The 99 percent

In the Philadelphia area where I am located, temperatures are reaching 100 degrees.  It’s that time of year.   99% of baseball players: It’s too hot to play baseball. I’m too tired to take the extra base. I wish I were at the pool. I wish I was at the beach with my friends. Why […]

Curve Ball Drill

In yesterday’s post, I diagrammed and explained a drill that hitters can utilize to practice a slider from left handed and right handed pitchers.  Today’s drill is for hitters who would like to become better at hitting the curve ball. The photo above shows the typical soft-toss drill most older hitters have experience with.  This […]

Slider Drill

One of the problems older players run into is that more pitchers they face will throw better breaking pitches.  But how does a hitter practice hitting a breaking pitch?  If your father, brother, mom, teammate, or coach has an ok curve or slider, he/she could always throw some.  However, that is unlikely to be the […]

The ball won’t go by itself

One of my father’s most popular lines to me growing up was “The ball won’t jump off your bat by itself.” The meaning of that is simple.  If you want the ball to be hit hard and go far, you have to make it be hit hard and go far by swinging the bat with aggression. […]

The hit-and-run and concentration

A big decision for all coaches is deciding which batters to hit-and-run with.  Most often, coaches will pick a batter with good bat control who generally hits the ball on the ground.  Other coaches would rather pick a guy who drives the ball well hoping that the runner can score on a ball hit in […]

The high pitch and cheap home runs

There are a lot of coaches who want their hitters to lay off the high pitch.  For the purpose of this post, a “high pitch” is a pitch that is just above the strike zone (belt to letters).  Generally speaking, the more velocity a pitcher has the tougher it is for the hitter to hit […]

It should hit you in the head

I heard a good line on TV the other night.  Apparently, a new Los Angeles Angels outfielder had coasted after a ball instead of hustling to get underneath it.  After the inning, Tori Hunter went up to the teammate and said, 1) “we don’t do that here” and, 2) “if you miss a pop-up, it […]

Minor league survival kit (Part 2)

My parents said “You will not be ‘friends’ with everyone but you should be ‘friendly’ to everyone.”  That being said, we all know that some friends have a little more value than others.  Below are people every minor league player needs to befriend and why.  I don’t mean to befriend them in a manipulative way […]

Catchers: Don’t ever make this mistake

At the major league level, catchers get no discretion when it comes to whether balls thrown in the dirt can be tossed back to the pitcher.  There is no shortage of baseballs at that level so every time a pitch hits the dirt, the ball is immediately removed from the game and replaced with a […]

Give your 3rd base coach a chance

Often a base runner will make the mistake of assuming the 3rd base coach is going to stop him at 3rd base.  This happens a lot with a runner on 1st and the batter hits one down the left field line.  Even fast runners sometimes assume right from the crack of the bat that the […]

Minor league survival kit

Every year, the Major League Amateur Draft brings me back to June, 1989.  It was the year I was drafted into pro ball.  A couple days later a scout from the organization arrived at my house and officially signed me.  He told me I was going to Sarasota, FL, for a mini-camp with other signees.  The organization […]

Watching runners – Old habits never die

My family took my dad and me to a minor league baseball game yesterday for Father’s Day.  It was at Coca-Cola Park in Allentown, PA, to watch the AAA Lehigh Valley IronPigs play the Durham Bulls.  Watching players warm-up prior to the game, play catch, and interact with the fans brought back many memories of […]

Thanks Dad!

This website would not be possible with out my father.  Although my dad was never officially a coach of mine growing up, he was the best coach I ever had.  He passed on a passion for the little things within the game of baseball.  Those little things turned into the (currently) 400+ posts you’ll find […]

Infielders: Stay on your feet

Nothing screams “BAD FOOTWORK” more than an infielder who falls to the ground on a normal play.  I’m not talking about diving for a ball hit/thrown or even slipping on wet/poor turf.  I’m talking about plays like the one shown in the photo of Chase Utley.  If a middle infielder’s footwork is sound around the […]

One step up and two steps back

There is a player on the Phillies that just drives me insane.  I won’t name him because I’m not into bashing players from afar.  It’s a very hard game and anyone who makes it to the major league level is more talented than I ever was.  That being said, he still drives me nuts.  I […]

Are you in a motivation slump?

