The Outfield Opportunity: Skills and Strategies for Young Players

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Welcome to the Complete Gamepodcast, where we're all about baseball
with Ethan Dungan, owner ofGlovehound Baseball glove repair
shop.
Rick Finley, founder of MDNIBaseball Academy and the creator
of George Foster Baseball, theMVP himself, Reds hall of Famer George
Foster.
I'm your host, Greg Dungan.
Now let's talk baseball.

(00:25):
So this week, we're talkingabout outfielding specifically.
We wanted to go into thefielding category, and we thought
what better to start with thanoutfielding specifically.
Mainly because, George, youplayed outfield, and because we're
trying to tackle a certainproblem, and that is that outfield
gets a bad rap, especiallywhen you're a kid, because not much

(00:46):
happens out there, and it can get.
You can get bored out there,and you can start to feel like maybe
you got punished by sendingpeople sending you out there.
And we want to turn thataround and kind of talk about how
important it is to have agreat outfield, how important it
is to specialize in certainskills and what opportunities can
open up to you because you did.

(01:07):
So we're going to see how tosee the outfield as an opportunity.
That's the title of the episode.
But we're going to start offfirst with name five.
Now, the first week, Rick hadto go first, and he ate up all the
good choices.
Last week, we let George gofirst, so Rick didn't take all his
people.
So this week, Ethan, you getto go first.
So he'll name all of the greatoutfielders from the last five minutes,

(01:30):
and then the rest of us cantalk about baseball.
Yes.
There you go.
All right, well, I'll.
I'll start off with a not so current.
My number one is Ichiro Suzuki.
Oh, that's what I got down.
I had.
I had a feeling.
Oh, yeah.
Yes.
He just a guy who embodies theposition offensively and defensively.
Ten Gold Gloves, it's.
It's hard to argue with that.

(01:51):
And man just had an absoluterocket for an arm.
And that's gonna be the themeof my list is the rocket is the rocket
arm.
Yes.
There's not really much elseto say about each row.
I mean, everybody knows.
Everybody knows it already.
Number two is our friend,Vladimir Guerrero Sr.
Yes.
Vlad had a cannon.

(02:13):
We should.
We should have brought him uplast week.
I don't know if we did or not,but talk about a guy who didn't care
about the strike zone.
I did.
I did.
Yes.
He could protect his own zone.
Yeah.
Ye.
Swing and everything, but he had.
He had an absolute cannon foran arm.
It's really fun to watch outthere and.
And played out there for along time, too.
Number two and.

(02:33):
Or, no, I'm sorry, numberthree and number four.
I'm gonna lump them togetherfor a specific reason.
Number three is Joanna Cespedus.
And.
Okay, four is Yasio Puig.
Now, the reason is becausethere was a time when I was playing
in about 2013, 2014, that itseemed like every week one of those
dudes was throwing somebodyout from right field to third or

(02:56):
from left to home, and I atethat up.
I was watching sports everytime they had one of those throws,
and I didn't even play outfield.
And I wanted to be those guys.
Yes, absolutely.
Those are great choices, man.
Those guys did have arms.
And then my last guy is Billy Hamilton.

(03:18):
Oh, I mean, and he's not somuch an arm as much as range.
I mean, he could.
He had range.
If I had to pick oneoutfielder, like if I could only
have one outfielder and outthere, and rather than three, I would
pick Billy Hamilton.
He would be my guy because hejust pulled in absolutely everything.
And he was so much fun towatch out there.
Started at shortstop.

(03:38):
Yes, he did.
And he went to the outfield.
This guy could, like you sayhe could run, he could covered a
whole ground out there.
Whatever the Pacific Oceandidn't cover, he covered.
I know another Red shortstopwho probably ought to be.
Yes.
All right, Rick, who you got?

(03:59):
Well, better not say.
Ken Griffey Jr.
At his prime, dog.
He was a beast, especially inthe 90s.
Yes, he was a beast, man.
He can go get it, man.
Climb the wall, everythingGold Gloves.
And then my next guy is Mookie.
Mookie bats, man.

(04:19):
Mookie, he.
He's a run saver, especiallyplaying before he got traded to the
Dodgers.
When he is, he played rightfield a lot at Boston.
Yes.
And saving six Gold Gloves.
And still going.
Yes, still going.

(04:39):
Oh, this going back to theReds days, man.
Eric Davis.
Yeah, Eric Davis was my guy, man.
I like Eric, man.
He just embodied everything, man.
He was cool like you.
Yeah.
Ricky Henderson I like,because my son Ricky is kind of pattern

(05:02):
his game after Ricky a littlebit from the hitting to the outfield
and stuff like that.
And my last is kind of grouped together.
Older guys.
Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente.
Oh, man.
Do you have a list?
Willie Mays, are they comingup from the arm talent to over the

(05:31):
shoulder?
Everybody used to do that.
And so when I was teaching myson Ricky how to play outfield, he,
you know, he had a Range and stuff.
And those are the guys that,you know, you kind of pattern your
outfield after.
And then another guy playedwith George.
This is probably a six guy.

(05:51):
Cesar.
Oh, you go and caught yourgroup somebody.
Now you're gonna have six.
Okay.
Just breaking the rules.
I'm cut off.
Okay.
I'm a rule breaker.
I'm sorry.
Okay.
Yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonnagive an official rules.
Yes.
Declaration here.
Okay.
Okay.
Yes, do that.
George, Anytime somebody takesyour people, if you played with them,

(06:15):
you can have them too.
That's the way it works.
Oh, that'll be cool.
Yeah, because they don't knowmuch, as much as I.
That's right.
So you have Willie Mays backthere you go.
Yeah.
Say, hey, kid.
Yes, sir.
No, that was.
I know it goes way back, but,you know, everybody knows he heard
the name Willie Mays.
And, and the thing is aboutWillie Mays, of course, the center

(06:36):
fielder, right?
He's really the captain of theoutfield and he should be calling
for the ball, but Willie Mayswouldn't call for the ball.
So I'm playing left field andI'm like, please don't hit the ball
to left center because WillieMays and George Foster may collide.
And maybe George Foster's lastgame, matter of fact, the Giants

(06:57):
had a left fielder.
Him and Willie Mays collided.
And the next year he wasplaying in Japan.
So I said I wasn't ready to goto Japan at the time, but Willie
Mays, you know, he patrolledthat outfield and I mean, he was
flashy out there, but he tooka ball that maybe is an ordinary
play, make it lookextraordinary and having a good arm,

(07:19):
but he's always in control.
And so I just love watchinghim play.
But that, like I said, goodarm, good instinct, great speed out
there and great control.
The other guys, RobertoClemente, when you hit a ball down
the right field line, juststay at first base.
Because he would wheel andthrow the ball at first.

(07:40):
You don't know it's on you soquickly and.
But just watching him, how Ilook at him as a, like a what, gazelle
out in the outfield, man, hedidn't seem like he's going to get
to it, but he could get to itunder control.
But I had first seen Clementeat Dodger Stadium and the Giant,

(08:01):
the Dodgers, that ended upwinning the game, and Roberto Clemente
threw the ball over fence intothe outfield because.
Into the parking lot rather,because he had.
He was upset.
I said, wow, what a great arm.
Then we had all heard all thealarms go off when he hit those cars.
But now we come back.
But this other guy, nobodyreally talked much about color.

(08:25):
Vito, he played.
I remember we went with the Indians.
He wasn't known for his bat or anything.
That's extraordinary.
But that arm had a gun for anarm like, like Ethan was talking
about Ichiro and those guysreally fire the ball.
But this guy is.
Finally got into the hall of Fame.

(08:45):
Dave Parker.
And I think, yeah, in the, inthe All Star game, he threw two guys
out and at third and at home.
And those guys, you don'treally want to dare as far as trying
to score.
And then plus you trying toscore at home.
And then you have a catcherlike say a Johnny Bench or, or Gary
Carter.

(09:05):
Gary.
Oh, Gary Carter.
Yeah.
No, I was going to talk abouta Dodger catchers.
You don't want to have to runinto a Dodger catcher because you
may have to be on an honeststretcher afterwards.
Those guys, they, they want tohurt you up there.
Not only get you out, but hurt you.
And now we go to Dave Winfield.
Another guy was like 6, 8.
This guy could have playedfootball, basketball, but he chose

(09:29):
baseball.
It could have gone pro.
I mean, pro in, in thosecertain areas.
Yes, but what a gun for an arm.
They put him in right field,but I love watching him throw.
But I knew those guys.
That's why I think itencouraged me to hit home runs.
So I have to, I don't have torun against those guys.
But you have maybe a thirdbase coach.

