As a youth baseball program director for the better part of the last decade here’s one thing I have learned that holds true year after year:
Development isn’t always everything to players and families, sometimes they leave your program just to be the “big fish” in a small pond.
Major cheat code for hitting: Pay attention to the game because the game will give you the answers.
When there's a runner on second, watch how they pitch to the hitter before you. When there's a runner on third, watch how they pitch to the hitter before you. When there's nobody on, watch how they pitch to the hitter before you.
The game is constantly revealing itself.
Pitchers show you what they trust. They show you what they throw when they're ahead. They show you what they throw when they need an out. They show you how they attack certain hitters in certain situations.
One thing I've learned playing baseball for 25 years:
The game is an open-book test.
The problem is most hitters just refuse to study.
Jermaine Curtis
It’s honestly mind boggling how many people encourage their kids to “play down”. They’ll say it’s a “9U” tourney meanwhile 80% of the team has already turned 10…
Hate to break it to ya, but in baseball, it is VERY hard to get better by playing down.
@Crocket201@Seth_3773@Klutch_GALina What box? lol if you’re claiming there is a line then his foot is most definitely on the line and at that point is not out of the “box” that you claim is there.
Maybe the most underutilized form of player development is the time spent with Mom and Dad playing catch, playing pepper, catching pop-ups, hitting batting practice, wiffle homerun derby, practicing pitching, and watching the game together. Grow the game.
The Curt Cignetti College Football 27 cover looks like the poster for a 1994 Disney movie in which a recently divorced NFL head coach decides to coach an underachieving high school team of misfits as a way to reconnect with his son who's grown distant after his parents split up.
The beautiful thing about baseball is that every year it reminds us what actually matters.
This weekend, a small school like @RiderUBaseball stood on the same field as some of the biggest programs in the country and proved we belonged.
We played Florida. We played Troy. We competed and outplayed them.
And while everyone loves to talk about velocity, spin rate, and radar guns, the game told a different story.
We hit home runs against 96+ mph fastballs.
Because velocity alone doesn’t win baseball games.
Command wins. Location wins. Changing speeds wins. Executing fundamentals wins.
As a pitching staff, we averaged around 87 mph, one of the lowest velocity staffs in the regional. Yet we weren’t overmatched. We defended. We ran the bases. We executed. In many areas of the game, we outplayed the teams we faced.
The difference?
Pitch command.
Not velocity.
Young players and training facilities across the country are chasing radar gun numbers as if that’s the answer to everything. Velocity absolutely matters. It can make a good pitcher better.
But velocity without command is just a harder batting practice fastball.
The greatest lesson from our regional experience wasn’t how hard Florida threw.
It was a reminder that baseball is still baseball.
The game still rewards players who can locate.The game still rewards players who can execute.The game still rewards teams that defend, communicate, run the bases, and do the little things right.
That’s what makes baseball, the greatest game in the world.
A small school with less resources can still stand toe-to-toe with anyone because the game doesn’t care about budgets, facilities, rankings, or social media hype.
It cares about execution.
Baseball will always humble https://t.co/vuGtNBCslr will always expose your weaknesses.But it will also reward the teams that master the fundamentals.
And that’s why a small school from New Jersey can walk into a regional and shock the world.
The game is still beautiful that way.
So sad… why it is so important to always make sure your target is paying attention. Also to take playing catch seriously and hit your target where it’s supposed to be.
NEW: 12-year-old boy from New Jersey is fighting for his life in hospital after being accidentally struck in the neck with a baseball
Xavier Taylor was warming up before a Maple Shade Youth Baseball game when an errant throw slammed into his neck
He was airlifted to Cooper University Hospital where he remains in critical condition in the ICU
Hundreds of friends, neighbors, and teammates held a prayer vigil at the field on Thursday night, many wearing shirts with his number 6 jersey