January 1, 2025 • 34 mins
Discover what it takes to coach baseball in a city known for its relentless rain. Join me, Coach Ken Carpenter, and my guest Tim Lee, the head baseball coach at Ingram High School in Seattle, Washington, as we discuss how Seattle's unique weather impacts the game and the adaptations teams have made, like transitioning to turf fields. Tim shares his insights on managing a challenging season, his feature in Inside Pitch Magazine, and how local coaches collaborate to enhance performance. Prepare to elevate your coaching game as we explore strategies tailored for success in less-than-ideal conditions.
Unleash the power of passion in sports with us as we reveal why it is the cornerstone of athletic success beyond raw talent. Learn proven techniques to maintain composure and focus, such as box breathing and positive visualization, essentials not just on the field but in any high-stress scenario. We highlight the invaluable role of positive team members like Kevin Millar and how they can transform team dynamics, creating an environment where every player thrives, regardless of their role. This episode underscores the significance of individual contributions in building a cohesive, motivated, and successful team.
Venture into the world of youth baseball where recognizing each player's contribution is paramount. Hear about my journey founding the Shoreline Royals, a nonprofit summer travel baseball program that breaks the mold by offering affordable opportunities for young athletes. Explore the strategic balance required in high school baseball—between aggressive play and the precision of small ball tactics. Tim Lee and I share stories and strategies, from defensive drills to fostering player development, that are sure to inspire coaches everywhere to build not just teams, but communities of passionate, dedicated players.
Join the Baseball Coaches Unplugged podcast where an experienced baseball coach delves into the world of high school and travel baseball, offering insights on high school baseball coaching, leadership skills, hitting skills, pitching strategy, defensive skills, and overall baseball strategy, while also covering high school and college baseball, recruiting tips, youth and travel baseball, and fostering a winning mentality and attitude in baseball players through strong baseball leadership and mentality.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged with Coach Ken
Carpenter, presented by AthleteOne.
Baseball Coaches Unplugged is apodcast for baseball coaches,
with 27 years of high schoolbaseball coaching under his belt
, here to bring you the insidescoop on all things baseball,
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drills and defensive drills.
We're covering it all.
(00:22):
Whether you're a high schoolcoach, college coach or just a
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that make the difference on andoff the field.
Discover how to build a winningmentality.
Inspire your players and getthem truly bought into your game
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(00:42):
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Your competitive edge startshere, so check out the show
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Speaker 2 (00:59):
Hello and Happy New Year.
I'm your host, coach KenCarpenter, and this is Baseball
Coaches Unplugged.
It's a podcast that equips you,the listener, with strategies
to elevate your coaching.
You'll gain practical insightsfrom some of the best coaches
across the country that you canimplement with your team.
Today, joining me for my firstepisode of 2025 is Tim Lee, head
(01:25):
baseball coach at Ingram HighSchool in Seattle, washington.
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Hello and welcome to BaseballCoaches Unplugged.
(02:54):
I'm your host Coach KenCarpenter, and joining me today
all the way from SeattleWashington, head Baseball Coach
Tim Lee at Ingram High SchoolCoach.
Thanks for taking time to be onBaseball Coaches Unplugged.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Hey, thank you, Ken, for having me.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Well, it's Saturday, army-navy game's taking place
and you decided to go into theschool to do this recording and,
just like about every baseballcoach out there, once we get
past the new year, it's, we'rereally starting to get close to
baseball and there you are,you're jumping into uh inventory
(03:35):
and uniforms yeah, no, uh.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
I I enjoy the holidays, obviously the break
and being with family, but, um,I mean, I'm a true baseball
junkie.
I look forward to getting pastthe holidays to really get going
for baseball season.
So we've got some sweet newuniforms this year, so I'm just
going to go inventory them andorganize them out really quick.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Well, you know, I've never been to the state of
Washington.
You know, and you always hearstories about Seattle.
Is this as wet and rainy aspeople always say it is?
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yeah, I guess it's your definition of wet and rainy
.
It's really gray, it can bekind of muggy and misty all the
time, but we really don't getthe torrential downpours like
you would see in Florida or inthe southeast per se, the
torrential downpours like youwould see in Florida or in the
southeast per se, but I mean itis constantly, constantly moist.
(04:35):
So our guys are used.
I mean we hardly have any rainouts or rain delays.
Now we play through the rain,we play through the sprinkles.
It has to be really coming downhard on us where, like you know
, we lose visibility or bats arereally flying out of the hands
of our kids.
But other than that, we really,we really push through, because
our high school season is soshort here that we we really
can't cancel on makeup games.
We really have to play them alland just just just soldier them
(04:57):
through.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
When does your season start and when does it, I guess
, the state tournament begin?
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Yeah, so our season this year starts on March 3rd
and then the state tournamentusually is right around the
Memorial Day weekend, eitherbefore or right after.
So this year it will be rightafter.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Well, here in Ohio we always get challenged with the
weather.
You know, I can recall yearsago, you know you'd be playing a
game and all of a sudden itwould just start snowing.
And you know now they prettymuch set it at 40 degrees.
It's kind of like a cutoffpoint.
It seems like, do you guys, youknow you say you kind of battle
(05:36):
through the rain?
Are you in a situation like alot of schools are getting now,
where you have a turf field, orare you the traditional field?
Speaker 3 (05:47):
No, the majority of the fields here are definitely
turf now.
So we're really lucky.
At Ingram we have a full turffield, including the mounds.
A lot of schools are still kindof no dirt mounds, turf infield
, turf outfield.
Some schools are just turfinfield, grass outfield, so it's
kind of a mix, but I would saythe majority of the schools have
some component of their fieldis turf.
So now we we really battlethrough and we push on.
(06:10):
We've definitely practiced andhave tryouts in the snow before
we had to.
We got to get those practicesin and we got to get games in.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Well, you were recently featured in Inside
Pitch Magazine and that's kindof where it drew my my interest.
Well, you were recentlyfeatured in Inside Pitch
magazine and that's kind ofwhere it drew my interest and
you were discussing how playerscan overcome anxiety.
And you know, when I read thearticle, you know you talked
with your team last season whenyou guys were struggling and you
(06:42):
kind of turned things around.
Take me back to that day andtell me kind of like what you
talked about with your players,about self-doubt and you know
the, the fear of failure.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Yeah.
So the the year prior to that,we had an amazingly strong team.
We won 39 games, won the leagueplayoffs, won a tournament, won
a few tournaments, a lot ofcollege baseball players, that
senior class that graduated in2023, returned a core group of
the 2024s.
Then obviously some new kidscame onto the team, but it was
(07:15):
still a very strong team and,you know, on paper you could
even make the argument that itwas just as strong or even
stronger than the team before.
So we were winning games, youknow 10 plus runs, uh, for the
most part, and then we would wina majority of close games, but
we would still lose a lot ofclose one-run ball games, which
was I couldn't really wrap myhead around it because it was
(07:39):
now.
We're either really dominant orwe were like kind of scared in a
dog fight and dominant, or wewere like kind of scared in a
dog fight and, uh, after oursixth or seventh or eighth, like
one run loss, I'm like I I justI had to like stop and say, hey
, what is going on with you guys?
