I believe hitters are way too often bombarded with too many baseball tips on hitting. The guilty culprits are often teammates, coaches, parents and occasionally even your Aunt Mary. Take your time and take hitting in stride. No pun intended. Try to learn a little bit at a time and you will be just fine. Relax and here are three things you might want to focus on.

Work On Your Weaknesses:

Human nature can be very funny at times. When a lot of hitters practice, they have a bad habit of practicing what they do well and not practice on their weaknesses. It probably has something to do with the fact that hitting the ball well, whether it’s during a game or at practice, makes us feel better. Now you can decide. Do you want to temporarily feel better and have your ego massaged or do you want to improve as a player? It is a very simple fact of life that real good hitters do not have glaring weaknesses! They may be able to handle some pitches better than others, but the differences are not that great. The reason they don’t have any glaring weaknesses is quite simple. They work on their weaknesses to eliminate them as soon as possible! They don’t practice and spend time working on their strengths. That’s why they are real good hitters.

Keep The Bat In The Hitting Zone:

One of the baseball hitting problems that many hitters encounter is they do not keep the bat in the hitting zone long enough. On the other side of the coin, the one thing that all great hitters have in common is that they do keep the barrel of the bat in the hitting zone longer than other hitters.

An outstanding baseball hitting drill is to visualize four baseballs being pitched to you when you are batting, instead of just one. They are one after another, and maybe two inches apart. The batter who keeps his bat in the hitting zone longer, will have a better chance to hit all four of the baseballs. A batter that does not keep the bat in the hitting zone long enough would probably only be able to hit the first ball and not the next three. Getting back to one baseball, the longer you keep the bat in the hitting zone, the better chance you have to make solid contact.

Line Drives Are The Goal:

Try to hit line drives and the doubles, triples and home runs will come, as well as the good batting average to go along with the extra base hits! If you hit it squarely, you have a very good chance for a hit. If you slightly top the ball, it may be a hard grounder for a hit. If you are slightly under the ball, it just might be an extra base hit. Many great power hitters say over and over again that the home runs almost happen “by accident.” The reason is that they simply try to hit a line drive. If they are a hair “under” the ball, it may very well leave the yard. It may seem a little ironic, but it’s true. They truly try to hit line drives and yet they are tremendous power hitters!

I’m well aware that some power hitters try strictly for the home run, and in almost all their cases, they have lower batting averages that reflect just that. Why not try to have both a high batting average as well as some power to go along with it? One of the better baseball tips on hitting to remember is that the home runs almost happen by accident. Line drives should be your goal.

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Join us next Tuesday, January 31st at 9pm EST over on BBA Baseball Talk, a podcast that I host every 5th Tuesday of the month (once every quarter). You can listen to the show online by following this link: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ivieleagueproductions/2012/02/01/bba-baseball-talk-the-cba

or feel free to be part of the excitement by calling into the number above!

Image via CrunchBase

On this show I will be joined by Baseball Reflections writers Matt Whitener of (his main site is Cheap Seats Please) & Tim McClelland (whose 17 year old son, 6-5 235 lb RHP who’s touched 92 will be drafted this year).

As we get closer to the show, I will try to post the talking points of the show once Matt, Tim and I nail that down!

During the summer, your typical 19-year-old Australian male is doing everything but hard work.

Luckily for the Brisbane Bandits, Andrew ‘Soupy’ Campbell isn’t your stock-standard teenager, who has been busy slugging away, laying the foundations for a career in baseball.

Just a few months older than catcher Ryan Battaglia and pitcher Josh Warner, Campbell is one of the youngest Bandits.  You could never tell – currently leading the team with a .395 on base percentage, the Ipswich talent is certainly holding his own amongst the big boys.

Campbell has worn number 17 across the world, played club ball for 13 years, studied at the Australian Baseball Academy and since 2009, been in the Cleveland Indians Organization.  Now he is in the Australian Baseball League as a proud Bandit, all before hitting the big 2-0 next month.

Early success can be kryptonite to a young man’s ego, but not Campbell’s, who will be the first to tell you he “sucks” at golf, even though he likes having a go and he’s happy just being wherever his friends are.  His first club, the Ipswich Musketeers, which he still plays for and “always will” is a lifelong connection, just because its “good fun, all my best mates are there”.

Raised on tales of the old ABL, it’s no wonder Campbell developed in to a ‘child prodigy’ “My dad played ever since he was a child, so being brought up around him and the sport I guess I  had no choice.”  An innate aversion to Tee-ball saw Campbell first pick up a bat at age seven.

