Altoona Curve manager Michael Ryan gets to sleep in his own bed during each home stand, something many minor league coaches can only dream of.
The Indiana, PA native gets to manage the Altoona Curve an hour away from home and go home to his family after each home game.
Many minor league coaches and even major league coaches go months at a time without seeing their families due to being in another town with a brutal schedule laid out over a few months in the summer. Ryan, however, is a lucky one.
“It’s been easy, the front office has really taken care of us. It just feels completely like home,” Ryan said of the Curve organization. “There’s a lot of support from my hometown. People from my area coming down.”
Playing in front of the home town crowd is both a blessing and a curse. It’s always wonderful to play in front of familiar faces, but that adds some stress to perform for them at your best each time out.
“You want to try and impress them or whoever so you want to be on top of your game every night,” Ryan said.
And while the desire to impress will always be there when faces you know are in the stands, Ryan gets to go home to his family each night when Altoona is in town.
“I get to see my family every night when we are home so it’s been great,” Ryan said.
But there is much more to Ryan and his story as first-year manager of the Altoona Curve than just a guy who has the pleasure of sleeping in his own bed and seeing his family often throughout the season.
The Learning Curve
Ryan coached the 2016 edition of the Bradenton Marauders to the Florida State League championship last season, so the Curve manager is no slouch when it comes to coaching professionally. However, there is a learning curve that comes with the promotion to the Double-A level from Single-A for managers and players alike. The game remains the same, but the strategy is what changes.
“It’s (Double-A baseball) more strategy that’s what it’s taught me. You gotta be aware when the pitcher’s spot comes up in National League games,” Ryan said. “Lineups might change when it’s an American League game.”
The construction of lineups is difficult no matter what level of baseball is being played, but the construction of lineups with pitchers hitting provides managers with difficult decisions hours before games even start.
“What lineup you’re going to put together in the morning because you have to think of double switches before the game even starts,” Ryan said.
The game of baseball at the Double-A level begins a chess match that continues until the Major League level with double switches, pitchers hitting, and the use of the bullpen. Many times in lower levels of professional baseball, coaches put pitchers on the mound looking for outs and development rather than focusing on certain match-ups. Not so at the Double-A level according to Ryan.
“In low-a or high-a you aren’t going to be matching-up out of the bullpen. You just gotta be thinking three or four innings ahead,” Ryan said of his strategy in the Altoona Curve dugout.
Imprinting his own style
Managers love putting their personal stamp on teams, Ryan is no different as he wants his players to play the same way he did during the entirety of his professional baseball career.
“As a manager you want your club to resemble you or have your attitude and I try to develop that toughness and play hard every night for 9 innings and they do a great job of playing the game the right way,” Ryan said of his 2017 Altoona Curve squad.
And while imprinting his personal style on the members of the team is a key component to having success at the Double-A level, relationship building is even more pivotal as players develop.
“Building relationships with players is key. I played for a bunch of managers who i had no relationship with and didnt feel like they cared about me,” Ryan said. “The game nowadays, they have a lot more they can take advantage of with strength coaches, meals everyday, and different programs.”
Knowing the game is more than baseball and that coaches as well as others within the organization care for you both on and off the field can go a long way in the development of players as both men and athletes.
“The whole organization instills developing relationship with players more of a personal aspect. I’m a firm believer that if you show that you truly care for the player you’ll get the most out of them and that’s what we try to do here,’ Ryan said.
Advice to other coaches
The art of coaching is not for everybody. It takes an inordinate amount of patience, tenacity, ability, and even luck to get to the professional level. Coaching is essentially an art form, a chess match if you will, that allows individuals to put players in the best positions to succeed and overcome to win games and develop.
Much like playing the game of baseball, coaching is incredibly frustrating whether you’re at the professional level or even the little league level, but Ryan has some advice for those coaches.
“Don’t get frustrated with a player because those countless hours you put in with them, they will figure it out on their time. It’s on their clock not yours,” Ryan said of the building frustration coaches go through. “Each conversation you have with them, everything you do with your actions is important and they’ll figure it out.”
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