Like, once you have faced alittle adversity or you face
some kind of challenge, you guysreally just back off, because
(08:00):
when we're up five, six, seven,like no one can stop us, all
right and you know that feelingand everybody knows that feeling
, that momentum carries and theyjust feel unstoppable and we're
facing really strong teams allyear long.
It's not like we're facinglower-end teams when we're 10
running them and then we'refacing the good teams and we're
having a struggle.
It's all good teams all summer.
In fact we probably lost a fewof the one-run games against
(08:22):
weaker teams where we kind ofjust gave it away.
So I had to really dissect itand I was like to me it was more
of a lack of confidence forthem when things weren't going
their way, when maybe a key guywas not having a three-for-three
day or the starting pitcher hada rough inning to start the
game or something.
They just couldn't seem torebound from that and I couldn't
(08:43):
understand why they couldn'trebound from a diversity,
because they are really good,they were a really talented team
and I'm like you guys are toogood to not feel this confident
right now.
You should never feelunconfident with how you guys
can play.
So that kind of sparked themotivation to talk to them about
.
Hey, you know this fear, thisanxiety.
(09:04):
Everybody feels it.
The best baseball players inthe world feel it Now.
Mike Trout, otani, they I'msure they feel this feeling too.
Right it's.
And it's not so much about howdo we get rid of this feeling
for them.
It's more about how do we justacknowledge it and move on Right
Cause if this feeling affectsMike Trout and Otani, there's no
way that we're going to be ableto not feel this feeling.
(09:27):
You know the best guys in theworld are feeling it.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
So how do we recognize it and how do we move
on from it?
And when you, when you had thatdiscussion, were the players
open about talking about theirstruggles and be willing to talk
to you or in front of the team,yeah, that game actually was a
road game.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
We had to travel pretty far for it.
It was like an hour drive formost of the guys, so we got
there pretty early.
We're sitting down right aroundthe bullpen area and I just had
them all sit around the bullpen.
We just chatted for a good10-15 minutes, uh, gave them the
spiel about, no, pretty muchwhat I said in the article about
.
Hey, these are some things weneed to focus on today.
Now we work, focus on ourbreathing, focus on a positive
(10:11):
talk, focus on visualization,and let's focus on those three
things and let let the game takecare of itself.
Um, but they were very open toit.
They were very receptive to it.
We do a lot of mental trainingin the program, um, so we, the
guys, do regular yoga every week, um, and they.
We also have a mental strengthcoach.
She's a licensed therapist, soshe's actually able to talk
(10:33):
about mental health and why not?
But she's she's part of ourprogram where kids can go and
talk to her about pretty muchanything, but the intent of it
is to help them on the mentalstrength side.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Well, you're the first coach that I've come
across that has that option fortheir players.
And let me ask you this do youyourself ever sit down and talk
with her?
Speaker 3 (10:59):
That's a good question.
I have not talked to herpersonally.
Uh, one of the one of theboundaries that I've seen where
kids are hesitant to use anykind of mental resource or
mental aid help is and it'scommon for professional college
baseball players too.
I got this idea from the, fromthe air force Academy actually.
Um, one of the boundaries a lotof these players are afraid of
(11:20):
what they say get back to thecoach.
So one of the ways for me tokeep that separation is I tell
the therapist I don't want tohear anything, right, if there's
something really serious, gotalk to the parents and the
family about it and get theminvolved.
But I really want to stay awayfrom it.
If the kids have something theywant to say to me, they're more
than welcome to.
But I try to keep that degreeof separation just so they feel
(11:44):
like they have that privacy andthey feel like they can say
whatever they need to saywithout it getting back to the
coach.
But on the personal side, Ihave definitely spoken to
therapists before and I havedefinitely done counseling
before and I see the value andbenefit of it before and I see
the value and benefit of it.
So definitely want, especiallyyoung men, to start
understanding like, hey, it'sokay to feel these things.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
And it's okay to talk about these things, yes, cause
I I can recall one year, myathletic director, who happened
to be also the head softballcoach, and we played in a big
tournament game at the end ofthe season and a game that you
know, looking back on it, weprobably should have won but we
didn't.
And when she did her end of theyear evaluation with me, she's
(12:31):
like she goes, you know, Iwatched you and because they
normally would be playing at thesame time, but since it was
tournament, she was able to cometo the game and she's like she
almost said like you almost wantit more than the players do.
Do you ever kind?
Speaker 3 (12:52):
of get that feeling.
As a coach, I've always saidthis, especially with kids
trying to join the program youcan't fake passion.
That's absolutely one thing.
I mean the most talentedbaseball players in the world,
they can only play this game upto a point and once their
passion runs out, theirpassion's done.
(13:12):
And no, I can think ofinstances where, like college
programs were begging for thiskid to hey, can he commit, can
he commit?
I'm like I just don't know ifhe wants to keep playing after
this year.
He absolutely can and should beplaying at the next level, but
I just don't know if he wants todo it.
So I mean it's painful as acoach because when you see it
(13:34):
you're like God, you are so goodand you can have so much
success at the next level.
But if you don't have thepassion, you don't have the
passion.
There's nothing anybody can doexternally.
It's that kid's life, it's thatkid's passion.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Yes, well, you talked about some of your techniques.
Can you give me an example of,like a breathing technique that
you use with your players?
That would be beneficial toanybody that might be listening.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Yeah, a couple of them.
So there's there's a lot ofcommon methods out there, like
the box breathing techniquewhich the Navy SEALs use.
You just think of like a boxyou breathe in and you hold it
and then you exhale for the sameamount to create a box.
It also kind of makes themvisualize just visualize a box
of breathing.
And then also when we do yogawork yoga's a ton of breathing
(14:25):
exercises, of anything.
It's controlling the breathwith certain movements.
And now when I tell guys who Ineed them let's say they're on
the mound and I need them torelax before a foot strike I'd
be like, hey, give me a few yogabreaths, right, anchoring them
back to what they've they'veintentionally done in practice
for an hour at yoga and theyknow that scenario and they know
(14:46):
that feeling, they know how todo it.
I can anchor them back to thatmoment where you spent an hour
just focused on breathing and Ineed you in this key moment,
this key at bat, this key pitch,I need you to breathe
especially, especially focusedhere.
So I would say use hey, do someyoga rest for me right now
before we execute, and that thatusually helps a lot with my
(15:09):
guys.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Now you mentioned there were a couple other
techniques that you work withwith your guys.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Yeah.
So positive self-talk andvisualization are huge for me,
especially the positiveself-talk.
I think one of the one of thekey things I talked about
pregame that one day was themajority of the world and the
majority of our mindset isnegative and it's perfectly okay
, that's what keeps us alive.
It's like hey, don't go jumpoff a bridge, don't burn
(15:37):
yourself, don't go run acrosstraffic.
Like negative thoughts aremeant to keep us alive
physiologically as humans.
So it's very natural and innatefor us to have negative
thoughts, which is why, if youthink about it, when you think
about those really good teamswhere there's always that super
positive Uber guy, you're likeman, that kid's always positive,
(15:57):
that kid's always cheerful,like yeah, that's because
they're the exception.
