During the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, swimmer Amanda Beard went home with three medals – one gold and two silvers – in part because of her tenacity. Oh sure, Beard had a lot of talent. She had to in order to simply make the Olympic team. But the difference between Beard and a middle of the pack swimmer was her mental toughness.
But just being tough against the competition was the least of it. Beard dealt with a lot of pressure that had nothing to do with swimming. That summer, TV cameras followed Beard around, sometimes basing the day’s programming around her basic daily routines. Then there was the promise of fame and money and all of the ancillary trappings that go with that kind of stuff if she swam exceptionally well against the best in the world.
And don’t forget the press attention and the expectations from family and friends as well as the petty jealousies that always seem to crop up when someone is rising faster than expected. In other words, it wasn’t about swimming for Beard. It was about everything, yet through it all she still handled it all with great aplomb.
Now here’s the crazy thing: Beard was just 14 years old during the ’96 games.
At that young of an age she already was as mentally tough as even the most seasoned of athletes. After all, weaklings usually don’t win Olympic medals.
That summer when Beard was swimming her way into the record books, young Gavin Floyd, the pitcher who was just demoted from the Phillies’ rotation to the minors so that he could go get “tough,” was just 13 years old and undoubtedly dominating his baseball league near his hometown Severna Park, Md. Like Beard, Floyd had talent to spare. That much was evident when the Phillies made him the fourth overall pick in the 2001 draft when he was just 18.
In fact, it took a big signing bonus (and the promise to pay for his college studies) to keep Floyd from giving the Phillies the J.D. Drew treatment and enrolling at the University of South Carolina. Once in the minor league system, Floyd’s ascent was quick with very few challenges. His domination in the bushes – one that included a no-hitter in Single-A ball – got to the point where team insiders and observers said that it appeared as if the tall right-hander was bored.
The difficult part, some offered, was hoping that Floyd became engaged in a game, or that his interest was piqued.
That’s not something anybody ever said about the great ones. Beard, at 14, was invested in her sport. The same goes for all of the true competitors in recent sports memory. Michael Jordan with the flu in the NBA Finals. Curt Schilling with the bloody sock in the World Series. Aaron Rowand doing a face plant into an exposed metal bar on a fence.
Heck, even that kid in the National Spelling Bee that fainted, pulled himself off the ground, composed himself and then stepped up to the mic and correctly spelled the word all have something that the fourth pick of the 2001 baseball draft seems to be lacking.
Toughness.
No one is really inspired by the guy with all of the talent in the world who suffers from boredom.
What’s most baffling, according to some of the coaches and players with the Phillies is that Floyd is talented. Actually, he’s very, very talented. But to live up to the expectations others have set for him, as well as the goals he has set for himself, Floyd is going to have to do something he has never had to do before…
Stand up and fight.
“It's just to a point where he has to look down deep within himself and find something that will help him in his career,” catcher Sal Fasano told Phillies.com.
But even with his talent and the soul searching that will come during the next few weeks, there is no guarantee that Floyd will ever return to the Major Leagues. He really has to do some work and it has nothing to do with boning up his repertoire of pitches to accompany one of the most knee-buckling curveballs anyone has ever seen.
“The competition isn't a threat,” team pitching coach Rich Dubee told Phillies.com. “It should be a challenge. It intimidates him sometimes. Everything's life and death, and it doesn't need to be that way. This needs to be something that he enjoys doing. I'm sure he felt extra heat – a lot of a lot of good players have had to go backward to go forward. Hopefully, he can get straightened out and get back up here.”
Some have suggested that Floyd simply needs the tough love, that he needs someone to grab him by the shoulders, shake him, and scream at him, “You are good!” But that metaphoric kick-in-the rear seems so simple and even a little trite. It shouldn’t have to come to that.
After all, no one had to tell 14-year-old Amanda Beard that she was good.