Campbell’s mum and dad are still at the core of his career “they are at every game and even follow me around the world. Without them I wouldn’t be where I am today.”  His parents flew to Canada to witness his career breakthrough in 2010, playing for the Under 19 Australian AAA Baseball Team “It was awesome to wear Australia across your chest at the last stage of rep teams before the WBC team.” the proud Aussie reflects.

2011 was a huge year for the rising star, sharing his five month stint at the Arizona League Indians with a familiar face “I roomed with Mitch Nilsson during extended spring and the season, it was a lot more comforting having not only an Australian, but a previous mate there with you. Together I think we surprised a lot of people with our Australian ways and ‘language’”.

His Indians experience redefined him as a player “I had always been a short-stop/second baseman. Not until my 2011 Pro season did I become an actual utility role, playing a lot of outfield”.  In exchange for more field time, you can call him whatever you want “At this point I still feel like an infielder but if playing outfield means I get to play games, and hit, well I will play anywhere.”

“Taking thousands of swings, groundballs and flyballs” in the US improved his game tremendously. “Just the game situations you’re in and the great one-on-one coaching I received really helped me with my knowledge of the game” which prepared him for the ABL season.

Since debuting with the Bandits in Sydney, Campbell was reunited with an Ipswich team-mate, who he reluctantly credits as a role-model “I don’t want him to think he’s my mentor, I won’t hear the end of it, if I had to name one, it would be Josh Roberts.  I have grown up with him and he has had a big input in my baseball life. It’s funny to think I was just a young boy in the under 12 team he coached; now we’re mates, playing in the same Bandits team.”

“He’s definitely a hard worker” Brad Dutton describes Campbell, speaking on behalf of the team “He’ll go from overseas straight in to club ball, because he is loyal and just wants to play baseball every day.  Soup plays the game the right way, that’s why us older guys respect him”.

Even the opposition agrees; Campbell’s performance in Perth had The Heat’s commentators crying ‘Where have they been hiding him!’ with commendations on his ‘flawless’ executions of the ball.

Since his December debut Campbell has played 22 games, batting .307 (23-for-75) and has notched up four doubles, a triple, driven in seven runs and stolen three bases from his 75 appearances.

“My goal is to work even harder than last year” in view of making a long-season team, his confidence is centered not on his talent, but his ability to put in the hard yards.

“2012 sees me going over to America for my first spring training. My plan is to finish the Bandits season off feeling confident, and with some good results and then preparing for my time in the US.”

“There is always something more you can do” Campbell states, revealing an attitude well beyond his years.  “More ground balls, more tee-work, learning more about the game. Don’t settle with comfort. The work you put in your own time is what counts”.  With the playoffs dangling in front of hungry eyes, the Bandits are fortunate that Campbell is proving the perfect addition to their menu.

“Baseball is a game of inches,” is an often-used phrase and nowhere is that more evident than with base running. Saving an inch or two when running the bases makes all the difference whether players are out or safe and makes a difference in the win/loss column. A couple inches here and there mean a couple of extra wins a year, which may mean a championship.

Unfortunately, many coaches do not teach the little things that save those inches. ”It could be argued that base running is the most taken for granted aspect of baseball, but that is a story for another day. Good baseball coaches do not neglect the importance of those little things that save those valuable inches. Following are some tips that coaches should not allow players to neglect when practicing base running. Many of these may seem basic and just common sense but they take continual practice and reinforcement to perfect.

Good base runners:

* Know the game situation before running
* Know where the ball is at all times and when they do not, check with the base coach immediately
* Have a knowledge of the defensive alignment before the pitched  ball
* Look down at the base when they are close to it – this may seem obvious but many players take their concentration away from which part of the bag they actually are placing their foot.
* Hit the front part of the bag when running through it and the inside corner of the bag when rounding the base
* Touch the correct part of the base with the foot that is there without ever breaking stride
* Run hard all the way through 1^st base and hard when rounding bases until the defense has them stopped
* Know exactly when to round the base and how to round it correctly
* Realize the play is not over once arriving at a base; staying alert until the ball is back to the pitcher’s mound
* Take the correct distance lead-off from the base – generally, a three and a half step lead from 1^st  base at the back part of the base and a walking lead from second and third, a couple of steps to the outside of the baselines
* Are in the maximum balanced position when in a lead off position, ready to go either way
* Take a secondary lead which has their right foot landing as the ball reaches the hitting zone, prepared to go either direction, based on if the ball is put in play or not
* Always having an anticipation of pitched balls being thrown in the dirt

As noticed, there are many little things that go into good base running and things that must be practiced often. Another highly under practiced part of base running is sliding. Knowing when to slide, how to slide, and different methods of sliding are very important things to make the difference between winning and losing.