They're like very, very rare.
Um, so having positive self-talkand uh, when your mind's
majority, majority of the timenegative, is so crucial for us
in a game where we getconstantly bombarded with
negative thoughts and negativeoutcomes that we just have to
(16:18):
spin it for us Like we have tothink of a positive outcome.
Or one of our techniques washey, no, you, you boot a ground
ball, but you've made a thousandof these plays before.
Right, you can tell yourselfI've made a thousand of these
plays before I can make the nextone.
I can boot one.
I'm allowed to boot one.
I'll make the next thousandhere because I know I've done it
(16:39):
before.
So that positive self-talk tome is so important, especially
in today's world where it's sonegative.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Definitely.
When you mentioned having thatone player, I immediately went
to the documentary about the RedSox and Kevin Millar.
He was that player, that kindof he was almost like the glue
for the whole team because ofhis.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
They're special, they're absolutely special and
one of the kid that is that uberpositive kid this year for us
as a senior and I had to justrecently write him a letter for
a senior year and I told him,like, you're the type of kid
that coaches and managers builda team around, right To your
point.
You're that glue, becauseyou're that valuable to the
program, to the chemistry right,and they may not necessarily be
(17:26):
.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Uh, you know you're, you're starting shortstop or
center fielder, pitcher, catcher, whatever you know they're.
They're a guy that just gettingthem to stay that way is is the
key, regardless of their roleon the team.
Would you agree with that?
Speaker 3 (17:44):
A hundred percent You're spot on.
Those kids are so valuable.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Well, do you like to talk to your team?
You know a lot of coaches.
You know you'll see them assoon as the game's over.
They take them maybe down theleft field line, talk to them a
little bit and then go clean thefield or go to the bus.
Or are you one of the guys that?
All right, hey, let's give this24 hours and we'll talk about
(18:10):
it tomorrow before practice,before the next game.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
I do a little bit of a different.
There's some common, commonsimilarities between the high
school and the summer program,but then I do things a little
bit differently with both.
But from a general perspective,because, no, there's always
logistics and timing like, hey,if it's late and it's a school
night, we need to get home Rightwhen we need to catch the bus.
(18:40):
Summer You're a little bit morelenient because it's summertime
.
But overall, the onecommonality that I have is we do
definitely talk about, um,certain key aspects of the game.
Right then, and there it's notvery long, it might be like two,
three key points that hey, justjust to hammer home, um, but
the rest of the time, for bothprograms, I actually have each
kid give each other a shout out,because I truly believe in
baseball where, even if youdon't get into the box, square
(19:03):
back to that positive teammate,everybody has a contribution to
that day, win or lose.
Every kid gives a kid a shoutout for that day and it can be
as simple as, hey, that kidpicked me up, uh, or grabbed my
gear when I was at second base,or he was my bullpen catcher.
He was a really good catch playpartner today for me and, and it
(19:26):
might seem really trivial andsmall, but if you think about
it's like hey guys, imagine ifwe didn't have a bullpen catcher
today.
Do you think any of ourrelievers would have the same
amount of success if he didn'thave a bullpen catcher today?
Do you think any of ourrelievers would have the same
amount of success if he didn'thave a bullpen catcher, right?
Or maybe that kid told him hey,I see this tell in this picture
and that one tell was able tohelp this one at bat, to help us
win the game.
(19:47):
So it's really small factors.
Or even as simple as hey, thatkid courtesy ran and stole
second base and he was thewinning run.
Like huge.
Simple as like hey, that kidcourtesy ran and stole second
base and he was the winning run,like huge uh.
But a lot, a lot of these smallinstances get overlooked
sometimes and I wanted to makesure that every kid understands
that they're all pulling therope, they're all rowing the
boat in the same direction,especially after it went like
(20:07):
you all contributed in some way,um, even if you didn't get into
the box score.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Exactly and little details matter, no matter what
it is, whether it's sports oranything in life, you know.
But I wanted to change it up alittle bit because you're not
only a high school coach, you'rethe founder of the Shoreline
Royals and it's you know.
Summer travel baseball, andtell me a little bit how you
(20:37):
came up with that idea and youknow a little bit how that's,
that's working out for you.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Yeah.
So the Royals started with alittle 12U team that I coached
and it was never intended to goon to what it is today.
It was just me coaching a groupof 12U kids that I knew you
know, knew from my personalbackyard and whatnot.
These kids are in the communityand I knew them growing up from
Little League.
I was 21, 22 years old at thetime.
(21:04):
I just coached this group of 12U kids and they wanted to stick
together.
They stuck together all the waythrough 18 U.
Unfortunately, that class was aCOVID class.
I didn't really get to see themsenior year as much.
Unfortunately, that class was aCOVID class, so didn't really
get to see them senior year asmuch.
But you know, kids under them,they recruited their friends and
they recruited their friendsand we kept having these 18U
(21:25):
teams ever since and they endedup just being really really good
.
Every class was really strongand really good and so really,
our first 18U class was 2021.
And since 2021, we've sent off23 and counting college baseball
players.
So really just kind of out ofthe blue, like there was a
(21:45):
little bit of a need in thisSeattle market.
I mean, there are a ton ofselect teams but they are super
expensive.
I mean you're giving up an armand leg for the, for a
traditional family, to playsummer baseball.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
And that's where you're different, right.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
And that's where you're different, right, because
, yes, we're a completenonprofit and we're half the
cost of our competitors.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
So a typical kid that's paying five, six, $7,000
a summer.
They're paying two to $3,000with us and we're still winning
the same amount of games, if notmore.
We're still sending the sameamount, if not more, kids to on
to college baseball.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
That that's great.
And you know what, since youyou're, you're on both ends of
the spectrum.
Your high school and the summeruh, select travel, whatever you
want to call it.
What is your high school andthe summer select travel,
whatever you want to call it?
What is your take on that?
The whole travel baseballindustry, I guess?
Speaker 3 (22:44):
Yeah, it's a little bit different in the country,
different parts of the countryand whatnot.
I would say the majority of thecoaches in the Northwest they
do both, so there's lessconflict.
If that's what you're trying toget at, because I know other
parts of the country, there'ssome huge conflicts between the
two.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Yeah, so you're saying a lot of the high school
coaches in that area also workin the summer too.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Right, I would say a good chunk of them, at least 75%
of them.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Really Well.
That's great to hear, becausethat kind of you hear stories
you know back here in the Eastand the Midwest where you know
maybe a player's working with asummer super elite, premier,
whatever you want to call it andyou know the player tends to
(23:39):
kind of want to do what they'redoing, but in the spring they're
playing for their high schoolcoach and the high school coach
may have a little differentapproach to how they coach the
game or maybe how they handlethe pitcher.
But is that an area where youhave players that are are
playing?
Do you think that players needto find a way to get that common
(24:08):
ground with both the coaches?
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Yeah, I think I to make it win, win it should be
that way.
Like I can reach out to a highschool coach right now who plays
for the Royals.
Yeah, I think to make itwin-win it should be that way.
Like I can reach out to a highschool coach right now who plays
for the Royals.
