Tips From Coach John Peter KEEP YOURSELF ON THE FIELD...AND OFF THE BENCH! Make yourself into a real hitter!...Why? Because a coach will always try to find a position for a quality hitter! Learn a 2nd fielding position... Why? You never know when another player has already been penciled into your favorite position. So again, it's better to be playing than sitting! Learn to really run the bases well, bunt well and maybe even switch hit...Why? It will give your coach more reasons to keep you on the roster and get you in the game!

Baseball Bytes
From the book The Mike Schmidt Hitting Study
  Selected excerpts from Lesson 4, pgs. 93-96

Pre-Swing Actions Timing A good rule of thumb for when to take the stride is when the ball passes the pitcher's head in his delivery, an instant before release. When the pitcher shows you his back pocket, the hitter should be rocking or coiling into the launch position. This would put the striding foot on the ground a split second after release. It means the cocking action of the hips, or knee turn, will occur as the pitcher brings the ball forward. Timing takes much practice and precision. This is why it can take some big leaguers weeks of spring training to refine the delicate timing of their stride and mechanics. Drill Stand in the bullpen and watch your own pitcher warm up from the batter's box. Stare at his face and switch to his arm as it begins to come forward. Do not swing. Practice this as often as you can. The major leaguer has seen thousands of pitch releases by the time he gets to the major leagues. You need to start building up a storehouse also. Vision: Picking Up the Pitch Know where to look for the ball. If you can't see it, you'll never hit it. Finding the pitcher's point of release, seeing the ball come out of his hand, and knowing how each pitch looks coming out of the hand is a skill every hitter must have. Without this skill the best mechanics in baseball become useless. So where should the hitter look? I suggest focusing on the pitcher's face as a starting point. The pitcher's face is not just a resting point for the eyes. Much can be learned from looking into a pitcher's eyes. His expression may show an array of emotion - apprehension, confidence, fear, doubt. He may shake off a sign tentatively, or agree with one confidently. This is information you can use when comparing it to his reaction after the pitch. And by staring at him you'll be offering a challenge, which is what it's all about anyway. When the pitcher's body pivots and his arm begins forward, your eyes can move to the release point. The hitter could fix his eyes elsewhere prior to release - shoulder, neck, or chest. But thinking about it a little, if the hitter can't stand looking into the eyes of his opponent, he probably doesn't belong in the batter's box. Besides, the pitcher isn't looking at you. He's looking at the catcher. As the ball comes out of the pitcher's hand, recognition of the pitch begins. So many people say that the hitter sees the spin of the ball, the seams. I don't believe it. I couldn't. "Reading seams" to recognize the pitch is more of a myth. Great hitters talk about reading seams and then a young hitter tries to do it and it's impossible. He gets discouraged and puts up his bat. The truth is that nobody has the eyes to read seams until the ball is on top of the hitter. Nobody has the eyesight to read seams rotating twenty feet out of the pitcher's hand, and the last ten feet is too late. This would mean a hitter "reads" seams for the middle thirty foot distance and reacts, something which happens for approximately one-fifth of a second. Hardly. Nerve impulses can't travel that fast. By the time the ball gets close enough to see seams, it's too late. The hitter recognizes the pitch from the angle it leaves the pitcher's hand, the pitcher's arm action, and by initial thrust out of the pitcher's hand. The fastball appears to leave the pitcher's hand on an immediate, but slight, downward angle. There is much thrust on the ball out of his hand. The slider leaves the hand between either of two angles with thrust. (To the like-handed hitter, the low-and-away slider release appears nearly identical to the fastball release. This is why it is so difficult to hit.) The curve ball appears to leave the pitcher's hand on a slight upward and outward angle. It has a little hump on it. It does not explode out of the hand. The change-of-pace release angle is identical to the fastball, but has no thrust. (High change-of-paces are similar to curve ball releases, and are picked up quickly.) The trained hitter knows the minute differences in these release angles. This allows him to hit the different pitches even in poorly lit ballparks where the ball appears seamless. Recognizing them, he will adjust his mechanics ever so slightly, but his hands remain uncommitted in the launching position until the decision to swing is made. The Mike Schmidt Hitting Study - Available with Rob Ellis video packages 160 pages of easy to follow instructions broken down into 12 lessons. High-speed sequence photos and over 250 pictures detail hitting theory, skills, and technique. "You wont find a better hitting book than The Mike Schmidt Hitting Study anywhere."   - Pete Rose   These are the results of the 3rd Major Hitting Study ever done! You can now own the same hitting bible that so many major leaguers have learned from!   - Coach JP

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Featured Article
Going for home runs, too many modern players pile up strikeouts instead of making contact with the pitch! This article is one that you will want to print out and save......

Lost Secrets of Hitting by Hitting Coach Rob Ellis [article excerpt] Stan Musial, Ted Williams, Hank Aaron, and Frank Robinson emerged from an era when the strikeout was considered a humiliating defeat. Each strikeout tolled ultimate failure in the mano-a-mano duel with another competitor, the pitcher, and was something to be avoided at all costs. Too many Ks meant the player was defeatable, that he hadn't learned his trade and was not qualified for the big leagues. A player striking out on a scale to exceed 100 strikeouts annually couldn't make it - he was farmed out quickly by managers who demanded the hitter move the runners with each at-bat, preferably with team hits - ground balls and line drives. Excessive strikeouts were the mark of a hitter who hadn't mastered his skill, who shouldn't wear the major league uniform. Today, it is not uncommon for middle infielders to approach or exceed 90 to 100 strikeouts. Thus, for security reasons, the old-time hitter treated the strikeout like the plague. And, to get on the good side of the manager, he concentrated on moving runners with team hits - line drives and ground balls. The formula was simple: hit line drives or ground balls, and avoid fly balls and strike three. This was accomplished by swinging on the same plane as the incoming pitch - level plane, almost a chop, in order to deliver the bat on a linear collision course with the pitch. Players like Musial, Mays, Aaron and Gehrig mastered it.    Read the full article

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Baseball's History

Gehrig's Farewell Address Full text version of the Farewell Speech by Lou Gehrig Yankee Stadium, July 4, 1939 Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans. Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn't consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure I'm lucky. Who wouldn't consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball's greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure I'm lucky. When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift - that's something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies - that's something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter - that's something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body - it's a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed - that's the finest I know. So I close in saying that I may have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for. Footnotes: Gehrig died from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, now known as Lou Gehrig's disease, on June 2, 1941. Jacob Ruppert was the Yankees' owner from 1915-39. Ed Barrow was the New York general manager during Gehrig's career. Miller Huggins managed the Yankees from 1918-29, Joe McCarthy from 1931-46.

Baseball Quotes, Wit & Wisdom

The home run became glorified with Babe Ruth. Starting with him, batters have been thinking in terms of how far they could hit the ball, not how often.   Rogers Hornsby.in 1950 I guess I was never much in awe of anybody. I think you have to have that attitude if you're going to go far in this game.   Bob Gibson The ballplayer who loses his head, who can't keep his cool, is worse than no ballplayer at all.   Lou Gehrig Any time you think you have the game conquered, the game will turn around and punch you right in the nose.   Mike Schmidt

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