TUPATALK: Good luck to the Bartlesville Doenges Ford team in their quest

Good luck to the Bartlesville Doenges Ford Indians in their quest for success at this week’s Stan Musial World Series.

I really believe the Indians can beat anyone on a given day. Hitting — impact offense (hits with runners on base, groundouts to advance runners, sacrifices, stolen bases, walks/HBP’s) — has seemed to be the competitive key.

However, let’s look at the big picture — this is a team that has 23-12-1 and has beaten Three Rivers (multiple times), the Fort Smith Sportsman crew, Marucci Midwest PWP and some other very strong teams.

The Indians have successfully negotiated several important games in their favor, or at least given themselves a winning chance.

ONE FINAL HURRAHDoenges Boys fall, to play in Musial WS this week

I think the challenge for coach John Pannell has been — as it always is with a strong program — putting people in the right spots to succeed and utilizing their talent as much as possible.

Baseball is an odd duck in some ways — not everyone one is ‘on’ every single day — or even every single week.

But, the coach doesn’t have a crystal ball to know where to put every player every day to maximize momentum and sync.

In that way, I think baseball is the hardest sport of all to coach.

In football, it’s mainly about running faster, hitting harder, throwing and catching better and tackling properly.

Not to say the psychological aspect isn’t important, but without the physicality and athleticism to back it up, football strategizing is kind of a futile art.

Basketball is along the same line of football, albeit, the coach has to be more focused on on-the-court chemistry, role-defining, and teamwork. Even so, basketball is still mostly a game decided on a physical realm.

SUMMER STROKES: Doenges Boys driving other teams batty

But, there is such a high quotient of mental and psychological aspects to baseball that the coach really has no measuring stick as to where a player is at.

Good coaches learned how to read the signs of players about how they’re reacting to a situation, but even that’s an inexact science.

I think that’s what makes baseball such a unique sport — it’s both the ultimate individual and team sport.

Each player has to do their job in their own individual realm on defense.

Each batter is kind of an island, even if he’s given instructions as to what the coach wants.

But, the players also have to mesh together in pitching, defense and offense.

Anyway, hopefully the Indians can win multiple games this week and challenge for the title.

This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: Doenges Ford look to play effectively at Stan Musial World Series