I'd be like where do you seethis kid in your lineup?
Does he need more reps at firstbase?
Does he need more reps in theoutfield?
Where can he best serve you?
So I feel like that is the role, that should be the role, of
(24:31):
the summer coaches, where theyconnect with the high school
program and say where is thiskid going to fit in your varsity
lineup?
Because that's where I willwork with him the most and
that's where I'll give him themost reps in the summer.
It doesn't always happen thatway but of course I think there
is a good amount of mutualrespect.
Here in Washington there are nohigh school events during the
(24:52):
high school season.
So once high school seasonstarts, no summer ball coaches
holding practices, no summerball coaches holding workouts.
There is a good amount ofmutual respect between that part
of the season.
I know some coaches, myselfincluded.
I will set a boundary.
I'll say, hey, I don't want youguys doing pitching lessons or
hitting lessons during the highschool season, mainly because I
(25:14):
want to preserve their arms,especially if the kid's not
going to be honest and say, hey,I just threw a 50-pitch bullpen
on Sunday and I'm supposed tostart on Tuesday.
So just to limit that kind ofscenario because I mean very
rarely but they can happen Toeliminate that scenario, just
say, hey, don't do any lessonsOnce we're high school season.
(25:36):
Our main focus and dedicationis high school season.
No, I'm not.
I'm going to take off the Royalstuff.
I'm not going to schedule anyRoyal stuff.
I am all Ingram baseball.
So I expect the same out of youguys.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
What is a drill that you like to do, that you're like
, hey, this is a great drill,and if you could kind of explain
that drill?
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Yeah for sure.
So, um, in the ABC article Idedicated that to, uh, my mentor
who passed away, Wyatt Tonkin.
He made this drill up with hisbrother called steps, um, and
steps is a multi fungo defensivedrill.
Um, so typically there's threebaseballs flying around.
Um, I've adapted it because youknow you need a lot of fungo
(26:19):
screens sometimes to make that,that drill work.
At a time where I didn't have asmany fungo screens or I didn't
have as many fungos uh at myarsenal, uh, I adapted it and
made it and called it a chaosdrill.
Um, chaos meaning uh, it's, it's, it's kind of hinting back to
chaos theory where, uh, thebutterfly effect, where one
(26:39):
little play in a game can impactthe entire outcome of the game,
like that dropped uh foul ballpop-up that we didn't catch in
the triangle or something aslike a pass ball that we didn't
cover at the plate.
Um, so chaos and steps reallyencompass every defensive
scenario you can think of in agame and it's rapid fire.
(27:00):
So it's constant reps, lessteaching, just a lot of reps of
like, hey, these are everyscenario you're going to see as
a third baseman and we're goingto cover every single one within
an hour.
So it's about 12 to 15different scenarios and steps
that we do, but it to me, it'sthe best defensive drill,
especially for a high schooler,cause you're just going through
every scenario that you're goingto see at multi, multiple reps
(27:24):
at a fast pace and they're justgoing to.
They're going to feel coveredand like hey, I got that.
I've done that 50, a hundredtimes at practice.
I can make this play.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Wow, I like that.
That's great.
Why ask this in every podcast?
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Hate losing or love winning, that's a good one.
I'm going to say I love winningmore.
I think there's lessons inlosing, but at the end of the
day you play for, like I said,it's that passion, um.
(28:01):
And at the end of the day, ifyou have the passion altogether
and you play as a team and youcan lose really good baseball
games and still feel really goodabout it, right, and I can walk
away from the field If everyonegave a really good shout games
and still feel really good aboutit, right, and I can walk away
from the field If everyone gavea really good shout out and
everyone did everything thatthey could to win that game and
(28:21):
if some some scenario happenedthat determined the outcome of
the game, I still feel like wewon.
So to me, I love that feeling atthe end of the day.
It's like I love that feelingand to me, even though we might
not have won the box score,we've won that day.
We won how we played, we wonhow we prepared and we won how
we executed.
And now, as you know, thingsaren't always in our control in
(28:44):
baseball.
So I'm going to be happy how wewon, the way that we attacked
it, and if we can do that very.
I'm more than happy taking theloss of the the scoreboard makes
sense.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Well, I kind of.
The next question I wanted torun by you was um, I kind of did
an assumption.
I assume that you are a seattlemariners fan.
Is that a safe bet?
Speaker 3 (29:12):
you know I grew up up watching Ichiro when I was
eight years old, his rookie year, and I'm like no, Mariners were
a lot of fun, but I got to saythey've broken my heart more
times than not.
It's been tough to be a bigMariners fan, for sure.
It's been really, really hard.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Well, I'm going to throw this at you here and you
just tell me what you think.
Then, if you could get three ofthese Seattle Mariners players
to join the current SeattleMariners roster, who would you
take?
Group A you get Ken Griffey Jr,felix Hernandez and Alex
(29:52):
Rodriguez.
Or Group B Ichiro Suzuki, randyJohnson and perennial all-star
Edgar Martinez.
What's one of you taking inthose two?
Speaker 3 (30:06):
I'm going Ichiro yeah .
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Group.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
B.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Why is that?
I think?
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Randy's dominant.
I think he's going to win everygame he pitches and then
Ichiro's going to get on baseand Edgar's going to drive him
in.
So your old-school, traditionalbaseball he gets on base, he
knocks him in, randy's going tothrow a shutout, we win 2-0.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
There you go.
I love it All, right.
Well, hey, to finish up, whatis your most hilarious
experience?
Either playing or coaching thegame of baseball, and you don't
have to give names if you don'twant to throw anybody under the
(30:47):
bus.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
Yeah, there's plenty of funny moments at practice,
but for the sake of keepingthings in a tight-knit circle,
I'll leave those out.
I was teaching slash bunts theother day, which is a lost art,
by the way.
I think more kids should learnhow to slash.
But we were going over slashbunts and I remember one time we
(31:11):
actually executed this back inI want to say, 2018 or so.
It was a championship game too.
So this is for the champo, andwe had a lefty up.
He could control the barrelreally well.
So we had a runner at first.
This is the first inning, so guygets on, I think, a leadoff
base hit.
He's second up.
He shows a bunt for his pitchpulls back and they shifted
(31:34):
their entire defense right.
So third bas bunt for his pitchpulls back and they they
shifted their entire defenseright.
So their baseman startscrashing short size, pretty much
playing close to third leftfield starts creeping in too.
For whatever, for no, whateverreason, he wanted to start
creeping in that early.
So he shows bunt, he pulls backand slashes and he legitimately
hits one to the left field wall.
So you can see all three ofthose guys just start sprinting
backwards and he hits an RBItriple to start the first inning
(31:59):
in a championship game and weended up steamrolling them like
15-2.
But I mean it almost lookedlike a circus of like how they
all moved from their defensiveshift and then immediately just
went right back.
So I mean, that's just a recentmemory, because we were just
teaching slashes and I was likethe slash can be really valuable
, it can work really well, um,which is a lost art these days,
(32:21):
but so I would say that wasprobably one of the funniest
on-field moments I've had yeah,well, you know, since you
mentioned that, I mean I I justcan't let it go.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Do you think high school coaches would be more
successful if they did a littlemore of the small ball slash,
that type of?
