The visiting players laid sprawled out on the artificial turf of the batting cages before the June 25 game. The Batavia Muckdogs coach stood in front of the players, nonchalantly challenging them to take pitch counts deep, play good defense, and keep their eye on the prize.

Down the hall, in the Spikes home dugout, a burly, stern-looking man stood with one leg propped up on a chair. His barreling, enthusiastic voice could be heard from the elevator. With his signature mustache and his gruff physique, he would have no problem being a bouncer or a motorcycle road warrior -- were he not so gifted at his craft as a baseball mentor.

It is the perfect image of Spikes coach Mark DeJohn. In the clubhouse on Sunday, he came to his players as DJ, the informal nickname known to everyone close to the lively coach.

The players scattered around the clubhouse, a few watching Seinfeld reruns in the corner on the back left television. Most of the players, though, were fixated on DeJohn.

The atmosphere could be compared to the steps of the Willard Building where the Willard Preacher casually warns students they will be damned to hell if they don't reform their ways. DeJohn is spitting fire and brimstone about baseball, religion, and life; his eyes and hands as animated as a waterfall. Every so often he breaks out of character with a smile or a joke, just to make sure the players are aware he doesn't take himself too seriously.

DeJohn's shaved head reflects the multiple faces of his squad. Some smiling or smirking, some uneasily looking toward the ground, others almost attacking DeJohn with their eyes, as if they are defending their conflicting brainwaves' right to exist.

His qualms about life sound every bit as resonating as any ancient biblical scholar's. It doesn't matter if some of the details are straight baloney. His team is hooked, captivated, with the vigorous energy that flows through their clubhouse leader and teacher.

"That, right there, is his trademark," pitching coach Sid Monge said. "He communicates. If you really listen to that carefully, he has a message for you no matter what. He does it through humor; he does it through a good sense of direction."

Monge said the first time he conversed with DeJohn was in preseason workouts in Jupiter, Fla. last year. Although he had played against DeJohn, Monge never spoke with him enough to truly understand the gift he had as a motivator.

"I'll tell you what it is, it's the energy. This is not a show," Monge said. "This is an everyday occurrence. If I was playing for him, I'd be terribly motivated. Simple as that. If someone's giving you that much energy on a daily basis, you better take them seriously."

The energetic, sometimes-outlandish ramblings, of the coach are something his players have grown to appreciate. Second-year starter Matt Wilkerson said even though the coach appears to be acting a little crazy sometimes, there is definitely a method to his madness.

Wilkerson is one of a few players in his second year with DeJohn. After a year under DeJohn's tutelage, he has learned to understand his coach.

"I don't want to say he's like a kid, but he helps you approach the game like a kid," Wilkerson said. "You work hard and you're serious, but at the same time you've gotta have fun and be loose and relaxed."

While DeJohn insists that he does not follow any particular philosophy -- and is often quoted as saying, "I don't even know how to spell the word" -- his teachings prove otherwise. He has an ability to shake kids into a consistent mindset that helps maintain focus. Perhaps the reason that DeJohn is blind to his philosophy is because it comes so naturally to him.

DeJohn played and coached under legendary managers while working his way up to a brief career in the big leagues. In AAA, he played under Jim Leyland, now the manager of the Detroit Tigers. And as a pro, he played under former Tigers manager Sparky Anderson. While with the Tigers, he was a utility infielder buried deep beneath all-star middle infielders Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammel.

DeJohn has managed and coached on several different levels of baseball. From 1996-2001, DeJohn was along side Tony LaRussa as an assistant manager when the team made the postseason three times and Mark McGwire made home run history.

"Coaching under Tony, you know his love and enthusiasm for the game. He's a great manager and he'll go to the Hall of Fame," DeJohn said.

DeJohn's mentors shared 5,574 wins between them heading into last night.

DeJohn has passed these unwritten philosophies, from the elite managers that taught him the game. Wilkerson said DeJohn showed him a demeanor of consistency that should help him his entire career.

"This game, playing every day can be a bit of a grind. He's real good about giving us perspective," Wilkerson said. "You go out and have a rough night, he's gonna pick you up. He's not gonna kick you when you're down. And when you're up, he'll bring you down just a little bit. He's all about making sure you have high lows and low highs."

