Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin imparts wisdom on annual visit to Pirates camp

BRADENTON -- The Pittsburgh Pirates are looking to build off three consecutive playoff appearances.

So a special guest with a championship pedigree arrived at the McKechnie Field clubhouse Monday morning.

Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, who won a Super Bowl in 2009, made his annual visit with Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert to watch the last bit of team development for the Pirates before they depart Bradenton this week for Major League Baseball's regular season next week.

Tomlin's motto for the Buccos was to be where they are.

"When you get to toward the end of a training session, it's human nature to kind of pack your bags mentally and physically some and sit them in the hallway," he said. "(I) always make a conscious effort not to do so. I try to squeeze every drop out of Latrobe that can I squeeze out of Latrobe. And I encourage these guys to do the same down here in Bradenton."

But don't expect Tomlin to switch sports. He said his baseball skills are minimal, pretty good in his mind and he'd be better off coaching.

"I'd like to maybe be a third base coach," Tomlin said. "I'd send everybody."

Tomlin, though, has three children, Mason, Michael Dean and Harlyn Quinn, who he takes to games.

They view football and baseball differently.

"If they see (Andrew McCutchen) or (Josh Harrison), those are sports stars," Tomlin said. "It's a little bit of a difference. Antonio (Brown) is just a guy that works with

dad."

Tomlin said when he visits in the spring, he gravitates toward familiar faces like reliever Jared Hughes, who he's joked in past visits could play tight end for the Steelers.

"There's a good (connectivity) with sports in Pittsburgh," said Pirates pitcher Gerrit Cole, who has become the club's ace and was made his MLB debut in 2013. "We all have the same colors. And we all play with the same kind of identity. So it's nice to hear a different perspective with the same kind of core values."

Pirates manager Clint Hurdle agreed: "Different guys gravitate to different speakers. Mike had a whole bunch of guys on the edge of their seat, leaning forward listening, which is always good and fresh at the end of camp."

With the regular season looming soon, the Pirates are transitioning into the games count portion of the year.

And Tomlin's visit meant a chance to express the Buccos are where they need to be at this point of the camp.

"As coaches or people in positions of leadership, I don't care if it's sport or business for that matter, we have a bunch of individual relationships," Tomlin said. "And I think that if you want to get the best out of the people that you work with, it's important to have those intimate relationships. That you understand them and by that I mean understand them personally with their hopes, dreams are, what their fears are, what motivates them, etc. There's no shortcut in terms of developing those real meaningful relationships. You've got to get intimate with people. You've got to have a knowledge of who and what they are."

Just don't expect him to take batting practice against some 95 mile per hour heaters anytime soon.

"Everybody's got something a little dirty about their jobs," Tomlin said. "That's an element of baseball that I respect."

Jason Dill, sports reporter, can be reached at 745-7017 or via email at jdill@bradenton.com. Follow him on Twitter @Jason__Dill and like his Facebook page at Jason Dill Bradenton Herald.

This story was originally published March 28, 2016 at 11:54 PM with the headline "Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin imparts wisdom on annual visit to Pirates camp ."