Speaker 3 (32:42):
stuff.
Yeah, that one hurts me as well, because in the summer I really
am a big believer of hey, let'sswing the bat, let's backspin
balls, because that's what we doall winter in the cage.
We teach them how to backspinbaseballs.
So let's do it, especially inthe summertime when they get a
lot of at bats and reps.
I tried it.
I took that theory into the highschool season last year, which
I kind of.
(33:02):
I kind of regretted, because Imean, you need you, you need to
have the kids to be able to doit for all right, but then at
the same time, yes, 100, youneed a, you need to win games,
you need to win close games, andevery high school game you're
facing an ace and you don't getthe same number of bats as in
the summer.
So it's like we've got tocapitalize on this moment.
(33:23):
We can't let it go.
So, as much as I personallydon't like to small ball as much
these days, I think it would bemore valuable for the high
school season.
I mean, if you want to win, ifyou want to win, have success.
That way you got to have somesmall ball components for sure?
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Well, it's Coach Tim Lee, head coach at Ingram High
School in Seattle, Washington.
Coach, I appreciate you takingyour Saturday to join me here on
Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
It was a lot of fun.
Ken, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
All right.
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Today, joining me for my firstepisode of 2025 is Tim Lee, head
(01:25):
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Hello and welcome to BaseballCoaches Unplugged.
(02:54):
I'm your host Coach KenCarpenter, and joining me today
all the way from SeattleWashington, head Baseball Coach
Tim Lee at Ingram High SchoolCoach.
Thanks for taking time to be onBaseball Coaches Unplugged.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Hey, thank you, Ken, for having me.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Well, it's Saturday, army-navy game's taking place
and you decided to go into theschool to do this recording and,
just like about every baseballcoach out there, once we get
past the new year, it's, we'rereally starting to get close to
baseball and there you are,you're jumping into uh inventory
(03:35):
and uniforms yeah, no, uh.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
I I enjoy the holidays, obviously the break
and being with family, but, um,I mean, I'm a true baseball
junkie.
I look forward to getting pastthe holidays to really get going
for baseball season.
So we've got some sweet newuniforms this year, so I'm just
going to go inventory them andorganize them out really quick.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Well, you know, I've never been to the state of
Washington.
You know, and you always hearstories about Seattle.
Is this as wet and rainy aspeople always say it is?
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yeah, I guess it's your definition of wet and rainy
.
It's really gray, it can bekind of muggy and misty all the
time, but we really don't getthe torrential downpours like
you would see in Florida or inthe southeast per se, the
torrential downpours like youwould see in Florida or in the
southeast per se, but I mean itis constantly, constantly moist.
(04:35):
So our guys are used.
I mean we hardly have any rainouts or rain delays.
Now we play through the rain,we play through the sprinkles.
It has to be really coming downhard on us where, like you know
, we lose visibility or bats arereally flying out of the hands
of our kids.
But other than that, we really,we really push through, because
our high school season is soshort here that we we really
can't cancel on makeup games.
We really have to play them alland just just just soldier them
(04:57):
through.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
When does your season start and when does it, I guess
, the state tournament begin?
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Yeah, so our season this year starts on March 3rd
and then the state tournamentusually is right around the
Memorial Day weekend, eitherbefore or right after.
So this year it will be rightafter.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Well, here in Ohio we always get challenged with the
weather.
You know, I can recall yearsago, you know you'd be playing a
game and all of a sudden itwould just start snowing.
And you know now they prettymuch set it at 40 degrees.
It's kind of like a cutoffpoint.
It seems like, do you guys, youknow you say you kind of battle
(05:36):
through the rain?
Are you in a situation like alot of schools are getting now,
where you have a turf field, orare you the traditional field?
Speaker 3 (05:47):
No, the majority of the fields here are definitely
turf now.
So we're really lucky.
At Ingram we have a full turffield, including the mounds.
A lot of schools are still kindof no dirt mounds, turf infield
, turf outfield.
Some schools are just turfinfield, grass outfield, so it's
kind of a mix, but I would saythe majority of the schools have
some component of their fieldis turf.
So now we we really battlethrough and we push on.
(06:10):
We've definitely practiced andhave tryouts in the snow before
we had to.
We got to get those practicesin and we got to get games in.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Well, you were recently featured in Inside
Pitch Magazine and that's kindof where it drew my my interest.
Well, you were recentlyfeatured in Inside Pitch
magazine and that's kind ofwhere it drew my interest and
you were discussing how playerscan overcome anxiety.
And you know, when I read thearticle, you know you talked
with your team last season whenyou guys were struggling and you
(06:42):
kind of turned things around.
Take me back to that day andtell me kind of like what you
talked about with your players,about self-doubt and you know
the, the fear of failure.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Yeah.
So the the year prior to that,we had an amazingly strong team.
We won 39 games, won the leagueplayoffs, won a tournament, won
a few tournaments, a lot ofcollege baseball players, that
senior class that graduated in2023, returned a core group of
the 2024s.
Then obviously some new kidscame onto the team, but it was
(07:15):
still a very strong team and,you know, on paper you could
even make the argument that itwas just as strong or even
stronger than the team before.
So we were winning games, youknow 10 plus runs, uh, for the
most part, and then we would wina majority of close games, but
we would still lose a lot ofclose one-run ball games, which
was I couldn't really wrap myhead around it because it was
(07:39):
now.
We're either really dominant orwe were like kind of scared in a
dog fight and dominant, or wewere like kind of scared in a
dog fight and, uh, after oursixth or seventh or eighth, like
one run loss, I'm like I I justI had to like stop and say, hey
, what is going on with you guys?
Like, once you have faced alittle adversity or you face
some kind of challenge, you guysreally just back off, because
(08:00):
when we're up five, six, seven,like no one can stop us, all
right and you know that feelingand everybody knows that feeling
, that momentum carries and theyjust feel unstoppable and we're
facing really strong teams allyear long.
It's not like we're facinglower-end teams when we're 10
running them and then we'refacing the good teams and we're
having a struggle.
It's all good teams all summer.
In fact we probably lost a fewof the one-run games against
(08:22):
weaker teams where we kind ofjust gave it away.
So I had to really dissect itand I was like to me it was more
of a lack of confidence forthem when things weren't going
their way, when maybe a key guywas not having a three-for-three
day or the starting pitcher hada rough inning to start the
game or something.
They just couldn't seem torebound from that and I couldn't
(08:43):
understand why they couldn'trebound from a diversity,
because they are really good,they were a really talented team
and I'm like you guys are toogood to not feel this confident
right now.
You should never feelunconfident with how you guys
can play.
So that kind of sparked themotivation to talk to them about
.
Hey, you know this fear, thisanxiety.
(09:04):
Everybody feels it.
The best baseball players inthe world feel it Now.
Mike Trout, otani, they I'msure they feel this feeling too.
Right it's.
And it's not so much about howdo we get rid of this feeling
for them.
It's more about how do we justacknowledge it and move on Right
Cause if this feeling affectsMike Trout and Otani, there's no
way that we're going to be ableto not feel this feeling.