Fernando Martinez photo taken from Google Images

The New York Mets finally gave up on a prospect that never materialized. Yesterday, they waived Fernando Martinez (maybe somebody can tell me why he and Daniel Herrera were classified as waived when every other 40 man roster move says the player has been designated for assignment) who has an arthritic knee condition that is not going to get any better even though he is only 23. I understand how some fans are upset over this move, being any Mets news become the Mets fans’ equivalent to the Super Bowl or politics around the presidential election. The truth is, this is not a major move. As great as it would be to see F-Mart play in the majors this season, it was still unlikely unless he could prove that he could stay healthy. And he hasn’t done that in the past five years.
The last three years in particular have been difficult on Martinez, who has not been able to stay on the field. Other than a cup of coffee with the Mets, (5-22, 2 2B, HR, 2 RBI) he played in just 63 games for the Buffalo Bisons last season. Prior to that, he played in 71 minor league games in 2010 and 75 in 2009. Overall in his parts of three major league seasons, he hit .183 (24-131) with 8 2B, 2 HR and 12 RBI.
His potential may have been a reason to keep him. But this guy has a knee condition similar to the one that ended Mo Vaughn‘s career. And outside of DJ Carrasco, I don’t see a better move the Mets could have made to get down to 40 players on their roster. F-Mart’s stock has fallen to a point where he is no more a prospect than Zach Lutz, Josh Satin or Armando Rodriguez. Maybe there’s a chance he clears waivers, and gets one last spring training chance to make the Mets. The Mets have the right to outright him to the minors if he clears waivers. But, he likely won’t clear. He has minor league options for 2012 and there are enough teams that think he is worth a 40 man roster spot, at least for this one season.
While I can see him being claimed by any team, including the Marlins, Phillies, and Yankees, I can see him most likely going to the San Diego Padres. Prior to 2005, the Padres offered him more money than the Mets but he wanted to play for the Mets because of Pedro Martinez. He signed with the Mets for $1.35 million. The General Manager that signed him was none other than Omar Minaya, who is now an Assistant General Manager for the Padres. Minaya will sell it to the Padres as a “What do we have to lose?” proposition.
It may be time to say good-bye to a player who was on the Mets in the first spring training I attended in 2008. Though he remains somewhat a threat with his bat, the chances of him remaining on a major league field long enough for the Mets to miss him is unlikely. But, then again, as a Mets fan, you learn to expect the worst.

I can write forever about the necessity of good communication for a pitcher with all his teammates. It’s not something that’s taught very often but it can affect the outcome of the baseball game.

What can be more frustrating than losing a game because a catcher got crossed up and missed a pitch because he thought the fastball was being thrown and was surprised by the curve ball? Or losing a game because an infielder throws the ball away when throwing to a base where he had no chance of getting the runner anyway? Those are just two examples of breakdowns in communication.

Talk on the baseball field and then talk even more! A pitcher can be most helpful to his catcher and infielders. On pop ups or fly balls, he should both yell and point. On pitches that get away from the catcher, yell and point.

Speaking of balls that get away from the catcher and the catcher can’t find the ball, here’s what happened back in 2005. My son was playing in a game and the catcher on his team could not find a pitched ball in the dirt that he had blocked. He looked left, right, in front of him and behind him. Some loud mouth spectator, standing on the side of the backstop yelled, “Left foot, left foot.” The catcher then looked down by his left foot and there was the ball, just about an inch from his left heel. Neither of the two runners on base was able to advance a base.

The man who yelled loudly will remain anonymous. It’s someone I know very, very well. (Okay, okay, I couldn’t help myself from yelling.) My big question is why weren’t the players on his team yelling that to him instead of me. Probably because kids are not taught the value and importance of communicating with their teammates. Imagine that, I, a spectator, had to be the one yelling. That’s pretty weak, isn’t it?

Five Examples Of Communication For Pitchers:

1. One of your fielders makes a great play. If he’s an outfielder, point to him, give him the thumbs up sign, and let everybody see you doing this.

2. Your infielder makes a great play. Walk half way toward him and point to him and tell him how great he is. Say something like, “You are the best third baseman I’ve ever seen.”

