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Garza Meets With Sports Psychologist Ravizza

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 20, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - Rays RHP Matt Garza's preparation for today's start against the Astros included a face-to-face conversation Tuesday with sports psychologist Ken Ravizza, author of the book, "Heads-up Baseball: Playing the Game One Pitch at a Time."

Garza already was familiar with Ravizza's work; he said his former team, the Twins, distributed the book to players during spring training last year.

"He's one of those guys who knows the mental side of baseball," Garza said. "He's a good guy to talk to, a guy who listens and a guy who talks to you back."

Ravizza is a professor at Cal State Fullerton and has worked with the Angels, several college teams and several U.S. Olympic teams and individual athletes. He and Rays manager Joe Maddon have known each other since the 1980s, and it was at Maddon's request that Ravizza flew in to consult with Garza about channeling his emotions during a game.

Garza said Ravizza's message included a checklist of ways to identify the signs that his emotions on the mound are about to get the better of him.

"What signs to see, what signs to pick up, how to recognize them and how to avoid them," Garza said. "You can't avoid them. They're going to happen. You just deal with them."

Two starts ago at Texas, Garza and C Dioner Navarro became involved in a disagreement on the mound that escalated into a shoving match in the dugout. Garza rebounded from that to beat the Marlins on Saturday by allowing one run on three hits in seven innings.

BARTLETT SCRATCHED: Rays SS Jason Bartlett was scratched from the lineup after fouling a ball off his left foot. Rookie Evan Longoria, who played shortstop for Rio Hondo Junior College and about 20 games for Long Beach State, moved over from third base.

Longoria wasn't entirely unprepared. He had been taking ground balls at short in preparation for a start or two at that position when Bartlett's baby is born in the coming days. Bartlett is day-to-day.

NOTEWORTHY: SS Ben Zobrist returned to the lineup Thursday for Triple-A Durham. He had been out with a mild shoulder strain. ... Baseball commissioner Bud Selig told Howard Bryant of ESPN.com that the Rays "can't make it in that ballpark," meaning Tropicana Field. Selig also told Bryant, "The demographics of the Tampa-St. Pete area are good enough for baseball," and mentioned that there are "people who think it needs to be on the Tampa side." But that, Selig added, was best left to the discretion of Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg.

Carter Gaddis

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