(09:27):
You know the best guys in theworld are feeling it.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
So how do we recognize it and how do we move
on from it?
And when you, when you had thatdiscussion, were the players
open about talking about theirstruggles and be willing to talk
to you or in front of the team,yeah, that game actually was a
road game.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
We had to travel pretty far for it.
It was like an hour drive formost of the guys, so we got
there pretty early.
We're sitting down right aroundthe bullpen area and I just had
them all sit around the bullpen.
We just chatted for a good10-15 minutes, uh, gave them the
spiel about, no, pretty muchwhat I said in the article about
.
Hey, these are some things weneed to focus on today.
Now we work, focus on ourbreathing, focus on a positive
(10:11):
talk, focus on visualization,and let's focus on those three
things and let let the game takecare of itself.
Um, but they were very open toit.
They were very receptive to it.
We do a lot of mental trainingin the program, um, so we, the
guys, do regular yoga every week, um, and they.
We also have a mental strengthcoach.
She's a licensed therapist, soshe's actually able to talk
(10:33):
about mental health and why not?
But she's she's part of ourprogram where kids can go and
talk to her about pretty muchanything, but the intent of it
is to help them on the mentalstrength side.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Well, you're the first coach that I've come
across that has that option fortheir players.
And let me ask you this do youyourself ever sit down and talk
with her?
Speaker 3 (10:59):
That's a good question.
I have not talked to herpersonally.
Uh, one of the one of theboundaries that I've seen where
kids are hesitant to use anykind of mental resource or
mental aid help is and it'scommon for professional college
baseball players too.
I got this idea from the, fromthe air force Academy actually.
Um, one of the boundaries a lotof these players are afraid of
(11:20):
what they say get back to thecoach.
So one of the ways for me tokeep that separation is I tell
the therapist I don't want tohear anything, right, if there's
something really serious, gotalk to the parents and the
family about it and get theminvolved.
But I really want to stay awayfrom it.
If the kids have something theywant to say to me, they're more
than welcome to.
But I try to keep that degreeof separation just so they feel
(11:44):
like they have that privacy andthey feel like they can say
whatever they need to saywithout it getting back to the
coach.
But on the personal side, Ihave definitely spoken to
therapists before and I havedefinitely done counseling
before and I see the value andbenefit of it before and I see
the value and benefit of it.
So definitely want, especiallyyoung men, to start
understanding like, hey, it'sokay to feel these things.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
And it's okay to talk about these things, yes, cause
I I can recall one year, myathletic director, who happened
to be also the head softballcoach, and we played in a big
tournament game at the end ofthe season and a game that you
know, looking back on it, weprobably should have won but we
didn't.
And when she did her end of theyear evaluation with me, she's
(12:31):
like she goes, you know, Iwatched you and because they
normally would be playing at thesame time, but since it was
tournament, she was able to cometo the game and she's like she
almost said like you almost wantit more than the players do.
Do you ever kind?
Speaker 3 (12:52):
of get that feeling.
As a coach, I've always saidthis, especially with kids
trying to join the program youcan't fake passion.
That's absolutely one thing.
I mean the most talentedbaseball players in the world,
they can only play this game upto a point and once their
passion runs out, theirpassion's done.
(13:12):
And no, I can think ofinstances where, like college
programs were begging for thiskid to hey, can he commit, can
he commit?
I'm like I just don't know ifhe wants to keep playing after
this year.
He absolutely can and should beplaying at the next level, but
I just don't know if he wants todo it.
So I mean it's painful as acoach because when you see it
(13:34):
you're like God, you are so goodand you can have so much
success at the next level.
But if you don't have thepassion, you don't have the
passion.
There's nothing anybody can doexternally.
It's that kid's life, it's thatkid's passion.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Yes, well, you talked about some of your techniques.
Can you give me an example of,like a breathing technique that
you use with your players?
That would be beneficial toanybody that might be listening.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Yeah, a couple of them.
So there's there's a lot ofcommon methods out there, like
the box breathing techniquewhich the Navy SEALs use.
You just think of like a boxyou breathe in and you hold it
and then you exhale for the sameamount to create a box.
It also kind of makes themvisualize just visualize a box
of breathing.
And then also when we do yogawork yoga's a ton of breathing
(14:25):
exercises, of anything.
It's controlling the breathwith certain movements.
And now when I tell guys who Ineed them let's say they're on
the mound and I need them torelax before a foot strike I'd
be like, hey, give me a few yogabreaths, right, anchoring them
back to what they've they'veintentionally done in practice
for an hour at yoga and theyknow that scenario and they know
(14:46):
that feeling, they know how todo it.
I can anchor them back to thatmoment where you spent an hour
just focused on breathing and Ineed you in this key moment,
this key at bat, this key pitch,I need you to breathe
especially, especially focusedhere.
So I would say use hey, do someyoga rest for me right now
before we execute, and that thatusually helps a lot with my
(15:09):
guys.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Now you mentioned there were a couple other
techniques that you work withwith your guys.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Yeah.
So positive self-talk andvisualization are huge for me,
especially the positiveself-talk.
I think one of the one of thekey things I talked about
pregame that one day was themajority of the world and the
majority of our mindset isnegative and it's perfectly okay
, that's what keeps us alive.
It's like hey, don't go jumpoff a bridge, don't burn
(15:37):
yourself, don't go run acrosstraffic.
Like negative thoughts aremeant to keep us alive
physiologically as humans.
So it's very natural and innatefor us to have negative
thoughts, which is why, if youthink about it, when you think
about those really good teamswhere there's always that super
positive Uber guy, you're likeman, that kid's always positive,
(15:57):
that kid's always cheerful,like yeah, that's because
they're the exception.
They're like very, very rare.
Um, so having positive self-talkand uh, when your mind's
majority, majority of the timenegative, is so crucial for us
in a game where we getconstantly bombarded with
negative thoughts and negativeoutcomes that we just have to
(16:18):
spin it for us Like we have tothink of a positive outcome.
Or one of our techniques washey, no, you, you boot a ground
ball, but you've made a thousandof these plays before.
Right, you can tell yourselfI've made a thousand of these
plays before I can make the nextone.
I can boot one.
I'm allowed to boot one.
I'll make the next thousandhere because I know I've done it
(16:39):
before.
So that positive self-talk tome is so important, especially
in today's world where it's sonegative.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Definitely.
When you mentioned having thatone player, I immediately went
to the documentary about the RedSox and Kevin Millar.
He was that player, that kindof he was almost like the glue
for the whole team because ofhis.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
They're special, they're absolutely special and
one of the kid that is that uberpositive kid this year for us
as a senior and I had to justrecently write him a letter for
a senior year and I told him,like, you're the type of kid
that coaches and managers builda team around, right To your
point.
You're that glue, becauseyou're that valuable to the
program, to the chemistry right,and they may not necessarily be
(17:26):
.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Uh, you know you're, you're starting shortstop or
center fielder, pitcher, catcher, whatever you know they're.
They're a guy that just gettingthem to stay that way is is the
key, regardless of their roleon the team.
Would you agree with that?
Speaker 3 (17:44):
A hundred percent You're spot on.
