Lakeland, Fla. — Fierce competitiveness can work for you and against you — especially in a game like baseball, with its long stretches of inactivity, its intense bursts of activity and its high failure rate.
Tigers left fielder Mikie Mahtook is a perfect test case for that dynamic. His fierce competitiveness, his fearless football player’s mentality, is his edge. It’s what helped get him to the big leagues.
But an edgy competitiveness can morph quickly into angst when things aren’t going well. Manager Ron Gardenhire saw that happening with Mahtook earlier this spring after a few ugly at-bats.