This looks like a bunch of hogwash. Either you are good even to win or not. You gota have the players to be competitive!

“The Royals were stumbling through another loss when the newest member of the organization walked into an empty room overlooking the field at Kauffman Stadium. A 53-year-old psychologist sat in a cushioned chair, glanced down at the diamond and began to explain.

My job here,Andrew Jacobs said over the sound of fans, is to be of assistance to the players and coaches to help them mentally deal with whatever it is they have to deal with, whether its a personal issue or a professional issue.

Jacobs role with the team was only two weeks old, but his path to the job stretched a long way back, down two different roads.

One went back to Royals general manager Dayton Moores first face-to-face conversation with manager Trey Hillman, when the two men talked about what would be necessary to turn perennial losers into consistent winners.

Dayton and I have been discussing that since the beginning even a little during the interview process, Hillman said. Its about focus and balance, understanding their individual personalities better, and what they have to do day in and day out to be successful, whether its as a starting pitcher, bullpen pitcher, bench player. A sports psychologist helps the players get to know themselves better.

The other path to this place began in a college classroom 30 years earlier, when Jacobs, then a student, picked up a book about sports psychology, a subject most people considered a kind of snake oil.

Now here he was, after 27 years in the business, including time spent with the U.S Olympic team, the Chicago White Sox and the Kansas City Comets %u2014 as well as a 1990 stint with the Royals settling in as another piece of the puzzle that Moore has been assembling as he tries to reverse the Royals fortunes.

This is a game of failure and how you deal with it,Jacobs said. Its a game of negativity. George Brett is in the Hall of Fame, his career batting average is just over .300, he failed nearly twice as many times as he succeeded. So failure is inevitable.