(09:49):
He may not like you, so he'sgoing to intentionally say, go.
The worst part is that the, the.
The catcher has the ball.
So what are you going to do?
Are you going to run acrossthe mound, back to second?
But I've seen that happen.
The guy runs across the mound,back to second base.
What is he doing?
This is crazy.

(10:10):
I don't know where this guy's from.
No, but those guys were very entertaining.
And watch like in the All Star Game.
Last but not least, in the AllStar Game, you had Dave Parker, Dave
Winfield and a guy namedReggie Smith.
Those guys, I mean, they'retalking about the ball takes off.
That ball was taken off and Iwas another outfielder gonna throw.

(10:32):
I said, no, I don't feel likethrowing today.
I may hit the.
I may be able to get to thecutoff man, but these guys was throwing
the ball over the catcher's head.
And I said, I just love watching.
Just come watch them take infield.
And that was entertainment in Itself.
Yes.
That's great.
Yeah, the.
One of the.
One of the cool robbing playsthat I watched over the weekend while

(10:54):
I was doing my research waswhen Tori Hunter robbed one off.
Rob one from Barry Bob.
Yeah, that was.
That was nice.
That was.
That was beautiful.
So, okay, so I'm going to givesome love to.
To the guys from my era.
Not a lot of.
Not a lot of hall of Famers.
There's a few of them in thislist, but these are the guys when

(11:14):
we were playing in thebackyard, we're like, oh, I want
to be this guy.
Oh, I want to be that guy.
Right.
So.
And.
And Ethan, it's.
It's interesting because hegrew up in a whole different era
of baseball where you couldget on television and you could see
National League or AmericanLeague, all kind of thing.
And when I was a kid, man, wegrew up in the NL Central and in

(11:35):
the NL entirely.
Yes.
So.
Because you could only seewhat was on three channels on television.
Right.
So there was, you know, youcouldn't watch a lot of.
A lot of these.
Right.
Just five.
So it's funny because he'lllook at me and be like, your baseball
world is so small.
And I'm like, well, yeah,because that's all we had when I
was a kid.
So I'm going to my.

(11:55):
I have long.
I have more than five.
Go ahead.
But I'm.
Rick had.
Okay.
I should have went for seven.
All right, so I'm going to rundown the National League of the guys
that I remember who typifiedeach team as we go down.
So the Twins.
That's Kirby Puckett.
Oh, yeah, we're talking aboutKirby now.
Kirby's all favorite.
I thought I was going to score.

(12:16):
And here comes Kirby throwinga beating to the plate.
And like, I'm between home andthird base.
What should I do, Just go in amanhole or what?
But that guy could throw.
Yeah, he could.
Yeah, he could.
Kirby Puckett was a chunk.
He was good.
Yes.
And then see Kevin Mitchell.
I remember Kevin Mitchell as a Giant.
So it was the later 80s therewhen I remember, after he was in

(12:38):
New York, I remember him withthe Giants.
But my favorite Kevin Mitchell moment.
Okay.
You know, he misjudged it.
Go ahead.
Yeah.
So, you know, I'm going.
So I think it was.
It was Ozzy Smith hits theball opposite field.
It's taken off to the leftfield corner.
Yes.
And Mitchell's chasing it andthen reaches up with his bare hand.

(13:00):
Right?
Yes.
Remember that?
1989.
I will never Forget that game.
It was.
I didn't see the game, but Isaw the highlights because by then
everybody had cable, so I wasable to see the highlights.
But my goodness, what a play.
And what was funny is the.
The announcer says, yeah,Willie May said he's been working
with him on that.
I don't know.
And so then I read a thingafterwards and Mitchell said, Willie

(13:23):
called him after the game andsaid, I didn't teach you to do that.
What are you doing out there?
So, yeah, that was cool.
And again, Eric Davis with the Reds.
Eric Davis was.
Was the guy I remember themost with the Reds.
The.
With the Cubs.
That was Andre Dawson.
We're back to Andre Dawson.
That guy was just tough.
The Braves, there's only one.
It's Dale Murphy.

(13:44):
I mean, Dale Murphy was from.
Yeah, he dominated the 80s forthe Braves when I was a kid.
The Padres.
That was Tony Gwyn.
Yes.
The Pirates.
I see.
I remember Dave Parker as aPirate, even though he was only a
pirate till 83.
But he.
Yeah, but I.
He's.
He was a pirate for 10 years.
I mean, 73, from the day I wasborn till, you know, 83, when I was

(14:08):
10 years old.
So I remember Dave Parker as a Pirate.
Yeah.
The biggest, fastest man Iever seen.
Yeah.
This guy get low to the grassgoing with Willie Davis with the
Dodger.
These guys call it three dogas far as Willie, Dave.
But they park.
Get low to the ground, but Iwould hate to be a shortstop or second
baseman.
He's coming down like.
Time out, time out.

(14:31):
The Phillies.
That was Gary Maddox.
Oh, great.
Yeah.
And I were signed by the same.
Same scout.
Oh, tell me.
We grew up together and so we're.
He.
He was from, well, California area.
And Gary Matthews, the other guy.
Yeah, look at this.
Ethan would know, though,because it's already let the cat

(14:51):
out of the bag.
So you had Matthews, Maddoxand Foster.
So who played where?
So I played center field withthose guys.
Oh, my goodness.
I would tell them what to do,but no, that was something.
Gary Maddox.
This guy could.
But he had those long stridesand great arm, and he was like Geronimo.
He.
He had a lively ball and aheavy ball, and I always had to play

(15:15):
catch with him.
And I try to play burnout withhim, but I always lose out.
But Matthews, Maddox andFoster was saying, signed by this
guy named George Genovese,but, yeah, Maddox, great player.
More.
I say more for the Phillies.
Yeah, he was a Philly as faras I knew.
Yeah, same here.
Yeah, yeah, same here.
All right.
And then that leaves us withthe Cardinals.

(15:35):
And I could not narrow it down.
So I got Vince Coleman andWillie McGee.
Yeah, I like both of them.
That is tough.
Both of them.
I like both of them.
That's kind of.
I couldn't pick.
Both of those guys were justso tough.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then the Expos.
That was Tim Rains.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, go ahead.
No, I was going to say Ellis Valentine.

(15:58):
Oh, yeah.
He had this guy Cannon.
Yeah.
But I'm.
Yes, I'm thinking Cruise.
I felt good.
It was in spring training.
And the balls hit the right field.
So I'm on first is I'm goingto third base.
But as I'm going towards thirdbase, I see an object go past me.
And when I get to third, Irealize it's the baseball.

(16:18):
I'm like, oh, I didn't knowthis guy could throw that well.
So I found out the hard way.
Let's see the Dodgers.
That was Pedro Guerrero.
Ooh.
Okay.
Was the guy I remember hisoutfield for.
Yeah, he was an outfielder.
The Astros.
The guy I remember out therewas Jose Cruz.
Oh, yeah, the Cruz brothers,man, there's a lot of them dudes.

(16:39):
Let's bring up CC Stacey.
Cesar Sedano.
Yeah.
Yes.
This guy had five tools untilhe messed up his ankle at first.
Basement.
This guy could run.
He was red for a while, too.
Yeah, we called.
He didn't run.
He galloped out there and then.
So in with the Mets, it was the.
It was the three of you.

(17:00):
It was you and Strawberry andMookie Wilson.
Strawberry.
Yeah.
I'll give it to Strawberry.
The.
Strawberry was the one Iremember most.
I can see him now justcranking it from that right field
corner and just let.
Unleash it.
But he's so smooth.
Talk about a guy with just somuch natural talent.
Yes.
And sometimes it's.
It's not good because theydon't work as hard to get better.

(17:22):
Yeah.
And I always tell guys, youknow, better, your best.
I mean, you think whereverlevel you are, try to get to that
next level.
But Strawberry, that guy hadhall of Fame potential.
But certain things aredecision making, bad decision making,
off field stuff.
Got a quick question for George.
Did you ever play with DarylBoston or he.

(17:45):
Okay, so Daryl.
I used to play against Darylcoming up.
He went to Woolworth, went tothe high school that I went to and
I went to.
He had a twin brother.
A lot of people.
So I didn't know that maybe Iwas talking to the brother.
I went to school with his brother.
His sister Is both hisbrothers and his sister.
Yeah, yeah.
So.
But Duro had a.
Duro had a cannon.

