Gordie on Coaching
There is a fine line between winning and losing, and the difference in all sports, not only baseball, is the coach. I repeat, the difference is YOU, the coach! You determine the way your team plays the game and if your team is successful or not. And how you conduct your practice sessions determines how your athletes play in the game.
Gordie on Pitching and Defense
I established my baseball philosophy a long time ago, and it really hasn't changed much through the years. Teams win by playing good defense. I also believe that pitching is 75% of good defense, and probably, 75% of the game.
Do you realize that in 65% of baseball games the winning team scores more runs in one inning than the opposition scores in the whole game?
To prevent the big inning you need a sound pitching philosophy. Warren Spahn, one of the best pitchers in the history of baseball, helped me more than anyone else develop my pitching and defensive philosophy. Spahn's pitching philosophy surely made an impact on me, and in turn, I've tried to impact that philosophy to anyone who has ever pitched for me.
Gordie on Offense
Offensive philosophy must include "catch-up" baseball. I believe we have to "take" pitches in certain situations: we've got to load the bases, we've got to get the tying run to the plate, we have to set up our RBI men.
Your offensive philosophy must answer loads of questions. Can you bunt the ball? Can you steal the important base? Can you do the little things that make winners out of losers? Absolutely! But you need to practice each skill so they become automatic in the game.
What can you give your players?
Remember the important values you are teaching: Proper working ethic, love and concern for teammates, respect for the opposition, playing honestly and with the highest degree of integrity, win and lose with dignity.
When the put away the bats and balls for the last time, you will have left them with a foundation of values to build upon for the rest of their lives.
Coach JP's Guarantee
Purchase your individual copy of Gordie on Baseball and if after completely reading it you can honestly say that you are not a better coach and you cannot be more successful with what you have learned, and will not command more respect from your players I, through my company Baseball Tips, will send any baseball league of your choosing a check for $20....and you can still keep the book! And yes, I will include anyone who coaches Pro ball players, College ball players, right down to Little League age players.
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Gordie Gillespie is college baseball's all time winningest coach and was the first to achieve the 1,500-win milestone in a career. Through 2003, he has compiled a 1,630-830 record in his storied career and is currently the head coach at Ripon College in Wisconsin. In his eighth season, he has made the Division III school a nationally recognized program with three straight NCAA tournament appearances. While at Lewis College and the College of St. Francis in Illinois, Gillespie won four NAIA National Championships and he took his teams to 15 World Series. He became college baseball's all-time win leader in 1993 with his 1,333rd victory and finished the year by earning St. Francis' only national sports title. Gillespie is coaching his 50th season in baseball. During that time he has signed 57 players to professional contracts. One of the most renowned and well-respected coaches of all-time, Gillespie has received numerous honors during his coaching career, including induction into 13 different Hall-of-Fames.