3. Your fielder makes a terrible play. At the end of the inning, he very well may be hanging his head. Walk over to him and tell him, “Don’t hang your head. You make 20 great plays for every one you have trouble with. You’re the best around.”

4. Your first baseman or third baseman is going near the fence to catch a foul pop up. Holler something like,” You’ve got room, you’ve got room.”

5. A slow roller down the first base or third base line and your catcher and fielder don’t know who is going to pick it up. You be the one and shout out the name of the player who you think should field the ball. In a very close ball game, what is more frustrating than to have them both come to a halt because each of them thought the other one was going to field the ball?

Communicate with your teammates. It’s one of the most important baseball pitching tips and is a huge part of successful baseball!

Photo taken from Google Images

After reading the recent article on SB Nation by Wendy Thurm entitled, “Will Expanded Replay Lead to More Women Umpires?” I just had to ask my friend, professional umpire Ms. Perry Lee Barber what her take on this article was and this was her “classic” response to it!

First, the title. Hilarious! “Will Expanded Replay Lead to More Women Umpires?“ More? How about ANY? Other than this minor quibble with the title – which implies that there are women umps already in pro ball, which as we both know is currently (and has been for the last four years, going on five) not the case. I found the article to be excellently researched and presented, particularly by someone who isn’t an umpire herself and hasn’t experienced firsthand the double whammy we women encounter of having to earn respect from both our peers/partners as well as from spectators and athletic administrators used to viewing umpires in general as enemy aliens rather than allies. I find Ms. Thurm’s insights into Tim McClelland‘s take on the possibilities of women becoming successful pro umpires quite amazing, since she interprets them as being negative when most people who read them will think they’re a positive endorsement of women as umpires. They’re not, and Ms. Thurm nails it, and this is why.

I’ve met Tim on quite a few occasions, although I won’t say I “know” him, at least not well; he was on a crew with one of my Wendelstedt instructors, John Hirschbeck, for awhile many years ago, so that’s how I met him and socialized with him a few times on a limited basis. He seems to be a nice fellow, very gracious, intelligent, almost old-school “gentlemanly,” if you get my drift, someone with whom anyone would enjoy having a beer and a conversation. But what’s interesting about his reply to Beth, the woman who wants to become a pro umpire but is concerned she will “encounter opposition to [her] entry” is the entrenched sexism implicit in his words, a sexism he is apparently unaware of in himself, at least as I infer from his cheery “go to school, try your best, and get put in the minor leagues” exhortations (As if it were ever that simple, even for the guys). His very next comment speaks volumes more than the previous one: “…It’s a long road to haul — I wouldn’t wish it on a female because not only do they have the complaints and problems you go through as an umpire, but then they have to deal with working in a male-dominated sport.”

Wow. That one made my head spin (and I’m not even getting into the incorrect idiom he uses: it’s a long row to hoe, not haul, although I concede that perhaps it’s a typo or other mistake on the part of the writer or editor rather than incorrect usage on his part. The image of a woman hauling a row [of crops] while a man merely hoes it certainly seems apt, at least from my perspective, as we often have to do way more of the “heavy lifting” out there just to keep up and prove our competence to our male counterparts). Anyway, McClelland has just encouraged a young woman to go for it, implying that “it can be done,” and then in the very next sentence he undermines his own ginned-up optimism by immediately laying out one of the world’s oldest and most tired canards concerning women and our capabilities: that we are not strong enough either mentally or physically to withstand the rigors of “working in a male-dominated sport.” That we are too weak, too frail, too… well, unmanly. We’re just not up to the task, only a man could possibly handle the physical and psychological weight of an umpiring career.