(18:05):
So I just want to.
And I know Daryl was draftedby the Mets, believe or White Sox.
White Sox, yeah.
Yeah.
The.
The other name I just rememberas a met a lot was Lenny Dykstra.
You just remember name.
It was what we call him like,I guess it like Crusher because he
would run into anything and hecome back bleeding or black eye or

(18:31):
whatever.
But he's going to catch that ball.
Yeah.
I mean he was gonzo everywhere.
I mean he just, you know, 90miles an hour in every direction,
it seemed like every time.
But intensity.
He had that intensity all the time.
And I got a couple of.
Of American League mentionsbecause you just could not avoid
knowing about these guys.
Number one was Ricky Anderson.
Everybody knew about Ricky Anderson.

(18:52):
Right.
Even if you couldn't watch theA's play a game, we all knew about
Ricky Anderson.
And then Bo Jackson with the.
Oh, that's the guy that runsup the wall.
Oh, my leg.
I mean, you talk aboutprobably, I don't know, probably
the most gifted athlete I'veever seen in my lifetime.
I mean, just unbelievable.
Some of the stuff that he didas a, as a baseball player and he's

(19:13):
mostly known by, for, youknow, his football work.
But that's what I loved him asan athlete because he was power football,
power baseball.
Yes.
And you don't, you don't wantto have to tackle him.
This guy could run.
Yes.
And then of course inbaseball, he, he would clobber the
ball and.

(19:34):
But I just see him running upthat wall and stay on balance like
that.
That is crazy.
Well, there are some wildYouTube videos of him doing throwouts.
So if you ever want to watch out.
Just being clear in the rightfield corner and gunning somebody
at the base.
I mean, just not even, noteven a chance.
And he didn't, he didn't evenhave a long.
And he played left too.

(19:55):
So you're throwing home andall that.
I mean, but he didn't playmuch baseball when we were younger.
No, he didn't.
So yeah, until he played for Auburn.
And that's the most baseballhe played when he was in college.
Yeah.
I did come across one veryinteresting Ricky Henderson stat.
The catcher that threw RickyHenderson out more than anybody else,

(20:15):
huh?
Pudge?
Nope.
No.
Well, probably unknown.
I don't.
It was Bob Boone with.
Oh, really?
Bob Boone threw through what Iwrote what I read on online.
Bob Boone seemed to have RickyAnderson's number.
He threw him out more timesthan anybody else from what I found.
Now, was Bob Boone at thetime, was he with the Phillies or

(20:35):
was he with the Royals, Angelsor Angels?
I don't know because he wouldhave played.
He would have played mostlyagainst Henderson if he was an American
League, so.
But they were both in theNational League, too.
I just don't know if they werein the National League at the same
time.
I just read it was thisarticle about this one catcher seemed

(20:56):
to have his number and seem tobe able to throw him out.
That's the name from the past.
Yeah.
See now and.
But then we grew up in Red'sland with Aaron Boone and Brett Boone.
So, you know.
Yeah, I like Brett.
Boom, man.
So anyway, those are some.
Some pretty good.
That's a great list.
So you finished the seasonlast year exhausted from all the

(21:18):
travel and the tournaments,and you tossed your gear in a bag
where it's been sitting all winter.
Now you're ready for another year.
But your favorite glove thatfits just right is an error waiting
to happen.
The leather is dry, the lacesare brittle, and this year you're
on a new team with new colors.
And it sure would be cool ifit matched.
Well, wouldn't it be great ifyou had a glove guy who could help
you out with that?

(21:39):
You do.
His name is Ethan and he ownsGlovehound baseball glove repair
shop in Fairfield, Ohio.
Just contacthim@glovehound.com and upload pictures
of your glove.
He'll give you a call back totalk it over and then you can send
it in for a repair.
Relays, recondition, whateveryou need.
If you're in the area, you caneven just stop by the shop.
That way you don't have tobother with shipping.

(22:00):
And a lot of times he can evenfix it while you wait.
Rawlings, Wilson, Mizuno, AllStar, Nakona, he's seen them all.
And he's helped players at alllevels, from beginners to pros.
Last year he worked on a glovethat Jose Trevino used in the World
Series.
And he can help you, too.
You can find Glovehound onGoogle, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube
and on the web@glovehound.comyou're only going to get busier.

(22:23):
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Glovehound.
All right, so I want to moveon here to our main thing and we've
got a series of questions thatwe're going to kick around.
The first one is that is aninteresting question.
I'm asking what opportunitiesmight open up to young players when

(22:46):
they embrace playing the outfield.
In other words.
And they said they I don't.
Instead of getting stuck inthe outfield, they get so you're
turning a half two into a get to.
Anytime you can Turn a half 2into a get to, that's a.
That's a good situation.
So if you can say I have toplay the outfield and you can turn
that into I get to play theoutfield and you embrace it.

(23:06):
What kind of opportunitiesmight open up for a person like that?
I would say it's looking at asbeing positive and that you're.
You're a team player.
And I usually I look at a guy that.
Who's athletic number one.
That's fast.
Yes.
That's great speed.
And so I'm looking for thatcenter fielder.
A guy had a great arm.
I'm put him in rifle.

(23:27):
But make them feel valuableand finding.
Finding a position that'sgoing to help him to become successful
and but teaching them how tolike they were talking about Trout
moving the right and talkingabout Dominguez.
I think moving to left.
I laugh at the fact thatbecause he lost the ball in the sun

(23:47):
the other day and I mean it'snot easy.
Before they were saying oh,anybody can play the outfield.
But they find not.
That's not the truth.
That's true.
But being able to catch theball out of the sun, it's.
It's a certain technique to do it.
I learned that from Willie Mays.
If not, you know, you got towear catchers a gear out there.
Getting hit in the head, beingable to have something that's.

(24:11):
So that ball hit.
Hit the ball.
The ball hit that certain area.
It bounced straight up so theopposite field fielder could get
it.
But it takes a lot of work andsomebody who knows how to play the
outfield being able to teach it.
Yes.
And.
But everybody take it lightlythat oh you just go to the outfield,
catch a fly ball and catch aground ball.
What's so big deal about that?
It's just how the ball's goingslice catching like to catching the

(24:35):
ball out of the sun and thenchecking the wind if it's blowing
in, blowing out the ball downthe line things and such.
And then your.
Your footwork.
I mean that's when we talkedabout we're going to do outfield
play.
I got more excited talkingabout that outfield than.
Than hitting because there'sso many aspects of the game playing

(24:55):
the outfield and it's the lastline of defense.
Yes, that's it.
And you know, if the ball getspast you, like, forget about it.
But.
But you have a guy like Geronimo.
We didn't talk about Geronimobeing in the outfield.
Yes.
So I made a contract with Geronimo.
I said I'm going to standright one foot from the foul line.
You have the rest of the areathere, so you can just run like a

(25:16):
gazelle out there.
But no, we had a great corewith Dramaland center and Griffey
and Wright, and I was in leftbecause they needed nine players,
so they put me out there.
So.
But no, but playing theoutfield, it's an art to it.
Yes.
And I enjoyed it.
Yes.
My dad was an outfielder, so Ilearned a lot about playing the outfield.

(25:36):
My, My son Ricky was anoutfielder, so he learned a lot,
taught him a lot about playingthe outfield.
Like George said, it is theline, the last line of defense.
Outfield actually could begood, but at the same time, you do
have to some tools.
You got to work on it.
Grass.

(25:57):
We taught our guys how to pickthe grass up and see how the wind
is growing so you can, you canbreak on the ball.
A lot of agility drills, Ithink a lot of people don't do a
lot of sprint work.
I'm very keen on doing sprintwork, doing agility, you know, throwing
the ball up, catching it overyour shoulders, throw it to your
glove, side door to your, youknow, working on things like that.

