DENVER (AP) — Imagine baseball had this inspirational slogan on a T-shirt: Give 70% effort.

It’s not quite as catchy as the 110% baseball players have been instructed to exert since Little League. But maybe, just maybe, Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s on to something with his theory that going 70% might be the way to be his best self — and cut down on strained obliques or pulled hamstrings in the process.

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Only, hustle is woven into the fabric of the game. Nicknames derive from it (Charlie Hustle) and awards are built around it ( Heart & Hustle ).

This season, hustle has already come into play on several occasions. Most notably, when Juan Soto, the Mets $765 million star, didn’t run hard to second base after smacking a ball high off the Green Monster at Fenway Park.

In this modern era of baseball, where the average salary topped $5 million for the first time this season, the politics of hustle may play a role. There’s the fundamental notion of hustle (run everything out) set against the possible ramifications of hustle (injuries to high-priced players).

To the old guard, though, hustle is a non-negotiable. A lack thereof risks the wrath of not only teammates but a spot in a manager’s doghouse. Which is why Chisholm’s 70% mindset doesn’t quite fly for Ron Washington, a gritty player back in the late 1970s and ‘80s who now manages the Los Angeles Angels.

“You give the visual of 100% at all times,” the 73-year-old Washington told The Associated Press. “The only person who knows you’re 70% is you, but don’t tell people you’re 70%, so when they see you dog it, they say, ‘Well, he’s only 70%.’”

The definition of hustle

The Baseball Almanac defines hustle as “to play aggressively, quickly, and alertly.”

Translation: You know it when you see it.

Two months ago, Braves star Ronald Acuña Jr. criticized manager Brian Snitker’s lack of response to Jarred Kelenic failing to hustle out of the batter’s box. Acuña was removed from a Braves game on Aug. 19, 2019, when he was slow to leave the batter’s box on a long drive that bounced off the right-field wall for a long single.

“There’s no blanket thing,” Snitker said after the Kelenic situation on removing players for lack of hustle.

To Washington, the definition of hustle has “changed in this generation,” he said. ”Because (the lack of hustle) wouldn’t have been allowed in other generations. … Now people don’t want to pull their best player off the field when he acts like an (expletive). I’m sorry. They don’t want to pull him. Because you pull him, you just gutted the whole team.

“Back in the day, they didn’t care. You didn’t hustle, your (butt) is off the field. And you know who took care of it when they took you off the field? The players. Not management. Not the manager, not the coaches. The players took care of it.”

That’s Vinny Castilla’s take, too. The two-time All-Star for the Colorado Rockies in the 1990s had veterans pull him aside when sometimes “you don’t feel too good and you don’t go 100%.”

“The veterans step in and say, ‘Hey, man, you’ve got to do it. You’ve got to hustle every day,’” Castilla said. “Hustle doesn’t change. … Some players love to play hard and get their uniform dirty, and some players don’t like to do it.”

Give 100% of how you feel

Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said that he generally expects players to give 100% each day, but that’s relative to how their feeling. As a recent example, Lovullo cited star outfielder Corbin Carroll, who was nursing a tight hamstring during a series in Cincinnati.

“For Corbin the past couple days, just give me 100% of what you have,” Lovullo said. “So, yeah, we’ll protect players.”

In most cases, Lovullo said, hustle is a hard thing to turn on and off.

“If a player is healthy, I feel like there’s no reason to not go 100%. To run fast, you’ve got to practice running fast,” he said. “To throw hard, you’ve got to practice throwing hard. You can’t turn it on and off. I think you’re risking injury when you don’t go hard and then all (of a) sudden you need to go hard.”

The 70% approach

Chisholm believes he found the key to playing well and staying healthy by going 70%. The New York Yankees infielder postulated that his success since returning from the injured list has been caused by limiting intensity.

“Play at 70%: defense, offense, running, everything,” Chisholm said. “Stay healthy. You don’t overswing. You don’t swing and miss as much, and you’re a great player at 70%.”

Of course, that wouldn’t have gone over well with “Charlie Hustle” himself — the late Pete Rose, who elevated hustling to baseball an art form.

That was also before the age of the viral bat flip. Admiring homers is not just permitted, it’s encouraged — and doesn’t result in a fastball to the ribs the next go-around at the plate. In Soto’s case, he appeared slow out of the box after watching what he thought was a homer.

It’s a different time from Washington’s day.

“The game became young and it got to the point where we don’t want to hurt nobody’s feelings,” he said. “I don’t remember (longtime big-league manager) Gene Mauch giving a (expletive) about hurting my feelings. … You didn’t get the job done, then I’m letting you know you didn’t get the job done. And if you don’t want me screaming at you, guess what you better do? Get the job done!”

It’s a balancing act for sure.