Pitcher Ryan Hodinka, a non-drafted free agent, experienced a "low high" last Friday when DeJohn taught him a lesson that probably wouldn't have been addressed in college.

Down 3-1 in the top of the sixth, Hodinka was tossed into a pitcher's worst nightmare, entering a game with the bases loaded and only one out. In a game that was ultimately won by the Spikes by one run, Hodinka pitched out of a jam by inducing a lazy fly ball to left field that scored the runner on third followed by another meandering fly to left to end the inning.

That type of effort is typically considered to be a star-of-the-game performance but as Hodinka ran to the waiting coach DeJohn expecting praise for his cool demeanor icing the Batavia batters, DeJohn didn't even crack a smile.

"After the first run scored, I didn't hold the guys on base well at all. When I came in I thought he'd say 'Good job' and 'Get ready for the next inning,' but he just laid into me about holding [the runner on second] because they easily could have stolen and it was my fault," Hodinka explained.

"It was a mental lapse. He let me know about it right away. I needed to hear that, though. Maybe next time they steal and I throw a wild pitch and that guy scores -- and that's the difference in the game. Him doing that, I'm not gonna make that mistake again."

During losses, DeJohn's demeanor sometimes changes to a hard-nosed, ill-tempered one, but his players know that any criticism is only constructive. DeJohn doesn't just go to battle with his team, he leads them and comes to their aid whenever necessary.

"He's the kind of guy that's gonna go to bat for you," Wilkerson said. "If you're getting hosed at the plate or there's a blatant call against you, he's gonna go out and have your back. That's huge for a player knowing your coach is behind you. He's definitely that. He's always there in your corner."

Wilkerson said that knowing his coach will deal with any issue on the field allows him to focus his mindset. He explained that the consistency of mindset, facing each batter or pitcher with the same attitude regardless of the situation, is important to keep ballplayers levelheaded and looking toward their next goal.

DeJohn only wants to get his players ready to make the jump to the next level, for the full-season A team for The Swing of the Quad Cities.

"It's not even AA because AA is way beyond these guys," DeJohn said. "They are not going from this level from the big leagues. Their talent isn't developed enough."

DeJohn said there are numerous obstacles his players would have to overcome, including the adjustment to a wooden bat and a longer schedule, learning how to stay healthy, developing their body physically, eating well and taking care of injuries. The most difficult obstacle in the path to greatness, though -- one that encompasses all the others -- is learning to constantly make adjustments.

"If you start hitting well, the pitcher makes an adjustment to figure out how to get you out, and then you need to make another adjustment in return," DeJohn said.

Before taking over as the general manager of the Spikes, Rick Janac was the assistant general manager for the Pirates AA affiliate, the Altoona Curve. He said that the biggest difference in style that he has seen from DeJohn, in comparison to styles implemented in the Curve organization, has been DeJohn's ability to recognize that younger players think differently than players that have been in the professional ranks for several years.

"DJ has a great spirit. He's got the perfect attitude and demeanor for this level of play. At this level you have to be more than just their manager," Janec said. "You have to guide them because they are younger. He's got that strong sense of 'disciplinary-ism.' That's a strong aspect of what he's trying to get across to these guys."

DeJohn is an ideal single-A team manager because of his desire to be part of the program. After climbing up and down the ranks of management, DeJohn said he's finally found a place that he really enjoys, and has no aspirations of using his current job as a launch pad to further his career.

"I asked to come here. I'm going the opposite way [down to the minors]. I'm happy being around kids, I'm happy teaching," DeJohn said before the season. "It's not about me. It's about the kids.

"I'm happy doing what I'm doing. At the same time, make no mistake about it, you won't see any lackadaisical effort, any lackadaisical approach, and my intensity at times, you might say, 'Gee for a guy that doesn't want to go nowhere, he has more intensity than his players.' I just want to say, 'Just watch me. I wanna win and I'm intense about what I'm doing.' "

After two weeks of the season, DeJohn has proven he certainly wasn't lying. Monge said that what DeJohn has portrayed on the field and in the clubhouse so far isn't a part-time act, but a way of life.

"He's not worried about world problems, he's not even worried about his health," Monge said. "He just comes to the ballpark ready to motivate and ready to teach some youngsters."