Yankees hitting coach James Rowson takes his students' at-bats very personally

During a conversation in May 2011, Kevin Long, then in his fifth year as Yankees hitting coach but still in the early stages of a career in which he would be recognized as one of the best in the game at that job, spoke about the nature of his position.

It's a position that, at its essence, oversees the “failure” part of baseball, a sport long referred to as “a game of failure” because of the difficulty of hitting. A player who succeeds three out of 10 times at the plate likely is Hall of Fame-bound.

"Very personal," Long said. "It's my job. It's my livelihood. It's kind of what allows me to sleep at night or not sleep at night. It seems like there's always a guy or two that's struggling, and my job is to get him on track as quick as possible. So when they struggle, I struggle. I feel like I'm going through their at-bats with them . . . I feel their pain and I feel what they're going through. If I didn't feel that, then something would be wrong.”

James Rowson, in his third season as the Yankees' hitting coach, in his 12th season on a big-league staff and in his 25th season in professional baseball, smiled when Long’s quote was read back to him.

“Absolutely. Kev hit this right on the button because it is personal,” Rowson told Newsday. “You lose sleep over it because you know they are. You’re up and you’re trying to figure it out.”

So yes, as the Yankees’ offense has struggled at times this season — especially since Aaron Judge last played a game on May 31 — Rowson hasn’t experienced those low points as a passive behind-the-scenes observer.

“I think being a hitting coach is probably one of the hardest jobs in the game because you have to deal with all of us being psychos in the season and going through all of our ups and downs,” said Cody Bellinger, who is in his 10th year in the majors and has, in that time, worked with a parade of hitting coaches. “They’re kind of like the voice of reason in the cage, and he does a great job of that. He’s in the fight with us, he never stops believing and does a great job of giving us good insight on what we need.”

Despite the endless digital tools and equally endless supply of information available to modern-day hitters, what those hitters most need often is a good psychologist.

“We kind of joke around that he’s our mental therapist,” Bellinger said with a laugh. “Some days, some guys are going good and that same day, three or four guys are going bad. So he’s got to deal with the good, he’s got to deal with the bad and you have to deal with that every day.”

Alex Rodriguez, who hit 696 home runs in his career, had Long — who went on to have success with the Mets, Nationals and his current team, the Phillies — as his hitting coach with the Yankees from 2007-14. A-Rod once said that among Long’s greatest strengths was that “he understands how hard [hitting] is.”

And that wasn’t from personal experience at the major-league level. Long, for instance, never made it above Triple-A in his playing career. Rowson never made it above Class A as a player.

Rowson was the Yankees' minor-league hitting coordinator from 2014-16 (working with Judge, drafted in 2013), the Twins' hitting coach from 2017-19 (the 2019 Twins hit a then-MLB-record 307 home runs) and the Marlins' bench coach from 2020-22.

An attribute shared by the best hitting coaches, 16-year veteran Paul Goldschmidt said in echoing A-Rod, is “you always have to remember how hard this is.”

“[Rowson] wants you to succeed. It hurts him when you get out,” said Goldschmidt, who also praised the Yankees’ two assistant hitting coaches, Casey Dykes and Jake Hirst.

Not that there isn’t tough love.

“It’s not like he’s just, ‘Oh, you’re 0-for-4, don’t worry about it,’ ” Goldschmidt said. “Sometimes you’re keeping the big picture in mind, sometimes it’s pushing guys, like, ‘Hey, we need to fight more.’ . . . He’s got a really good feel for people. He knows when to push, when to encourage, when to put pressure on people, when to take pressure off.”

The pressure is always on because, as Goldschmidt said, even in the best of times for an offense, “there’s usually a couple of guys that are struggling.”

Or, as has been the case for much of the summer, more than a couple of guys.

“I think when they’re having success, that’s when you step back and you love watching,” Rowson said. “And I think when they’re struggling, that’s when you step forward and you have to take the bullets for them because they’re busting their [butts] trying to get it. I couldn’t say it better than K-Long said it . . . You are definitely living it with those guys in the moment.”

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.