“Some days are tougher than others. We always say that,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said. “We’re going to play hard for 27 outs. There’s gonna be days where Woody (22-year-old budding star James Wood) sometimes will run out a groundball because he knows he’ got a chance to make it. There will be some days where he hits a 110-mph one-hopper where he doesn’t go hard out of the box, and I can understand that.”

Hustle, much like Chisholm’s theory, remains complicated.

“Some of it is what you would call eyewash, and some of it’s real,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy explained. “Real hustle means staying present in the game and staying on the game, being relentless in pitch-to-pitch readiness. Sometimes you can’t even see it. I can see it.

“Your mind’s decided on something else. You’re worried about your contract or you’re worried about next year or you’re worried about a .300 batting average versus .299. I look at that as kind of lack of proper focus, not necessarily not hustling, the actual physical hustle. I think these guys play their (butts) off.”

The stare

Yankees outfielder Cody Bellinger learned the importance of hustle through a stare. He and his teammates growing up called it the “Clay Stare.” It was the look from Bellinger’s father, Clay, his longtime coach who helped instill the values of the game.

“You don’t ever want the ‘Clay Stare,’” Bellinger said. “My dad was always like, ‘Hey, run balls out. People are always watching.’”

Bellinger’s been benched in his baseball career, like when he was with the Dodgers in 2018 and manager Dave Roberts sat him for not hustling on a double.

“Hustle, I think, it’s one of the few things in this game you can control,” Bellinger said. “You can’t control where you hit the ball. But you can always control hustle and energy.”

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AP Baseball Writers Mike Fitzpatrick, David Brandt and Ronald Blum, AP Sports Writer Steve Megargee and AP freelance writer Mike DiGiovanna contributed to this report.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB

Game on!

Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe is ready to sign a bill that would give state money for the construction of a venue for Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Royals owner John Sherman and provide cash to Clark Hunt for a renovation of his National Football League’s Kansas City Chiefs franchise’s home field. Missouri is attempting to keep the two franchises in the state and prevent the two businesses from going to Kansas. Sherman and Hunt now can choose between the offers from Kansas and Missouri.

The problem for Hunt and Sherman began in April 2024 when Jackson County, Missouri voters said no to extending a sales tax that would have funded a Royals’ downtown Kansas City stadium and a renovation of Hunt’s Chiefs’ football venue. There is nothing new from Kansas where local politicians have indicated that they might want the Chiefs and Royals’ businesses in their state. Kansas lawmakers are still mulling over a proposal that would see STAR bonds used to help pay 75% of the cost of building two stadiums in Kansas. Additionally, sports gambling and lottery gaming and sales tax revenue from businesses in the stadium development districts would cover bond debt. Another source of revenue to pay off the debt would come from a liquor tax. Kansas lawmakers could use a mechanism that would allow up to 100% of sales tax revenue on alcoholic liquor sales within a stadium district to pay off bonds for the structures. There is a problem with Kansas though. That offer expires on June 30^th although the state legislature could extend the deadline. Missouri politicians will pay up to 50 percent of the construction costs of two venues in an attempt to keep Hunt’s Chiefs business and the Royals’ owner Sherman in the state. The clock keeps ticking for the two states, Kansas and Missouri.

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BOSTON (AP) — Rookie Marcelo Mayer hit two of Boston’s four solo home runs and the Red Sox outlasted the Tampa Bay Rays 4-3 on Wednesday night.

Abraham Toro added a go-ahead homer in the fifth inning, and Jarren Duran also hit one to help Boston earn its second series win over the Rays this season.

Walker Buehler (5-4) allowed three runs off six hits over seven innings and struck out seven to earn his fifth victory since coming off the injured list on May 20. Aroldis Chapman pitched a scorelless ninth to get his 12th save.

Yandy Díaz had a two-run homer for Tampa Bay. Zack Littell (6-6) lasted six innings, yielding eight hits and striking out six.

It was just the third time in 19 games that a Rays starter has allowed more than three earned runs in 19 games.

The Red Sox needed their bullpen to get out of a late jam.

With Boston leading 4-3 with one out in the eighth, Tampa Bay loaded the bases. But Greg Wiessert struck out Matt Thaiss to end the threat.

Key moment

After Duran opened the game with a first-pitch homer, Mayer added his own in the second inning, hooking Littell’s slider 418 feet over the wall in the right field corner.

Two innings later, Marcelo hit his second of the day, this time roping a 410-foot fastball from Littell that landed in nearly the same spot as his first.

Key stats

At 22 years and 181 days old Mayer is the youngest Red Sox player to have a multi-homer game since Rafael Devers in 2018.

Up next

LHP Garrett Crochet (6-4, 2.35 ERA) gets the ball when the Red Sox open a three-game series with the visiting New York Yankees on Friday.

RHP Taj Bradley (4-5, 3.95) opens the Rays’ three-game series in New York on Friday against the Mets.

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