I don’t start watching baseball until the Wild Card games. Remember I had an idea to write a Young Adult series, thinking Chip Hilton. Clair Bee. Oddly enough, I didn’t write the book for the same reason I never improved as a ball player. Didn’t care enough. No future in it. – JDW
Back when America was great, the Dodgers played in Brooklyn. A little boy in Carmel, New York, a tiny village fifty miles north, listened to the games on the radio. Night games, his mother would turn the game off after he fell asleep. Some time after The Bums moved wherever far out west -now knowing life can take a dark turn when you least expect it – he became a Yankees fan. His father rooted for the Yankees since Babe Ruth, “because they win.” Seemed like a good reason.
Six-feet tall when he was twelve, transported with his birth certificate to neighboring teams who could use a shut-down pitcher. Got a scholarship to Gypsy Trail Club’s summer camp, dated some girls out of his league.
Remember getting picked up as he hitchhiked to the All-Star game.
Driver was surprised to see him sticking out his thumb. You’re gonna be late, he said.
Didn’t make the team.
What the fuck? Sorry, kid. You led everybody in home runs.
Only two players from one team can be All-Stars.
So, who made it?
The coach’s son and the minister’s son. It’s a church league, you know.
Felix twice bunted for doubles. In each case, while the third baseman waited to see if the ball would roll foul, Felix rounded first and steamed into second.
With the Sox leading 2-0 in the bottom of the second, two Orioles on base and none out, Sox pitcher fielded a bunt and forced X at third. No Oriole took note when third baseman threw to first, where Y was covering, the first baseman having charged on the bunt play. “When Y takes the throw, I know the (hidden ball) play is on by making eye contact,” says pitcher. “Y checks to see if the opposing coaches are watching, then walks back to his position.” Pitcher fiddled with the resin bag. Catcher adjusted his mask. And when the Oriole stepped off second, shortstop cut in behind him, Y flipped the ball to shortstop, and Oriole was tagged out.
Y pulled another wily ploy the next night. He was running with one out and a 3-and-2 count on X, who struck out. “I knew I was out by a mile,” said Y. Oriole second baseman R took catcher’s throw, put his glove down in front of the bag and awaited Y’s slide for the inning-ending out. The problem was that Y stopped his slide a couple of feet shot of R’s glove and stood up. When R lunged forward to tag him, Y stepped over the glove onto the bag. Safe. “I learned that from Don Baylor,” said Y.
The Indians like to hack, so I concentrated on throwing strikes and making them hit.
I went back to basics. I told myself, You have to stop thinking about throwing hard and concentrate on perfect mechanics, perfect leg drive, closed delivery. If you do that, you’ll be all right. I couldn’t worry about strikeouts, complete games and shutouts. I had to think about helping the team win.
We have the speed to create an inning. We can play great defense.
The time you can really hurt your arm is the late innings. That’s when you’re tired and you still have to make quality pitches. Pitching into the late innings on a constant basis is really tough.
Hitting is timing and pitching is throwing the timing off. Swinging a bat at a bal is an aggressive thing. The slower you pitch, the longer the batter has to wait. You’ve got to play with him.
It’s tough enough to pitch in the big leagues when you’re ready. It’s doubly hard when you have no bullets in your gun.
His approach and his delivery are perfectly consistent. You watch him throw 120 pitches, and the motion looks the same on every one. That makes his control, it keeps him from bad streaks and it gives the hitters the same look, pitch after pitch after pitch. (That’s the secret of his change-up.)
I’d throw the change anytime except the first pitch of the game. That wouldn’t look right.
Johnny Podres used his changeup to become a World Series hero for the Brooklyn Dodgers back in 1955. I use the same grip. Jam the ball deep into your pitching hand, with your thumb and forefinger just touching at the tips, you other finger out straight. Then throw the same as you would your fastball. Exactly the same.
Think about pulling down a window shade and you’ll get a nice fluid downward motion. The pitch looks the same to a hitter as a fastball, but it travels ten or twelve miles per hour slower. In fact, the changeup makes your fastball seem faster when you do hurl the heater.
His changeup runs away from a lefthanded batter like a screwball does. Then, this is the best part, it sinks. So, the ball is changing speeds, changing vertical hitting zones and changing horizontal planes all at the same time.
And there’s more to it than just the difference in speed.
Good place to note these are notes. Doubtlessly some found in Sports Illustrated.
Learned to play with a tennis ball. “Some kids are afraid of the ball. If one kid can catch a baseball, throw him a baseball. If another kid can’t, throw him a tennis ball. As soon as he catches 15 or 20, switch him to a regular baseball.
A 1976 study of heart rates among Little Leaguers showed that a player at bat can have a heart rate as high as 204 beats per minute, more as a result of emotional stress than of physical activity.
Coaches can help children avoid undue stress by praising them constantly for their effort – regardless of the outcome. He tells the story of a Little League batter in the bottom of the ninth, with two outs and the bases loaded. The batter is the boy who always strikes out; this time the game depends on him.
Remarkably, he hits a fly ball to centerfield, at which point one of two plays will occur: 1) The outfielder will catch the ball – ending the game – or 2) the batter will make it to first and a teammate will score. The coach should give praise in both situations. After all, this is the first time the child has hit the ball.
Children need generous praise because they don’t have the wider perspective of an adult. A young child who strikes out may think that he or she is not only a bad ballplayer but also a bad person.
Children respond when you take the pressure off them.
Let me say that again. Mom, Dad, Dickhead, children respond when you take the pressure off them.