Give me a break. It’s these small, constant, everyday, subliminal digs at our capabilities, the implied attitude that we are still, in this day and age, not worthy, not equal, not up to the task of shouldering the burdens of “complaints and problems you go through as an umpire,” that are a much greater impediment to our progress in baseball than the loud, overt, obviously sexist and disrespectful attitudes that are much more easily identified and dispelled than the thousand tiny slings and arrows similar to McClelland’s comment that we must suffer and deflect every day. It’s infinitely harder to fight something that’s nearly invisible than something you can point a finger at and say positively, “Aha! That’s sexist or racist, and it’s not acceptable.” How does one point a finger at inertia? At not doing something? When it comes to our progress in the pro baseball arena, it’s these implicit, under-the-radar attacks on our physical and emotional capabilities that are much more difficult to identify and weed out than the loudmouth idiocy you hear coming from someone who has an obvious problem with women in higher positions of authority than his. It’s the same principle pro baseball and its current administrators use to camouflage their total inertia and ambivalence about allowing women to penetrate their sacrosanct inner sancti. “We don’t discriminate!” they crow, pointing to the six women who have worked as pro umpires since 1972, the year courageous Bernice Gera finally won her protracted discrimination lawsuit against minor league baseball and bestowed upon the rest of us the right to umpire professional baseball. Six women umpires in the last thirty-nine years: that’s one every six or seven years, as many as baseball, apparently, is capable of handling. As if that’s a statistic to be proud of. And goddess forbid there should be two of us out there at the same time (there were, once, briefly, when Ria Cortesio and Shanna Kook worked simultaneously, although never on the same crew, during 2003 and 2004, but the powers-that-be put a stop to that hellish little experiment by firing Shanna after only two seasons). The men – and it is mostly men – currently in positions to actually DO something about the pathetic absence of women umpires from the pro baseball arena, but who choose to do nothing (because to them, there’s nothing wrong with the way things are, they’re perfectly satisfied with the status quo), love to say how baseball now embraces women’s participation, that women go to umpire school all the time, that the opportunities are there for us! It’s all smoke and mirrors, just as McClelland’s comment about “not wishing [a pro umpiring career] on a female because blah blah blah…” is near-perfect camouflage for his real feelings about women as partners. He says we should “go for it,” but in the very next sentence he makes it clear that he really doesn’t regard us as capable or worthy of working alongside him or any other “real” umpire. Do you think he has ever said to a young man asking for advice about an umpiring career, “Well, I wouldn’t wish it on you because it’s so hard and there’s no way you’ll ever be up to the task”? That’s basically what his pearls of wisdom here are transmitting, what he’s telling “Beth,” the woman who asked the question about going to umpire school and having to face “opposition to her entry” simply because she’s female. And I’ll bet you dollars to doughnuts that McClelland would object to the high heavens if anyone accused him of being sexist or having an attitude towards women that’s anything less than respectful and welcoming; he probably has no idea how revelatory of his true feelings his comment is, and in all likelihood sees himself as some kind of champion for even suggesting we should try.

The inconsistency between what he says and how he obviously feels about women umpires is vast, and I love it that Wendy Thurm gets this about his remarks and rebukes them, not angrily or rudely, but with a graceful clarity. I think the thrust of her article points to the fact that replay will open more opportunities for umpires in general and that since the pool of umpiring candidates will necessarily be expanded to meet this growing need, women may have more of a chance to join the ranks of professional umpires. And just to be clear, the way I read it is that she is not implying that the women who may wind up being hired would be relegated to the video booth as opposed to given actual on-field jobs; I don’t believe that is her implication, although it probably is McClelland’s or anybody else’s in a position to actually hire women to fulfill these new technology-mandated roles. Their attitude, if past is prologue, is more than likely, well, women may not be “up to it” on the field where it counts, but maybe in the booth where it won’t matter that we’re so weak and incapable, we’ll somehow manage to do okay and not screw it up too badly for the real umpires.

Very, very interesting article on multiple levels, Peter, and thank you for asking me about it.

Perry

umpireplb@aol.com

I have seen so many kids season ruined before the season even gets close to starting. Dad or team coach takes player(s) to the batting cages and sets the speed at game speed on their first day of hitting, after a long offseason. It is important to realize that hitters’ eyes are not close to ready for such speeds, not to mention their bat speed and timing. The result is that many hitters begin to cheat to catch up to the ball by either jumping at the ball or stepping out and opening up early. Once these habits develop and/or players timing is off from the beginning, they never recover.

Following are some preseason hitting tips

1. Always good to begin preseason training by practicing on the batting tee and with short flip work, so players can concentrate on good fundamentals without worrying about timing the ball.
2. Begin early batting practice sessions with slow speeds so hitters feel comfortable waiting for the ball.
3. An initial no-stride approach is good for the same reason, especially when facing batting machines.
4. Hitting balls to the opposite field is important, like always, but especially on slow pitching so players are controlling the bat and waiting for the ball to get deep in the hitting zone.
5.  Speeds should be gradually increased with subsequent practice sessions.
6. Always a good way is having batting practice throwers alternate slow pitches with faster ones to help gain the same swing on all speeds, as well as for waiting and good timing on all speeds of pitches.

As hitter’s eyes and bat speed improve, game-like speeds are appropriate, with attention to good mechanics always a priority.