Slumps are not just for hitters.  There are slumps on defense, slumps in baserunning, slumps on the mound, and slumps in the coaching box.  Slumps aflict everyone in the game at some point.  Motivation is a target for slumps as well.  It would be nice if our motivation levels remained at a high level all […]

How to deal with an old school coach

As a high school teacher, I am forced to attend numerous in-service days geared towards teaching the latest trends and techniques in education.  It’s no secret that improving self-esteem has been a big trend in education (and society) for some time now.  This year the new buzz word was “differentiated instruction.”  It basically means that different students […]

I belong at this level (an update)

Last season I wrote a post on the importance of a player believing that he belongs at a particular level.  The entire post is reprinted here … Close your eyes and think back to the month of July when you were 19 years old.  What were you doing?  For many people, much of what they […]

Errors are part of the game (and life)

There are many things that are great about baseball.  The list could go on forever.  High on that list for me would be that after every inning, the mistakes that the team made are announced for all to hear.  “Three runs on two hits and one error and after four full innings of play, the […]

Reflections of a first time little league coach

My daughter and son just completed their first taste of organized baseball.  They both played on the same coach-pitch Pony league.  At my kids’ request, I helped out as an assistant coach.  Here are some basic thoughts as I reflect on the season: God bless the teachers who deal with 5-7 year olds every day.  I’ve taught […]

Pitching without your best stuff

The more you play the game, the more you begin to realize that rarely will you be at full strength.  The long season, the heat, the physical nature of the game, and the stressful mental side all conspire against baseball players.  The first step in dealing with all this is to accept it and realize […]

Tag up like a sprinter

People often ask how I come up with ideas for all my posts.  Most of them come from watching   games.  Sometimes they originate from seeing photographs.  This post is one of those that came from seeing the photo at right. The runner tagging up in the photo is making two mistakes: His shoulders are […]

Sell your tags

I attended a local summer college league game recently (Quakertown – ACBL).  In the short time I was there, there were two close plays at second base on steal attempts.  On both occasions the runner was called out.  Granted, I was about 200 feet away but from where I saw it, both calls looked like […]

Don’t look for a walk

Hall of Famer Wade Boggs once was asked if he felt he had a chance to ever bat .400.  His answer was that he could but he would have to get a lot more walks to do it.  The question then becomes, should a batter try to get more walks.  The answer is NO. Looking […]

Great draft story

The start of this year’s draft reminded me of a great draft / scout story I heard this year.  This past winter I spoke at a coaches clinic and the guest speaker to kick off the event was Howie Bedell, a former major league player who spent time with the Milwaukee Braves and the Philadelphia Phillies.  […]

Proper timing on the squeeze

I’m watching highlights last night on the MLB Channel and they get to the San Diego Padres game.  With a runner on third and the pitcher up, the Padres manager calls for a suicide squeeze.  The hitter was left handed and the pitcher just threw one up and away, almost like a pitchout.  No bunt […]

Congrats to all the coaches

In my area (Philadelphia), high school and college teams are pretty much done except for the select few that have proceeded far into the playoffs.  Players are (hopefully) moving on to their summer league schedules and coaches are contemplating how their seasons went.  For some, the year was a great one with many wins, good […]

2B double plays: It starts with the left foot

If you are a second baseman, you are probably aware that there are multiple ways to turn a double play.  Some second baseman come across the bag on the turn.  Some step back off the bag towards right field.  Some position themselves behind the bag towards centerfield as I described in this post.  Some may […]

Hitch vs Trigger

It’s amazing how good statistics can alter the perspective of announcers and other baseball people.  Barry Bonds, although controversial, is one of the all-time greats in the history of the game.  However, his swing had a very noticable “trigger” where he dropped his hands and then brought them up before taking a swing.  Current Mets first […]