baseball bond comes in: superstition.
“I think we’re 4-2 with it, so we have to keep riding it and see where it goes!”
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
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