(26:20):
Reading.
Another, another skill isunderstanding the ground and how
it bounces and how balls movethrough the ground if it's wet, guess
what?
You don't want to run straightacross you banana and get behind
the ball.
So of course the ball don'tskid past you.
A lot of, lot of differentthings, clouds, sun, you know, wearing

(26:48):
glass sunglasses and thingslike that.
So I spend a lot of time in alot of time developing outfield play.
I really do.
And I look at my outfieldersas track stars, you know, guys, because
you want guys to be able tocover ground on both sides from the
left side center here, youknow, I would say, and make plays,

(27:11):
make diving plays, make herroaring plays if you have to, you
know, and then teaching youroutfielders how to communicate, how
to back each other up.
So it's a lot of skill thatgoes into that also.
I think it says whatopportunities might open up for young
players.
I think once you, once playersstart learning how to drive the ball,

(27:34):
then it's even more of an importance.
And then probably around 11and 12, when kids get a little bit
stronger and can drive theball to the outfield versus 9 and
10 year olds, because then youhave to.
A lot of 9 and 10 year oldsprobably can't do that.
So of course it might beboring out there for them.
So that's why it's importantto move kids around so they can understand

(27:54):
the game and the positions andstuff like that.
But in the outfield, you gottalet them know you gotta be somewhere
all the time.
Yes, you gotta be moving.
I took, probably when I'mplaying left field, the balls hit
down the right field line, I'mbacking up third base, and there
were a couple of times thatI'm backing up third base, the ball

(28:15):
got past the third baseman andthe third base coach didn't see I
was back there.
So he was just telling theguy, go, go, go.
And I'm standing right there,said, nope, I gotcha.
So, so now it's just up to meto make a good throw to the catcher.
But you, you gotta know whereto go.
And I see a lot of guys juststanding there.
They're not backing up, thirdbacking up, they're out the fellow

(28:35):
outfielder you got.
There's some place you need tobe other than standing in one place.
Yes, and talking too.
Like if you got, if you'regoing towards the line, okay, first
baseman, because you got theBermuda Triangle, I would say you're
going towards the line.
And again, you playing leftfield or third baseman, shortstop,
gone, you got to let themknow, fence, fence, fence, you know

(28:58):
how to reach or you know, or whatever.
You got to communicate those things.
That's another big thing ofplaying an outfield.
Talking.
Right.
When you mention it beingboring, I mean, I think that's definitely
the reputation that it gets,but I think it's one of those things
that you can make it as boringor not boring as you want to as the
player attitude.
There you go.
I think first it starts withthe coaches.

(29:19):
Like you were saying, somebodyhas to teach them all of the little
intricacies.
And if, if no one ever teachesyou that, then it's very boring because
you're just standing out therewaiting to go back.
Right.
But just because the ball'snot hit to you doesn't mean there's
not something to be doing.
And I think given the youngkids all of the little assignments
and the checklist to gothrough in their head really makes

(29:40):
that a lot less boring.
And you can turn somethingthat was boring into something that
is action packed.
If you always have somethingto be doing.
Let me ask you guys about this.
So if, if a kid, who, if a kiddecides, all right, look, I've got
some speed, got some range.
I'm really going to embracethis outfield thing.
Going to a tryout, when you goto a tryout, we've all been to these.

(30:02):
Every kid wants to play aninfield position, right?
Every kid thinks he's a shortstop.
Every kid wants, okay, ifyou're the kid that says, no, no,
no, man, put me in rightfield, put me in left field, I eat
fly balls for breakfast, Iwant to do this.
Do you think that opens up anopportunity for them to make a team
where they may not have thatopportunity before?
Yeah, for sure.
Yes, sir.

(30:22):
But the other aspect is a lotof them don't want to play the outfield
because their, their arm, yougot to help them strengthen their
arm.
Yes, but the, I guess the, theimportant one is though, letting
them know it's, it's importantfor the team and, and increase the
value.
Said this is important for, tohave you out there because you have

(30:43):
good speed, you have good arm,have good instinct.
So this is going to reallyhelp our defense by your being there.
So it's just building up thefact that it's important.
Not just that.
Well, you know, odd man out,so you're, you're in the outfield.
But I look, especially when Iwas coming to pro ball, playing center
field, it showed that I hadthe responsibility not only to play

(31:05):
the outfield, but to move theleft field, the right field, so you'd
be in the right spot.
And that was great with, with Geronimo.
So a guy has two strikes, Isee today, a guy has two strikes,
the center field doesn't move.
So if a guy's right handed hastwo strike, we move toward right
field.
There you go.
So now you get that edge.
But someone just stay in thesame spot playing straight away and

(31:26):
now a ball they almost caughtend up missing.
But we had great communicationout there and knowing that, okay,
a guy, well, we talked earlierbefore about knowing that the guy
is a pull hitter, but knowingif it's pull on the ground or pull
in the air.
And then if a ball is hit theleft center on the ground, see Geronimo

(31:48):
being left handed, it's goingto be maybe easier for me to catch,
go after that ball and makethat spin and throw.
Compared to him, he's going toend up going farther to, to slow
down.
But we had great communicationthere and, and it's talking letting
one Know, and like I said, Ihad a great time when I'm playing

(32:08):
left field or right field.
Positioning, that's anotherpart, just positioning a ball hit
down the left field line.
You see a lot of guys, theydon't go into that corner correctly.
And the guy talk about that, how.
Do you, how do you go into acorner correctly?
So now the balls hit down,they say the left field line and
you have a right hander there.
Some guys go in and, andinstead of backhanding the ball in,

(32:31):
in, in there, in the down theline, they go in and try to catch
it and.
But their front side is not,oh, I mean, it's closed.
But if I backhand it now, Itake my right foot and step towards
the target.
That, that helps me to notonly make a good throw, but an accurate
throw.
And, but a lot of guys go downthere and they catch it with their
glove say to facing upcompared to a backhand.

(32:54):
And now they're throwingagainst their body, I mean, throwing
against the body and they'renot having a good throw.
But I, I would ask a kid, Isaid one year a kid led the league
and assist and the next nextyear he didn't.
So why not?
They'd say, I don't know.
Well, because they stoppedrunning on that guy.
So the same thing down theright field line, you go in, catch

(33:15):
it and spin.
But if you go in and you'refalling away, because I watch these
guys in practice, you know,infield practice, they don't do that
much today.
Infield practice, how are theycatching the ball?
Yes, and the other thing iscatching the ball on your gloves,
on your throwing side.
A lot of them catch it on yourglove side.
It takes time.
So I know that the guy's goingto catch it on his glove side.

(33:37):
So I'm going to take that nextbase and.
But that makes a bigdifference in the game.
I got a question for you,George, on that.
So did you guys, or did one ofyour coaches or even the players,
you go to a different field,did someone like hit balls in the
corner so you can see how toplay the ball off the corner, off

(33:59):
the wall and things like that?
My, my outfield coach, GeorgeSugar, every game.
Yes, because the situationwill change if it's says windy or
the sun.
But, but also get yourselfacclimated again about, okay, how
the ball is going to come offthe wall.
So he hits me ground ballsdown the line or hit me balls off
the wall.

(34:19):
Because like in Fenway, theball depends on where it's going
to hit part of his concrete.
Some of it's made of another material.
The ball comes straight down.
And just seeing the surface,because you go to Atlanta, they play
football there.
Atlanta, that's like concrete.
Yeah.
So you got knowing that.
Okay, okay.
You're going to be littledefensive, you know, not being as

(34:43):
aggressive.
And then you go to anastroturf field like Cincinnati,
you know, if a ball's hit upin the air like a Texas leader, play
back.
Because you play in that ballis going to bounce over your head.
Yes.
And you go to.
Or go to Houston, they havewhat I call zippers on the field.
It hit a zipper and now it'slike serpentine going down, down

(35:05):
the field.
And everybody thinks you had abad night because the way you're
running out the ball.
But in Houston, you got to tryto read.
Read where the ball is goingto go because according to that zipper.
But it's a.
Like said, different aspects.
You got to think about and notjust standing out there and.
And hoping the ball is goingto be hit.
Even if the ball is hit toyou, what do you throw it?

(35:26):
What was it like to play theivy in Wrigley Field?
I try not to get close to it.
I didn't know.
I don't know if Andre Dawson'scoming out there.
But it was funny when they hadthose commercials.
They reach in there.
Hey, Andre.
Hey, Billy.
But I don't.
I don't know.
Cause you go in there andsomebody back to Lenny Dykstra, he
would go in there, he'd getthorns all in his face and his neck.

(35:49):
Like, what is this guy, likeFrankenstein coming out of there?
But no, I tried to just playit off the wall if the ball's hidden
in that ivy.
And plus, I don't know if it'spoured in ivy or what.
I mean, it's.
It's thing of beauty to watch.
But being able to play it didn't.
The ball may get lodged in there.
Yeah.
Just pointing there.

(36:10):
I'm not going to stick my handin there.
Somebody may be in there, youknow, Freddy Krueger or somebody's
in there.
The other, the otheropportunity that, that occurred to
me the other day is, you know,to think if.
If specializing in theoutfield gives you the opportunity
to make the team, it mightalso give you an opportunity at more
regular playing time.
Like for you get at bats.

