Very Important, or Not

I was looking over the tiny type of the Transactions notices of the Tribune sports’ section yesterday when I saw that the Mariners had hired someone as their “director of high performance.”  Thinking Seattle had confused Halloween with April Fool’s, I checked on the their website.  No joke, Dr. Lorena Martin will now be the person in charge of…what, exactly?

According to the story on the Mariners’ website, Martin will be “responsible for coordinating all aspects of the team’s mental-training approach of players and staff, including the entire organization’s medical, strength and conditioning, nutrition and mental skills departments.”  Wow.

In other words, Martin will have a crucial say in how players train, take care of themselves and approach the mental challenges of their sport.  Apparently, the Mariners are tired of paying money to people who don’t play.  The story on Martin noted that last year, seventeen Mariners on the disabled list received $43 million while injured, third only to the Dodgers ($58 million) and Mets ($49 million). 

This is progress of a sort, I guess.  If a woman can decide how players and staff (coaches, yes?) should train, the day could come when she decides which players and staff are worth training.  Maybe.  I think.