There are still a bunch of old redneck coaches and scouts in baseball. And there are things they like to see and things they don't. I will mention a few but I am sure there are more.
They like kids that look like ball players, hat on correctly, shirt tucked in, know where your glove is, a little bit of hustle, and head always in the game.
A lot of baseball guy's I know don't like loud offensive music while your rolling into the parking lot, come hurrying in half dressed, outlandish ed tattoos piercings and haircuts unless you can hit like Harper, talking while the coach is talking, these types of guys really do still respect the game and want the youngsters to also........If your coach is Snoop Dog then disregard the above.
This is one of those phrases that means nothing but passes for some strange sort of wisdom. If you think you can put a competitive baseball team together without players with bad haircuts and tattoos listening to hip hop or some other wild music - GOOOOOD LUCK.
Did Barry Bonds respect the game while he was an all time great and then not so much when he became greater while taking steroids while being a world class a-hole the entire time?
How about Manny Ramirez in any of the hundreds of ways he was crazy?
Ted Williams practicing his swing in left field while the game was going on?
Any number of guys starting with Babe Ruth showing up to the park hung over or intoxicated?
Mariano coming in from the bullpen to Enter Sandman?
Actually what I think people are trying to convey and doing so very badly is this: it is hard to take a player seriously if he doesn't have the right level of commitment to his talent. None of the examples I gave of various knuckleheads and silly things detracts from the seriousness of all of the players when it came time for them to perform.
If you are a marginal player looking for a spot - then understanding the decision maker and what makes them tick is a good idea. If I ran a baseball team in 2015 and a scout told me not to draft someone because he listens to Snoop then I think it is time for some new scouts.
What a professional athlete or a movie star or anybody else does or reveals after they become a success should not even be in this type of comparison.You go go right ahead and send your 17 year old boy to a baseball camp with saggy pants and flashing gang signs and all the disrespectful crap that goes with it, and then hold your breath and wait for the phone to ring.