(36:31):
Yeah.
So when you.
When you went to left field and.
And when Rose moved in, that became.
That was the beginning of youplaying like every day.
Right.
Well, that was the beginningof the big bad red machine because
now I'm inserted into thelineup and there's more offense there.
I look back, I said I reallyfelt sorry for the opposition you

(36:52):
had in the middle of that lineup.
Three guys could bat forth inany, on any team.
Foster, Perez and bench.
So now if Perez make an outnow the guy there's, there's bench
and then now, now they thinkthey're, they're home free.
But no, George Force is comingup to bat now and he doesn't play.

(37:13):
So.
But you know, that did open upan opportunity for me and.
But the opportunity was openedup by Pete going to third base, right?
And because he had gone fromsecond base to the outfield then,
now he goes back to the infield.
But that helps the ball clubbeing able to have guys to be able
to play other position but do it.

(37:33):
I've one guy, Daryl Thomas, heplayed every position, he played
every position like he was anall star.
And I said, Daryl, that isgreat being able to be.
If you have first time youseen him play, you think that that
was his natural position.
But the bottom line though,you got to work at it and you got
to want it.
Yes.
Well, that brings up anotherinteresting point is not only can

(37:54):
it open up the opportunity tomake the team and the opportunity
to get regular playing time,it opens up the opportunity to get
more at bats which then makesyou a better hitter.
Right?
And plus if you're just dh,you know, you label that, you know,
you don't have any defensive skills.
So.
But it opens up the fact then,then a guy who's not fast or have
a good arm, he can be the dh.

(38:15):
So the, the manager has, hasmore choices and being able to put
you in, in that positionbecause I said I played a lot of
right field with the Redsbecause Griffin I platoon and then
I moved to left field.
So.
Well, I started like I saidearlier, playing center field, but
in little league I played shortstop.
Then I played center field,but I love center field because I

(38:38):
know you had moreresponsibility but I love that challenge
because I said if the ball'snot over the fence and it's in the
air, I'm going to catch it.
So I had a, I would daremyself making sure that you, you
cut the ball off or you, youcatch the ball so that you know that
you great defense and thenmoving my outfield as you know, okay,

(38:58):
I would tell a guy to, okay, Iwant to move towards the line.
The left hander's hitting andthe Ball is going to hook toward
the line or like a slicetowards the line.
And they look at me like,okay, they trust my judgment because
I, I played all thosepositions before.
So that's the other part isbeing able to learn how to play all
the outfield position becausethe ball's going to, to make a different

(39:21):
moving movement because theright hander, you're in center field,
they say, yeah, center fieldis easier because you can see the
ball better.
But still it's going to helpyou when you go to one corner, corner
outfield.
Talk to me a little bit abouthow outfielders help the rest of
the team with things likestopping the base runners and helping

(39:46):
the pitcher and things like that.
Like a lot of times kids mightthink outfield all you do is deal
with fly balls.
But there's a lot to being anoutfielder that actually controls.
Like for instance, when you goto those young, young ages where
there's a thousand stolenbases a game, right.
You know, maybe it's that lastcoach pitch or that first kid pitch

(40:07):
and there's just stealing allover the place.
Kids running everywhere.
Like, how can your outfieldershelp to stop all that, stop your
team from getting run all overand how can they be helping your
pitcher?
Number one is that learn tohit the cutoff man and then catching
the ground ball.
I teach about five differentways to catching the ground ball

(40:30):
and it depends on the score.
So now you're say ahead in thegame and the outfield is rough, so
you want to get down on yourthrowing tight knee to block the
ball.
You know, you're really in adefensive position.
But some try to play the balllike they're playing the infield
or did they ball end upgetting past him?
Now the guy stood up in thatfirst base and setting up a double

(40:54):
play.
Now he's at second base.
So being able to make the theordinary plays extraordinarily well.
And knowing where to throw the ball.
A lot of times they don't knowhow to throw the ball.
And that's back to situational play.
Yes.
You know, where do you throwthe ball?
A man on second base.
Know how the fly balls hit to you?
Where do you throw the ball?

(41:15):
Some throw it to seconds.
No, you know, don't throw itbehind the guy in front, in front.
But some of them don't know that.
And so that will cost Costa awas a base running or outfield mistake
and not a guy advanced third base.
Now guys at third base withone out and then a ground ball, fly
ball, pass ball that's where Iscored in 72.

(41:37):
Pass, ball, pitch.
But now he's at third basewith one out compared to being at
second base.
So that makes a difference.
And like say hitting thecutoff man, backing up.
We said earlier, backing upthe outfield, backing up the infield
because the ball may getpassed pass, but you're still standing
in your position.
Now the guy advances.
But a throw to second baselike Ricky Henderson throwing second,

(41:57):
going to second, you get thereto throw, it's an overthrow.
But at least you can keep himat second base on that overthrow.
And not hesitating.
But you got to know what yougot to anticipate.
Yes.
Know where to go right away.
Not wait.
And like I said, I've seen somany balls from hit down the right
field or the left field lineand the, the.

(42:20):
The guys are not backing up and.
But it starts also with the,the infield like the first basement.
The balls hit the outfield andnow the first base is supposed to
be the trailer.
Yes.
But sometimes he's not trailing.
But I remember, you know,being in that in the corner, you
know, but you have to.

(42:41):
Sometimes you're using yourperipheral vision.
You're knowing where to youalready knowing, okay, this guy's
fast.
I'm not going to give him that second.
But I want to make sure I hitthe cutoff man, the COVID man.
Become the pit, the first basement.
Yes.
So now you threw this.
But back in the dog mad and alive.
But back in the World seriesagainst the.
In 72 against the Oakland Athletics.

(43:04):
So Matty Alou, he doesn't havea good arm.
So Pete hit the ball down theright field line and Pete should
have.
Pete should have scored.
No, Joe Morgan hated.
But Pete should have scoredbecause Maddie threw the ball to
second base and not to thecutoff man.
So as it turned out, it wassecond and third compared to score.

(43:25):
And then Joe Morgan had atriple because it was three to two
at the time.
It would have been three three.
But.
But throwing it that he gotaway with that at that time.
But, but you guys knowing whatthe arm, the guy's arm, if he doesn't
have a strong arm, just takethat chance challenging them.
I got a question.
What George was saying abouthaving a strong arm and everything.

(43:47):
You do that in pre game.
So they stopped doing that andyou probably, you know, they stopped
having teams to come out.
I'm talking about travel slackwhere our teams.
Because then that's where youput fear in the other person.
Right.
We gonna show our cannons offand we gonna.
And you ain't gonna run them.
And that was something I did.
They stopped doing that.

(44:07):
We did it with some teams, butnot consistently.
And I'll tell you what, whenyou talk about putting fear by doing
it well.
Yes.
You make your.
You make a laughing stock ofyourself if you don't do it well.
Right.
And there were times that wewent out there and had a bad pre
game infield and I'm like,man, we just, we look stupid out
there and they're, they'reready to come kick our butts.

(44:28):
Advance.
Exactly.
But, but that should besomething that you're doing, you
know, almost subconsciouslyout there because you've done it
so many times.
You're just warming up, you'renot working on something before the
game.
Right.
It's just usual at that.
Exactly, exactly.
That.
A downfall for the selectteams is that they play, they play
a lot of games, but they don'tlearn how to play.
Yeah.

(44:48):
A chance to really practice.
But back to.
We're talking aboutsituational play.
Yes.
I would tell them the situation.
So it's one out and a man onsecond base.
And I hit a fly ball to theoutfield and just get them to start
thinking about it.
So they already were gonna.
Where are you gonna throw the ball?
You're gonna throw it to third.

(45:09):
You're gonna throw it the second.
But then again like if you'rea base runner, you're a second base
one out or you're gonna tag upor are you going to go part way?
So I've seen guys no outs andthey're at second base and a fly
balls hit, they don't tag.
And then now it now is one out.
But he should have been atthird base.
Inevitably now a fly balls hitthe next time and that's.

(45:34):
There's a run because I lookat how many times does a guy who's
at third base does not scoreand look at the difference in the
spinal score.
Yeah, that's, that's a big run.
But I'd say, I would call situations.
I say man on second base, no out.
Hit it down right field nine.
Where do you hit it so thatnow you're getting yourself prepared

(45:55):
for it.
Don't, don't wait until thegame happens because the guy, but
one guy, I was telling him hedidn't know where to throw the ball.
So a lot of them just, youknow, I don't know where to throw.
I said throw it, throw it.
I said throw it to the middleof the field.
Throw it to the middle of thefield, let it go.
At least you made a decision.
That brings up a couple, acouple things that I want to, I want

(46:17):
to make sure we, we tackle here.
And first of all is kind of ado as I say, not as I do sort of
situation.
Because the first thing, likewhat you were saying, every kid watches
these monster throws and theyall want to make the monster throw.
Hit the cut off man, dude,make the routine play.
But back to the monster throw.