Those kids are so valuable.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Well, do you like to talk to your team?
You know a lot of coaches.
You know you'll see them assoon as the game's over.
They take them maybe down theleft field line, talk to them a
little bit and then go clean thefield or go to the bus.
Or are you one of the guys that?
All right, hey, let's give this24 hours and we'll talk about
(18:10):
it tomorrow before practice,before the next game.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
I do a little bit of a different.
There's some common, commonsimilarities between the high
school and the summer program,but then I do things a little
bit differently with both.
But from a general perspective,because, no, there's always
logistics and timing like, hey,if it's late and it's a school
night, we need to get home Rightwhen we need to catch the bus.
(18:40):
Summer You're a little bit morelenient because it's summertime
.
But overall, the onecommonality that I have is we do
definitely talk about, um,certain key aspects of the game.
Right then, and there it's notvery long, it might be like two,
three key points that hey, justjust to hammer home, um, but
the rest of the time, for bothprograms, I actually have each
kid give each other a shout out,because I truly believe in
baseball where, even if youdon't get into the box, square
(19:03):
back to that positive teammate,everybody has a contribution to
that day, win or lose.
Every kid gives a kid a shoutout for that day and it can be
as simple as, hey, that kidpicked me up, uh, or grabbed my
gear when I was at second base,or he was my bullpen catcher.
He was a really good catch playpartner today for me and, and it
(19:26):
might seem really trivial andsmall, but if you think about
it's like hey guys, imagine ifwe didn't have a bullpen catcher
today.
Do you think any of ourrelievers would have the same
amount of success if he didn'thave a bullpen catcher today?
Do you think any of ourrelievers would have the same
amount of success if he didn'thave a bullpen catcher, right?
Or maybe that kid told him hey,I see this tell in this picture
and that one tell was able tohelp this one at bat, to help us
win the game.
(19:47):
So it's really small factors.
Or even as simple as hey, thatkid courtesy ran and stole
second base and he was thewinning run.
Like huge.
Simple as like hey, that kidcourtesy ran and stole second
base and he was the winning run,like huge uh.
But a lot, a lot of these smallinstances get overlooked
sometimes and I wanted to makesure that every kid understands
that they're all pulling therope, they're all rowing the
boat in the same direction,especially after it went like
(20:07):
you all contributed in some way,um, even if you didn't get into
the box score.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Exactly and little details matter, no matter what
it is, whether it's sports oranything in life, you know.
But I wanted to change it up alittle bit because you're not
only a high school coach, you'rethe founder of the Shoreline
Royals and it's you know.
Summer travel baseball, andtell me a little bit how you
(20:37):
came up with that idea and youknow a little bit how that's,
that's working out for you.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Yeah.
So the Royals started with alittle 12U team that I coached
and it was never intended to goon to what it is today.
It was just me coaching a groupof 12U kids that I knew you
know, knew from my personalbackyard and whatnot.
These kids are in the communityand I knew them growing up from
Little League.
I was 21, 22 years old at thetime.
(21:04):
I just coached this group of 12U kids and they wanted to stick
together.
They stuck together all the waythrough 18 U.
Unfortunately, that class was aCOVID class.
I didn't really get to see themsenior year as much.
Unfortunately, that class was aCOVID class, so didn't really
get to see them senior year asmuch.
But you know, kids under them,they recruited their friends and
they recruited their friendsand we kept having these 18U
(21:25):
teams ever since and they endedup just being really really good
.
Every class was really strongand really good and so really,
our first 18U class was 2021.
And since 2021, we've sent off23 and counting college baseball
players.
So really just kind of out ofthe blue, like there was a
(21:45):
little bit of a need in thisSeattle market.
I mean, there are a ton ofselect teams but they are super
expensive.
I mean you're giving up an armand leg for the, for a
traditional family, to playsummer baseball.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
And that's where you're different, right.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
And that's where you're different, right, because
, yes, we're a completenonprofit and we're half the
cost of our competitors.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
So a typical kid that's paying five, six, $7,000
a summer.
They're paying two to $3,000with us and we're still winning
the same amount of games, if notmore.
We're still sending the sameamount, if not more, kids to on
to college baseball.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
That that's great.
And you know what, since youyou're, you're on both ends of
the spectrum.
Your high school and the summeruh, select travel, whatever you
want to call it.
What is your high school andthe summer select travel,
whatever you want to call it?
What is your take on that?
The whole travel baseballindustry, I guess?
Speaker 3 (22:44):
Yeah, it's a little bit different in the country,
different parts of the countryand whatnot.
I would say the majority of thecoaches in the Northwest they
do both, so there's lessconflict.
If that's what you're trying toget at, because I know other
parts of the country, there'ssome huge conflicts between the
two.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Yeah, so you're saying a lot of the high school
coaches in that area also workin the summer too.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Right, I would say a good chunk of them, at least 75%
of them.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Really Well.
That's great to hear, becausethat kind of you hear stories
you know back here in the Eastand the Midwest where you know
maybe a player's working with asummer super elite, premier,
whatever you want to call it andyou know the player tends to
(23:39):
kind of want to do what they'redoing, but in the spring they're
playing for their high schoolcoach and the high school coach
may have a little differentapproach to how they coach the
game or maybe how they handlethe pitcher.
But is that an area where youhave players that are are
playing?
Do you think that players needto find a way to get that common
(24:08):
ground with both the coaches?
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Yeah, I think I to make it win, win it should be
that way.
Like I can reach out to a highschool coach right now who plays
for the Royals.
Yeah, I think to make itwin-win it should be that way.
Like I can reach out to a highschool coach right now who plays
for the Royals.
I'd be like where do you seethis kid in your lineup?
Does he need more reps at firstbase?
Does he need more reps in theoutfield?
Where can he best serve you?
So I feel like that is the role, that should be the role, of
(24:31):
the summer coaches, where theyconnect with the high school
program and say where is thiskid going to fit in your varsity
lineup?
Because that's where I willwork with him the most and
that's where I'll give him themost reps in the summer.
It doesn't always happen thatway but of course I think there
is a good amount of mutualrespect.
Here in Washington there are nohigh school events during the
(24:52):
high school season.
So once high school seasonstarts, no summer ball coaches
holding practices, no summerball coaches holding workouts.
There is a good amount ofmutual respect between that part
of the season.
I know some coaches, myselfincluded.
I will set a boundary.
I'll say, hey, I don't want youguys doing pitching lessons or
hitting lessons during the highschool season, mainly because I
(25:14):
want to preserve their arms,especially if the kid's not
going to be honest and say, hey,I just threw a 50-pitch bullpen
on Sunday and I'm supposed tostart on Tuesday.
So just to limit that kind ofscenario because I mean very
rarely but they can happen Toeliminate that scenario, just
say, hey, don't do any lessonsOnce we're high school season.
(25:36):
Our main focus and dedicationis high school season.
No, I'm not.
I'm going to take off the Royalstuff.
I'm not going to schedule anyRoyal stuff.
I am all Ingram baseball.
So I expect the same out of youguys.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
What is a drill that you like to do, that you're like
, hey, this is a great drill,and if you could kind of explain
that drill?
