Being a professional baseball coach or manager is a lot like Wi-Fi – nobody notices they’re even there until something goes terribly wrong. (h/t to Orange County Register’s Bill Plunkett for that brilliant analogy). Seriously, when was the last time you heard baseball fans clamoring for a manager or coach to be fired on a winning team? Often times the countless hours of work put in by these dedicated professionals goes completely unnoticed, and chances are they wouldn’t want it any other way.

Contrary to popular belief, professional coaches and managers below the major league level are grossly underpaid. In fact, some make less than the minimum wage when you consider the number of hours that they put in in relation to their seasonal (not yearly) salaries. Yet some of the kids that they teach and develop eventually go on to make millions and millions of dollars without so much as mentioning who helped them get there. Additionally, often times these coaches and managers are entrusted with the parent team’s biggest named players on rehabilitation assignments with their respective minor league affiliates.

As every Dodger fan knows by now, on Wednesday night Dodgers right fielder Yasiel Puig hit a dramatic bottom of the ninth inning walk-off Little League inside-the-park home run which, of course, was actually a single with a three-base error by the Washington Nationals. After the pandemonium subsided (and a Gatorade bath appropriately given) Puig was first interviewed by SportsNet LA’s Alanna Rizzo and subsequently by an ESPN broadcast team that was also covering the game. And though both interviews were conducted in Spanish and then translated into English (Alanna speaks fluently in both), it was what Puig said during his ESPN interview that was perhaps of the greatest interest to Dodger fans who were watching that broadcast instead of the SNLA broadcast.

Even though it technically wasn’t  an inside-the-park home run, Puig’s walk-off hit on Wednesday night was nonetheless dramatic. (Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)

Although I was unable to locate Puig’s ESPN postgame interview on the web, Rancho Cucamonga Quakes assistant play-by-play man Max Gun, who had watched the game and subsequent postgame interview on ESPN, tweeted out that during that interview Puig had credited the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes coaching staff for helping him work on his swing and get his timing right at the plate.

Such accolades are extremely rare in major league baseball, almost unheard of, in fact. And even though the national media’s favorite whipping boy actually said this during a nationally televised broadcast, not one word of it made its way into the national or even local press. (There’s that Wi-Fi thing again).

Since being reinstated from the disabled list on June 21 following his rehab assignment with the Quakes, the oft-controversial 25-year-old Cienfuegos, Cuba native has gone 5 for 11 at the plate (.454) with one home run (not counting the Little League inside-the-parker) and one run batted in.

“We’re seeing something in Yasiel Puig that we haven’t seen in a very long time … confidence,” said former Dodgers great and current Dodgers radio broadcaster Rick Monday during Friday night’s game. “He looks very comfortable at the plate now.”

“He’s also shortened up his swing,” added former major league manager Kevin Kennedy, Monday’s color analyst during the radio broadcast. “It’s a lot more compact than it used to be.”

Puig’s (legitimate) first home run and RBI since returning from the DL came in the sixth inning of Friday night’s game when he launched an 85-MPH Jared Hughes hanging slider 439 feet into the second deck at PNC Park. And though the Dodgers would eventually fall to the Pirates by a score of 8-6, Puig’s 2 for 4 night suggests that his season-long slump may be coming to an end – and not a moment too soon.

But who are these Rancho Cucamonga Quakes coaches that Puig is giving credit to for helping him improve his swing and bringing his batting average up to .249 from a season low of .229 on June 1? That would be Quakes manager Drew Saylor and even more so Quakes hitting coach and former major leaguer Jay Gibbons, who spent parts of two seasons with the Dodgers (2010-2011).

“It’s awesome, this group of guys are fantastic,” said Quakes third baseman Michael Ahmed, after a recent Quakes victory. “Our manager (Saylor), hitting coach (Gibbons), pitching coach (former major leaguer Kip Wells), Raffy (Rafael Ozuna) over there at first base, we’ve got a great staff.”

Ahmed, the 24-year-old younger brother of Arizona Diamondbacks shortstop Nick Ahmed, is among the Quakes leaders in nearly every offensive category. Another of the Quakes leaders, 24-year-old outfielder Kyle Garlick, was recently promoted to Double-A Tulsa, where he is continuing his offensive terror.

“He’s been doing a really good job,” Saylor said of Garlick during a recent interview. “I think that Jay Gibbons and him have a really good relationship, they’ve had a lot of really good conversations.”

Whatever it is that’s happening in Rancho Cucamonga, it’s great to see that it’s making its way into the big leagues and onto the Dodgers. But what’s even greater is that guys like Drew Saylor, Jay Gibbons, Kip Wells and Rafael Ozuna are finally being given the recognition that they so rightfully deserve.

#PuigYourFriend.