(46:38):
So walk me through the 1975World Series.
From, from the, from the first.
That pitch of the thing.
Walk me through how it happened.
That was.
I love that play.
But the history, there'shistory to that.
So we're going back toDominican Republic.
I'm playing right field, basesloaded, one out.

(46:58):
And they gamble on the game in Dominican.
Okay.
And so I had to make a decision.
It was a ball hit down theright field line.
I could have caught it.
I mean, it's foul.
I could have caught it.
But I let it go because if Icatch it, the guy still can score,
right?
So I let it drop.
So I got a cascade of boozebecause I let it drop.

(47:18):
So then I started saying,okay, please, please hit a ground
ball.
So now the next, the next guyhit a ground ball.
Now it's a double play.
I went from a villain to, to ahero because I made that decision.
So now I say to myself, if, ifI'm going in for the ball, I'm going
to try to catch it.
If I'm going away, let it go.

(47:39):
And, and hopefully the nexttime the guy will hit into it out.
But I'm going towards the homeplate and.
But we talk about getting intothe corner.
So I stepped to step with myleft foot in the corner and caught
it on my gloves.
I mean my throw inside and Itook my right foot and stepped behind.
So that helped me get closerto the play, to the target.

(48:02):
And so it just.
They were saying, get rid ofthe ball.
I know that's in my head, getrid of the ball.
But I knew the base wasloaded, so I'm going to try to hit
the cutoff guy.
And that's it.
Turned out it was one hopthrow to, to Johnny Bench.
I guess the only drawback isit was a brand new ball.
I got grass stained on it.
But it made it more dramatic.
But that was, that was thesituation started in Dominican out

(48:25):
that mindset.
What will I do when the ballhits it to my right side or my left
side?
What would I do?
And knowing, knowing alreadyWhat I'm going to do, I'm not wait
to catch the ball, but Iknowing that going into that corner,
I have to be able to getthere, catch it backhand and get,
get that crow hop and.

(48:46):
Throw home when that ball wasright on the line.
So you went all the way overto get it too.
So if you let that bounce andit's foul, okay, you go again.
But if that bounce is fair, Imean, you're in.
But the other factor I said,the bases load.
And Fred Lynn, he ended upbeing the rookie of the year MVP
that year.
So I didn't want him to getanother swing.

(49:06):
And so I said I can catch thisball and I'm in a position to make
a throw.
Yeah.
So the turnout, I mean we endup getting a double play, we end
up losing that game.
But that was one of the firstdefensive or web gym that that had
been shown usually on offense.
So.
But that proved to kids when Iwas doing baseball camps, I'm doing

(49:28):
the outfield and one kid saidmy dad said you weren't a good outfielder.
So we like take a deep breathlike, okay.
But it was like, it was likegodsend that the net that same night
that game came on and they sawmy making that play.
Then the next day, hey, canyou teach us how to do that?

(49:52):
So that gave me a goodreputation that you can play the
outfield.
That's cool.
That is.
I do want to touch onsomething you said though, George,
is you mentioned the ball bounced.
This is something, this issomething I've been thinking about
recently and the number ofthrows I see in youth baseball that
sail over somebody's head.

(50:12):
Yes, you can never get taller,but you can block a ball on the ground.
And now we see guys in theinfield bouncing on purpose to first
base to make sure they don'tthrow it over their head.
So can you just kind ofelaborate on the importance of keeping
the throw down?
Yeah, I mean they should beable to catch the ground.

(50:33):
It's easy going to be easierto catch the ball.
That's, that's low.
But also the number one partis having to throw in a four seamer.
Yeah, you throw a two seamer,the ball is going to go left or right.
But the four seamer, it'sgoing to help you to get more distance.
And I was able to throw it atfour seamers.
So when it hit it, catch the,catch the threads on the ball and
it's going to take off towardsthe target.

(50:55):
But if it's gone right or leftthat made a big difference.
But practice that.
Once again, you got topractice it.
And not just wait until thatsituation, but practice it.
But I learned my first year inpro ball how to hold a four seamer
because I was throwing acutter and.
But, you know, later on Isaid, how did I throw that?
Maybe I could have gone to bea pitcher.

(51:17):
But learning acid maze orbonds and those guys, you know, they
said, throw a four seamerbecause you don't have to throw the
ball all the way in air, right?
Just make that one hop.
And my favorite play was aDodger Stadium.
Billy Buckner, he's a guythat, you know, try to challenge
you.
So he rounds first base andlike, I'm going to go to second.
So I waved into second, said,go ahead, go ahead.

(51:37):
And so he took off.
And I said, I'm gonna throwone hopper right to the guy.
And he was, it was out.
So when I passed Billy, Isaid, billy, you should have stayed
at first base.
But my arm, my arm felt strong.
Well, the other thing aboutthe one hopper is that keeping it
low also, if there's going tobe a tag.
Involved, I was just about to say.
It'S different if it's aforce, but.
If there's a tag involved, thetag doesn't happen up here.

(52:00):
It happen.
It happens down here.
And then teaching kids how topick a one, and now I can or.
For it playing third base, Ihad a bad habit of sailing because
my arm was just a little too hot.
But when I got, when I got tohigh school, when I got to high school,
I'll shout him out.
Jacob Eversole played first base.
And that dude could pick.

(52:21):
Yes, Jacob could.
Man, I don't, I do not think Iwould have played third base if he
was not the first basebasement because he saved so many
bad throws for me.
But teaching every kid on thefield how to pick a throw, teaching
your middle infielders how tomove their feet to receive that throw.
Anticipate.
Yeah, but, yeah, especially atthe youth level, keep the ball down

(52:43):
and learn how to block it up.
But even through thuringmonths and, you know, being a catcher,
he just focused on getting theball to second base.
It didn't have to be in theair, just that one hop made it because
he hit that grass.
I, I don't know how fat, howmuch speed it's gained by hitting
that, but I think that theball's going to get there faster.
And plus down now, the guydidn't have to leap to get it.

(53:03):
It's right there.
Yes.
So building on what you saidsomething a minute ago, we've been
talking about practice andgetting it in your head, whatever.
What are some tips for keepingyourself in the game mentally while
you're in the outfield?
And maybe, maybe there's not alot going on out there at the moment.
What are some tips for keepingyourself in the game when the action

(53:26):
is slow?
Well, number one, knowing howmany outs there are.
Yeah.
Knowing the batter, knowingthe base runner, checking the what
the sun feel, the wind, thefield at surface and the outfield
wall.
Because some of them have thatwarning track.
Knowing that, okay, it's awarning that you're getting close

(53:48):
to the defense.
But that helps keep you intothe game knowing how many outs, knowing
what inning it is, knowingthe, the batter of knowing the, the
count and watching the centerfielder if you're playing left or
right, but being able to moveand watching your coaches.
So you, you gotta.
Those things help you to stayin the game.

(54:08):
Because a lot of times thereare times you don't.
It has happened.
They don't know how many outsa ball.
They thought it was a thirdout, it's a second out and they end
up giving the ball to the fan.
Then they run back to get theball from the fan.
So they're not really intothe, into how many outs.
If you don't know how manyouts, ask your infielder or look

(54:28):
at the scoreboard or maybe ask somebody.
But knowing how many hours,that's very important.
That dictates where you'regoing to throw the ball because you're,
you're winning maybe aboutthree by three runs a man at second
base.
If the ball is not hiddendirectly to you, you're going to
go to try to catch, keep thebatter runner from advancing.

(54:51):
That runner at second is notas important than to keep the other
guy at first base.
So you know, in that situationand as a, as a runner, you know and
say, well, like a Clemente'sin the outfield, okay, you're not
going to be as aggressive, butif you have a Matty Lou, you're going
to be more aggressive.
Because I remember against theCardinals I hit a Texas leaguer and

(55:11):
I knew that the.
With that turf the ball isgoing to bounce.
So I'm right away from home plate.
I'm looking to get a double.
So I end up scoring a winningrun but not being complacent, stopping
at first base.
But you, but as an outfield,you got to know, okay, the.
It's a hot Day got that turf.
Play it safe.

