A remedy for the worst two-year stretch in the history of Penn baseball will not be an easy thing to find.
But for new head coach John Cole, who takes over this season for Bob Seddon, the first step may just be a much-needed kick in the pants.
Seddon resigned after 34 years, having reached the postseason five times. However, his retirement comes in the wake of seven losing records in his last nine years.
Building takes a winning attitude, especially as the Quakers are coming off a 10-26 season in 2004 and an 11-27 season last year.
"They've struggled here lately," Cole said. "And when you're struggling, you've got to change some attitudes and get them into more of a winning mindset."
And through the fall and winter workouts as well as the first half-dozen practices outdoors, Cole and his first-year assistants Ryan Wheeler and Nolan Neiman have seen that attitude shift reflected in the quality of the practices.
"We're very impressed with the intensity ... and the desire to get better."
At least for this season, Cole's job will be to play doctor and heal up the ailing patient that is the baseball program.
Seddon departed from a team that had lost its final eight games by a combined score of 91-27. Penn's top hitter -- outfielder Nate Moffie -- was graduating and taking his .340 batting average with him.
Meanwhile, five other starting position players are no longer on the roster, leaving first baseman Sean Abate and third baseman Kyle Armeny as the only returning starters in the field.
Armeny is expected to make the transition to left field this season.
On the pitching side, two of the four starters -- Brian Cirri and Nick Francona -- return from a staff that had a 6.16 ERA last year. Strikeout leader Josh Appell is now in the minor leagues, while Remington Chin, who set a team record for appearances, also graduated.
In most cases, it is difficult to view having a young, inexperienced team as more than another obstacle to overcome. However, for Cole, it could very well end up being a positive.
Young players like starting pitcher Steven Schwartz, outfielder Jarron Smith and infielder Alex Nwaka will be forced to take on much more extensive roles this year. They will do so with the mindset that the new staff has been trying so hard to install.
And that kick in the pants couldn't hurt the seniors either.
"The biggest change is the intensity during practice," said Cirri, who led the team with a 4.31 ERA last year and will join Abate as co-captain.
"We tend to practice more with a game atmosphere, so when we go out there, we're more prepared to play."
Saturday, when the Quakers open their season against Eckerd in Florida, we'll see just how much more prepared they really are.
And a team without a lot of game-tested talent will begin to find out how far a little attitude adjustment can go.
Zachary Levine is a junior mathematics major from Delmar, N.Y., and former Sports Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. His e-mail address is zlevine@sas.upenn.edu.