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Yeah for sure.
So, um, in the ABC article Idedicated that to, uh, my mentor
who passed away, Wyatt Tonkin.
He made this drill up with hisbrother called steps, um, and
steps is a multi fungo defensivedrill.
Um, so typically there's threebaseballs flying around.
Um, I've adapted it because youknow you need a lot of fungo
(26:19):
screens sometimes to make that,that drill work.
At a time where I didn't have asmany fungo screens or I didn't
have as many fungos uh at myarsenal, uh, I adapted it and
made it and called it a chaosdrill.
Um, chaos meaning uh, it's, it's, it's kind of hinting back to
chaos theory where, uh, thebutterfly effect, where one
(26:39):
little play in a game can impactthe entire outcome of the game,
like that dropped uh foul ballpop-up that we didn't catch in
the triangle or something aslike a pass ball that we didn't
cover at the plate.
Um, so chaos and steps reallyencompass every defensive
scenario you can think of in agame and it's rapid fire.
(27:00):
So it's constant reps, lessteaching, just a lot of reps of
like, hey, these are everyscenario you're going to see as
a third baseman and we're goingto cover every single one within
an hour.
So it's about 12 to 15different scenarios and steps
that we do, but it to me, it'sthe best defensive drill,
especially for a high schooler,cause you're just going through
every scenario that you're goingto see at multi, multiple reps
(27:24):
at a fast pace and they're justgoing to.
They're going to feel coveredand like hey, I got that.
I've done that 50, a hundredtimes at practice.
I can make this play.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Wow, I like that.
That's great.
Why ask this in every podcast?
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Hate losing or love winning, that's a good one.
I'm going to say I love winningmore.
I think there's lessons inlosing, but at the end of the
day you play for, like I said,it's that passion, um.
(28:01):
And at the end of the day, ifyou have the passion altogether
and you play as a team and youcan lose really good baseball
games and still feel really goodabout it, right, and I can walk
away from the field If everyonegave a really good shout games
and still feel really good aboutit, right, and I can walk away
from the field If everyone gavea really good shout out and
everyone did everything thatthey could to win that game and
(28:21):
if some some scenario happenedthat determined the outcome of
the game, I still feel like wewon.
So to me, I love that feeling atthe end of the day.
It's like I love that feelingand to me, even though we might
not have won the box score,we've won that day.
We won how we played, we wonhow we prepared and we won how
we executed.
And now, as you know, thingsaren't always in our control in
(28:44):
baseball.
So I'm going to be happy how wewon, the way that we attacked
it, and if we can do that very.
I'm more than happy taking theloss of the the scoreboard makes
sense.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Well, I kind of.
The next question I wanted torun by you was um, I kind of did
an assumption.
I assume that you are a seattlemariners fan.
Is that a safe bet?
Speaker 3 (29:12):
you know I grew up up watching Ichiro when I was
eight years old, his rookie year, and I'm like no, Mariners were
a lot of fun, but I got to saythey've broken my heart more
times than not.
It's been tough to be a bigMariners fan, for sure.
It's been really, really hard.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Well, I'm going to throw this at you here and you
just tell me what you think.
Then, if you could get three ofthese Seattle Mariners players
to join the current SeattleMariners roster, who would you
take?
Group A you get Ken Griffey Jr,felix Hernandez and Alex
(29:52):
Rodriguez.
Or Group B Ichiro Suzuki, randyJohnson and perennial all-star
Edgar Martinez.
What's one of you taking inthose two?
Speaker 3 (30:06):
I'm going Ichiro yeah .
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Group.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
B.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Why is that?
I think?
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Randy's dominant.
I think he's going to win everygame he pitches and then
Ichiro's going to get on baseand Edgar's going to drive him
in.
So your old-school, traditionalbaseball he gets on base, he
knocks him in, randy's going tothrow a shutout, we win 2-0.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
There you go.
I love it All, right.
Well, hey, to finish up, whatis your most hilarious
experience?
Either playing or coaching thegame of baseball, and you don't
have to give names if you don'twant to throw anybody under the
(30:47):
bus.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
Yeah, there's plenty of funny moments at practice,
but for the sake of keepingthings in a tight-knit circle,
I'll leave those out.
I was teaching slash bunts theother day, which is a lost art,
by the way.
I think more kids should learnhow to slash.
But we were going over slashbunts and I remember one time we
(31:11):
actually executed this back inI want to say, 2018 or so.
It was a championship game too.
So this is for the champo, andwe had a lefty up.
He could control the barrelreally well.
So we had a runner at first.
This is the first inning, so guygets on, I think, a leadoff
base hit.
He's second up.
He shows a bunt for his pitchpulls back and they shifted
(31:34):
their entire defense right.
So third bas bunt for his pitchpulls back and they they
shifted their entire defenseright.
So their baseman startscrashing short size, pretty much
playing close to third leftfield starts creeping in too.
For whatever, for no, whateverreason, he wanted to start
creeping in that early.
So he shows bunt, he pulls backand slashes and he legitimately
hits one to the left field wall.
So you can see all three ofthose guys just start sprinting
backwards and he hits an RBItriple to start the first inning
(31:59):
in a championship game and weended up steamrolling them like
15-2.
But I mean it almost lookedlike a circus of like how they
all moved from their defensiveshift and then immediately just
went right back.
So I mean, that's just a recentmemory, because we were just
teaching slashes and I was likethe slash can be really valuable
, it can work really well, um,which is a lost art these days,
(32:21):
but so I would say that wasprobably one of the funniest
on-field moments I've had yeah,well, you know, since you
mentioned that, I mean I I justcan't let it go.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Do you think high school coaches would be more
successful if they did a littlemore of the small ball slash,
that type of?
Speaker 3 (32:42):
stuff.
Yeah, that one hurts me as well, because in the summer I really
am a big believer of hey, let'sswing the bat, let's backspin
balls, because that's what we doall winter in the cage.
We teach them how to backspinbaseballs.
So let's do it, especially inthe summertime when they get a
lot of at bats and reps.
I tried it.
I took that theory into the highschool season last year, which
I kind of.
(33:02):
I kind of regretted, because Imean, you need you, you need to
have the kids to be able to doit for all right, but then at
the same time, yes, 100, youneed a, you need to win games,
you need to win close games, andevery high school game you're
facing an ace and you don't getthe same number of bats as in
the summer.
So it's like we've got tocapitalize on this moment.
(33:23):
We can't let it go.
So, as much as I personallydon't like to small ball as much
these days, I think it would bemore valuable for the high
school season.
I mean, if you want to win, ifyou want to win, have success.
That way you got to have somesmall ball components for sure?
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Well, it's Coach Tim Lee, head coach at Ingram High
School in Seattle, Washington.
Coach, I appreciate you takingyour Saturday to join me here on
Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
It was a lot of fun.
Ken, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
All right.
Baseball Coaches Unplugged isproud to be partnered with the
netting professionals, improvingprograms one facility at a time
.
Contact them today at844-620-2707, or visit them
(34:19):
online at wwwnettingproscom.
As always, I'm your host, coach, ken Carpenter, and thanks for
joining me on Baseball CoachesUnplugged.
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