(55:32):
That's a good point.
We're seeing.
We're seeing a lot more turffields coming back into play, so
definitely something to think about.
Think about one thing that.
And I will.
I want to give my dad somecredit here.
One of the.
One of the things that hetaught me when I was a kid was to
be able to keep the game in my head.
And yes, because we most.
A lot of the times that wetook in a game, it was on the radio

(55:53):
because we were fishing or wewere running around doing something.
We were.
Whatever.
I didn't.
We didn't always get to watchit, especially if it was on a weekend,
especially red.
So.
Taught me to keep it in myhead and listen to it on the radio.
Now I'm an auditory guy anyway.
I would much rather listen toa book than read it.
It just the way.
The way my brain works.
But learning to be able to.

(56:16):
At any, you know, the game isat any time.
Can you ask me how many outsthere are?
Right.
What's pitch count?
I can tell.
Yes.
What's.
You know, so what this.
Would that batter do last time?
Yeah.
And so when Ethan was comingup, that was one of the first things
that I.
I made sure I.
I taught him.
And it used to drive him crazybecause Ethan's more of a visual
guy.
Struggle with that.

(56:36):
He wanted to watch it ontelevision, and I'd say, no.
We'd sit on the couch andlisten on the radio, and he's like,
dad, dad, just let us watch iton tv.
I said, no, you got to learnto do this.
And so we would play the gameat any point, I say, how many outs
are there?
And you got to be able to tell me.
Or what's pitch count?
You got to be able to tell me.
And learning to do that sothat it's second nature.

(56:56):
So your brain is always doing something.
And when it comes to that,because I'm a visual person, I struggle
with that.
And when you look at it thatway, then the game takes place on
the whole field, not just inthe infield.
Yeah.
And it.
I think that helps include the output.
For sure.
Yes.
Something that you've alludedto a couple of times, George, that
I.
I'd like to ask you about hereis in the old days when we actually

(57:20):
played baseball and we didn'tjust play tournaments all the time
and we were in a league, andyou would play the same team more
than once in a year, and youwould, you know, you would get to
know the guys you were playingagainst because you played against
the same six or seven teamsall year long and that kind of thing.
It was a little easier to dothis in a tournament.
It can be super hard becausewhen you're in the tournament everything's
the playoffs and everything'slike elimination.

(57:43):
Talk about the, the researchon hitters so that you know what
those hitters are going to do,what they did last time, what they're
going to do next time.
How did you go about doingyour, your maybe film study or game
prep?
We got a lot of informationfrom batting practice.
So as an outfielder I'mwatching these guys take batting

(58:04):
practice so they're going toshow you their true nature, where
they got to hit the ball.
So now in a game situation,I'm prepared for it.
And this one stand out, Irepeat it many, many times.
This guy Greg Gross, he justhad come up, it's like in September,
left handed hitter and he'staking bratting practices like 10
or 15 balls, every ball, noball was on the right side of second

(58:26):
base.
So that's information that wasend up helping, helping this team
situation because, becausehe's left handed.
They wanted me to play rightcenter, move the right center against
him.
But I knew it from batting practice.
He hit every ball on the leftside of second base so that now he
hits a line drive.
That's his strength.

(58:47):
But I played to his strengthand he hit it right to me.
So now the coaches are like,you know, how did you know?
I said, well, just an instinct.
But I had done my homework.
I want, I didn't want to tellthem, you guys don't know what you're
talking about.
You know, I come and do anddid my own homework.
The scouting reports, they canhelp but you still need to go out
there and see how the balls move.

(59:07):
If it's going to be slicing,it's going to.
If they're hooking the ball.
So all that information reallyhelp in a game situation.
But that's where I foundwatching the guys take batting practice
and then previous at bats, youknow how what they do, what did they
do?
In a certain count you take aJack Clark, you take Mike Piazza

(59:30):
is like when you get twostrikes on these guys.
Those guys are great hitters.
They hit the ball to rightfield like a left hander.
So I said give him somethingto hit earlier.
And like with Jack Clark wewould cause Tom Seaver's pitching
and he feel that Jack Clark'snot going to pull Tom Seaver.
So we're playing him Moretowards center field.
At least I am.
And he hits a lot.

(59:51):
A bullet down the left field line.
I said, wow.
It proved to me that, yeah,playing straight away, you have a
good chance, you know, gettingto the ball.
But during the course of agame, things change.
Make the adjustment.
I tell the.
When hitting, make the adjustment.
Don't just stay in the samespot all the time.
Make the adjustment.
But back to when we talk abouthaving two strikes.

(01:00:12):
The guy's not going to be asaggressive with two strikes.
So now move to the opposite field.
You're.
You're more prepared.
You may not catch it in air,but you cut it off so he doesn't
get an extra base hit.
But that's where I got my information.
Watching the guys take battingpractice, you.
Were talking about, George,how sometimes the pitcher will throw
the ball in, trying to see ifyou'll jump back.

(01:00:34):
Right.
And that would.
That would give the.
Give everybody an idea ofwhere you're likely to hit the ball.
Go through that again.
For us, it's a.
It's more so you're not really sure.
This is a guy that's a big guy.
So he's going to evaluate howhe's going to react, a certain location.
So I purposely have thecatcher to have him throw the ball
inside.
And if he's jumping back andknowing that we got him with the

(01:00:56):
breaking ball or the ballaway, but if he's staying in there,
I said, okay, being carefulwith this guy, especially in a situation
he's going to tie, win the game.
I'll pitch around this guy.
But it's.
That's evaluating.
But I was going to allude to asituation that I had worked with
this kid when he were younger.
And so now we're facing thiskid in a tournament.

(01:01:17):
And so.
But we have high school scoutsout watching this kid.
So it's like, I want to win,but I still want the kid to look
good.
So I pitched to him instead ofwalking him, and he ends up hitting
a couple home runs.
But it's like, I can't.

(01:01:37):
I want to help the kid to beseen and.
But I want the team, our team,to win.
So I'm like, it's a dilemma here.
I said, I hope nobody elserealizes I worked with this kid before,
and I know what he can do.
And I go to games and I'm watching.
I said, I wanted to say, don'tpicture this kid.
Don't picture this kid becausehe threw him inside.

(01:01:59):
He's closing in.
I said, no, this kid's readyand then before I could say no, it's
gone.
But it's an instinct on my part.
Yes.
But then you see a kid, Isaid, throw him a breaking ball in
the dirt.
But you had to have confidencein the catcher.
He's gonna block it.
So if he's taking a half swingthat he's.

(01:02:20):
He may go at one.
But I would tell him, I said,you don't have to throw a strike
to get a strike.
What do you mean that by that?
Bounce the ball up there.
Let.
Give him a chance to show youwhat he's going to do.
Exactly.
So we brought up a fewinteresting points here.
The idea that learning to keepthe game in your head.
Right.
Okay.
Paying very, very closeattention to what the other team

(01:02:40):
is doing, whether it's duringwarmups or in between games or whatever.
So, you know, here some.
Some tips for young players.
If you're at a tournament and,you know, you got downtime in between
the games, rather than, youknow, go get a hot dog and then go
find a game to watch, youknow, just go in.
Especially if you can figureout who you're going to play next.

(01:03:02):
Yeah.
Or who's really tearing it up.
That.
Go scout, Right?
Yes, absolutely.
Go and watch what they're doing.
Or.
Or.
Dad.
Man, I know I used to driveEthan crazy with this stuff, but
every.
Every game he.
Sometimes I know he was like,can we just relax and watch a game?
But every game was a learning opportunity.
Every game was, so what thisguy do last time?
So where did he hit it last time?

(01:03:22):
So what's going on?
You know, get that mental gamegoing all the time.
Yes.
Because those are things youcan do in your spare time.
Make it into a game, have funwith it.
Yes.
But make it into somethingthat allows them to start keeping
that game in their head.
Ethan is more than my podcast partner.

(01:03:43):
He's my son.
And like every baseballparent, my first priority was his
development as a player.
Every year, we'd start outwith a new coach and a new team making
new promises, only to end upplaying the same old tournaments
with little to no practice in between.
You know what I'm talking about?
That's why I'm so thankfulthat we found MDNI Academy.
I first met Coach Rick over adecade ago when Ethan was just a

(01:04:06):
kid.
And I'll never forget therelief I felt watching his first
lesson.
I knew right then that nomatter what team he played for, my
son would have amazing,consistent instruction from someone
who cared.
Rick has trained baseball andsoftball players at the Select Travel
and even college levels.
So I knew that Ethan couldcontinue his excellence through training
approach.
For his whole baseball career.

