June swoon haunts Ingram again

Sincerity shines from Rock Cats manager Riccardo Ingram as he contemplates the reasons for his team’s recent inability to win.

Seven consecutive defeats, the last four by one run, have him gripping the lifeline with determination, but determination is a quality that he can’t realistically transfer to the 24 men who go out and play the game. The wear-and-tear of the fruitless stretch has him searching for answers and absorbing the self-punishment that such experiences bring.

The answers are manifested in clichés that thousands of managers before him have uttered.

“Somebody in the bullpen has got to step up.”

“They’re coming out of the bullpen with fresh arms. They’ve got to throw strikes.”

“We’re just not getting the clutch hits when we get the chance.”

“We’ve got to do the little things.”

Last year in his first crack as a Double-A manager, the kindness and authenticity that characterize his nature were not enough to reverse the losing pattern. He was unable to use the traits that come naturally to him to motivate players who had more powerful negative forces at work.

He nearly willed a talented but flawed 2006 team back to .500 by June 4, only to go on a road trip to Akron, Harrisburg and Binghamton and watch it lose in every conceivable way. Eight straight losses. Even the return home couldn’t make it any better than 11 setbacks in 12 games.
Ingram’s Double-A debut had drifted into oblivion.

This year would be different. Perhaps he would be a little tougher. He would toss a bucket of cold water on any smoldering, selfish resentment about players being underappreciated and held captive at a level beneath what they deserve.

The chemistry is much better. Every position player is contributing. The team hits with consistency. It never gives up until the last out is recorded. But can history be repeating itself?
The Rock Cats battled their way to the loftiest record they’d had since teenaged wunderkind Joe Mauer arrived from Class A Fort Myers in June, 2003, and shouldered the hopes of a winning season in the hearts of the ever-growing band of New Britain faithful. A playoff berth was the result.

The extended homestand of early June didn’t provide the benefits that Ingram would have preferred (7-6), but nonetheless, the Rock Cats were embarking on a foreboding six-game Southern Division tour at 31-26.

Seven defeats later, including Monday night’s homecoming calamity, are the 2007 Rock Cats destined to stagger down the same meandering downhill path that their predecessors tread?
Although Ingram covers it up adeptly with the broad smile and genuine expression that are his trademarks, a proud manager with a winning tradition seems to be allowing losses to burrow deeper into his heart and mind. He isn’t the first. He won’t be the last.

The mid-June changes that brought us Mauer and Matt Garza in years past have begun. One veteran reliever plagued by inconsistency is gone. Others are likely to end up down or out before the week ends.

The question that looms as the final four games of this crucial series with New Hampshire unfolds is whether Ingram can prevent another June swoon from writing another painful epitaph.