It’s the early favorite for sports quote of the year, uttered by a former Arizona Wildcat and applicable to all current Wildcats.
Nick Foles talked about the value of failure after leading the Philadelphia Eagles to an upset victory in Super Bowl LII on Sunday.
“Failure is a part of life,” Foles said during the annual next-day news conference for the Super Bowl MVP — which, improbably, happened to be him. “It’s a part of building character and growing. Without failure, who would you be? I wouldn’t be up here if I hadn’t fallen thousands of times.”
Failure is most certainly a part of baseball. The best hitters “fail” about two-thirds of the time.
Nick Quintana, Arizona’s sophomore third baseman, needed to fail in order to succeed, too. As a freshman last year, Quintana performed so well, so fast that there was nowhere to go but down. His start was unsustainable.
The struggles that ensued might have been the best thing that could have happened to him.
Quintana enters this season, which starts a week from Friday, with a revamped swing and a new perspective.
“Last season was really good for me,” Quintana said Tuesday. “It was an eye-opener. It taught me what I need to do for this year.”
After Pac-12 pitchers adjusted to him last season, Quintana and the UA coaching staff spent the offseason working on their own modifications. When he first started playing for the Wildcats, it wasn’t evident that he needed any.
Through his first 17 games at the UA — capped by a 4-for-7 performance in his first conference game, at UCLA — Quintana was batting .422. More than a month later, Quintana’s average remained robust. After going 4 for 4 against New Mexico State, Quintana sat at .354.
Then, as Quintana put it, “I kind of got into a funk.” Over his final 19 games, he managed just 10 hits in 64 at-bats — an average of .156.
Quintana’s initial success not only prompted opposing pitchers to attack him differently — they threw more off-speed stuff to the outer half of the plate to the freshman, who had become pull-happy – it also altered his approach.
“I tried to do too much,” Quintana said. “No one was expecting me to be the best player on the team. (But) then, once I started to do well, it was, ‘OK, I could do more.’ That thought just got in my head – ‘You’ve gotta do more, you’ve gotta do more.’ It kind of negatively affected me.”
It’s difficult to make major swing adjustments in the middle of a season. By the time Quintana entered that funk phase, it was too late for an overhaul. His torrid start also deterred the coaches. They weren’t inclined to try to fix something that didn’t appear to be broken.
“When a guy starts off like that,” UA coach Jay Johnson said, “it’s almost hard to have any credibility and go to him and say, ‘Hey, we need to make some adjustments.’ ”
Quintana played in the Cape Cod League over the summer, with mixed results. He tied for fifth in the league with six home runs. He also ranked second with 50 strikeouts in just 105 at-bats.
When Quintana returned to Tucson for fall-semester practices, the time was right to make changes. Quintana proved to be a willing pupil.
“Nick’s a great baseball guy. He’s very coachable,” Johnson said.
“He eats, sleeps and drinks baseball. Some guys, you have to worry about them playing video games all night. Some guys, you have to worry about off-the-field decision-making. When he wakes up, the first thing on his mind is, how do I become a better player today? The last thing on his mind when he goes to bed is, what do I need to do tomorrow to become a better player?
“We have other guys on our team like that, but he sets the bar in that regard.”
With help from Johnson and hitting instructor Marc Wanaka, Quintana went to work. They altered the right-handed slugger’s bat path and closed his front shoulder to promote a higher contact rate. Johnson instructed Arizona pitchers to work Quintana to the outside, forcing him to stay on the ball and stroke it to the opposite field.
“He’ll text me videos of my at-bats,” Quintana said. “It’s cool to see that what we’re working on is paying off. But I still have a lot more to do.”
With help from assistant coach Sergio Brown, Quintana also has transformed himself as a fielder. Transitioning to third base after playing shortstop at Arbor View High in Las Vegas, Quintana committed a team-high 19 errors. “That’s way too many,” he said.
Quintana since has worked on being lighter on his feet after feeling as if he were flat-footed and “stuck” at times last season.
“It’s like a night-and-day difference,” Quintana said. “That was my first time playing third in a long time. Having a year under my belt, knowing where to play and knowing how the position is so much different from shortstop has helped me. I’ve learned so much.”
Overall, Quintana had an excellent freshman season. He ended up with a .293 average, six home runs, 17 doubles, 38 RBIs and 42 runs. But he knew he could be more consistent.
There’s a reason the Boston Red Sox selected Quintana in the 11th round of the 2016 MLB draft — and why Baseball America ranks him as the top prospect from the Pac-12 for 2019.
“At some point it’s really going to come together, and you’re going to see a good player transformed to an even better player,” Johnson said. “That’s really exciting.”