(01:04:28):
He learned hitting, pitching,catching, fielding and more all in
one place.
Most of all, he learned tolove the greatest game in the world
and how to play it withcharacter and integrity.
MDNI is a first class facilitywith plenty of tunnels for hitting
and pitching instruction thatopen up into large areas for teaching
fielding, base running, speedand agility.
They even have a weight roomfor strength training.

(01:04:50):
So if you're wearing yourselfout running all over town to multiple
teachers or worse, you'recounting on that new select coach
to actually develop your child.
You need to check out MDNIAcademy today.
Go to mdaiacademy.com andcontact Coach Rick to learn how you
can get all the baseballinstruction you need from someone
who cares about your favoriteplayer as much as you do at MDNI

(01:05:13):
Academy.
All right, so we're going tofinish up today with, with little
skills and drills.
So I read someplace onlinethis was the statement that Willie
Mays was the standard by whichoutfielders were judged pretty much

(01:05:33):
across the board.
And George, you had the, the,the privilege of being able to come
up under a guy like that.
Can you speak a little bittoward what are some things that
you learned from, from him?
It's back to knowing thesituation and playing to that situation
and always communicating andbendy, even if you're not a center

(01:05:57):
fielder.
But communicating and, but theone that I feel saved my life or
saved my career teaching mehow to catch a fly ball out of the
sun.
You become too defensive ifyou don't know you letting the ball
drop.
But then after a while, youknow, I was like an expert knowing
how to do that.
So what is, what is the secretto catching it out of the sun?

(01:06:19):
I'm curious.
Well, the key is that you, sothe sun is one of the brightest where
the brightest ball of all.
So you go in, go in to yourleft and let the ball come out.
So you're not looking directlyinto the sun.
So a lot of them, you know,have their sunglasses on, they're
getting real low, shadingtheir eyes, but it's right into the
sun.

(01:06:39):
So if you go in and let theball come out, then you're able to
catch it.
You may not be in a goodposition to make a throw, but the
key is catching the ball.
And after you do that, becausewhen we play in the playoffs and
I knowing that, okay, I'm inthe sun field and if I hit a ball
in the sun, I'm taking offbecause I know there's a chance that
guy's going to miss the ball.

(01:07:00):
So I get a double or triple inthat situation.
But in my case, you know, I'mout there like Fred Astaire, you
know, doing my little dancebecause I know that I go in and let
the ball come out.
But until Willie Mays taughtme how to do it, I was getting hit
in the chest.
He said, let me show you howto do it before you kill yourself.
Like in Chicago, the ball'sreal low, but people try to get real

(01:07:22):
low.
But I said, no, go in, let theball come out.
Yeah, it sounds.
Sounds easy, but once youstart doing that, you know, it's
like a piece of cake.
So everybody's got a lid on a cat.
Okay.
So anything below your lid,you're you coming forward on the
ball.
Okay.
Because it's line drive.
Anything above your lid, youdrop stepping, going back because

(01:07:44):
it's over your head.
Do you.
Have you ever used that before?
Not as much as the lid, asmore of the chest.
Okay.
And.
And the ball's coming, saychest, but you still a line drive.
You don't want to charge it.
Right.
Because you want to step backand see what the ball is going to
react.
Right.
But with a, like, with a flyball, a lot of guys don't know how

(01:08:06):
to catch.
They don't like to or know howto catch a fly ball that's real high.
So I always pretend that if Ilet the ball go, it's going to hit
me right in the sternum.
So you play it, play that balllike it's going to hit you in the
chest and compared to yourfour forehead because it's going
to be over your head.
So that, that helped me tojudge ball much better.
But it's that you stand yourground on that line drive.

(01:08:28):
Stand your ground and.
But I play it more accordingto chest high or letter high.
Okay, good, good.
So what are along with skillsand drills here?
So what are some skills thatare necessary to play the outfield
well that aren't catch and fly balls?
And what are some drills towork on those if there's nobody to

(01:08:49):
hit you?
Fly balls.
How.
What do you work on to becomea better outfielder if there's nobody
to.
To hit you?
Fly ball.
What I would do is go to ahandball court and throw the ball
off the.
Yes.
So yeah, so now it's.
You have these corners I hitin the corner and then it helps you
to.
If the ball is going to go toyour Right or left or straight ahead?
Throw it high, throw it low.
Because I would do that with.

(01:09:11):
In my.
In my camps clinics.
So the kids would throw theball against the wall and they learn
how to feel the ball.
And I said before, there arefive different ways of, say, catching
the ground ball.
So I said, okay, down on one knee.
I want you to backhand it.
Yeah.
And then the aggressive one,you know, you're coming in as a.
Do a dare situation.
So it's easy.

(01:09:32):
Then they have these pitch backs.
So you use the pitch back andthrow it against that pitch back.
Or finding.
It's finding a concrete wallto be able to do that.
But you can have like, say,throwing against the wall.
Yes.
Or throwing five balls.
Just throwing it yourself.
Yes.
Fly balls and getting.
Getting your footwork.
When you approach a groundball and you can you judge it by

(01:09:53):
speed, Slow your feet down.
Because that's the first thingyou got to do.
Feel the ball.
But they run through it.
Yes, yes, they do.
And I like.
Oh, man.
So those are things that you gotta.
Slowly again, using a wall.
You can use a wall to do that.
Throw it a little lower so youcan get a ground ball effect.

(01:10:14):
Throw it higher.
Guess what?
Throw it over your shoulder.
Boom.
You get over to.
You know, you can.
There's so many.
Tennis ball.
Yes, a tennis ball.
We did a tennis ball or rubberball all the time and so well.
And Rick, I know, I know speedand agility was a big.
Was a big thing for you.
So talk about the importanceof speed.
And agility for plyos.

(01:10:34):
I think plyos jumping from onefoot to the other foot.
A lot of drop steps.
You know, you get a pawn andput piranhas in it.
That really helped with your.
Oh, yeah, you.
Box jumps.
A lot of stuff that kids cando on their own.
Broad jumps, jump.

(01:10:55):
So we just jump off stagesteps, man.
And little things like thatwork on an explosive.
But the key thing, out ofevery position that you play, I think
we have to address throwingand catching.
Yeah.
Oh, man, I see that as something.

(01:11:17):
And that's for outfielders to infielders.
Long toss, Developing your arm.
And you could throw rocks, man.
Just long towels.
Strengthen your arm.
The other thing is when itcomes to throwing and catching, you're
talking about throwing withintention and.
Yes, because especially itapplies to every position.

(01:11:40):
Yes, it do differently in eachway, but it does apply when.
Especially with.
Let's talk about relays,because that's so important at a
young level.
You need to know how to do that.
Making sure.
You're throwing to the rightside for your fielder to be able
to turn and make that throw.
Yeah.
How many times do you see arelay and they don't know how to.
You're not, you're not inposition to make that exact.

(01:12:02):
They don't know how to movetheir feet to get.
We talked earlier about beingable to throw to a tag.
Yes.
And that kind of thing.
And all of that you can workon every single time you throw.
I wish I had had moreintention in warm ups because that
guy's gonna hold his glove upevery single time, you know, he's
catching the ball, throw it toa specific spot so that you're doing
it subconsciously withouthaving to think about it.

(01:12:24):
And it makes your relays more efficient.
I agree.
But one that I, I didn't do alot myself.
Because I hit a lot of home runs.
No, I didn't do a lot myself.
By teaching the kids how to slide.
Yeah.
So that's another.
So that, that's a deterrent.
As far as them.
If they don't know how toslide, they're not going to try to
advance and instilling a baseor running the bases.
So in the beginning I havethem and it's good.

(01:12:46):
This part is going to helpwith the defense.
So teach them how to slide.
But then now throw a baseball.
I want you to slide and beable to catch.
Yes, but I did as far asdiving, I tried to get away from
that, but being able to slideand catch the ball.
So now they're not.
Now they're learning how toslide and then they learn improve
their defense.
But it's adding fun to it.

(01:13:08):
Let's do that again, coach.
Let's do that again.
But in the beginning, justsliding is like.
No, I don't really want to do that.
But okay, let's make it fun.
There you go.
George, what you're saying,you're spot on again.
Because if these, if the kidswere free to go out and do and play
amongst themselves, guess what?
They would be doing thatwithout nobody trying to tell them

(01:13:29):
to do especially.
It happens.
Yes.
Man.
See, I'm dying for balls andeverything, but because they're playing
on their own terms, you knowwhat I'm saying?
With nobody trying to controlthem or.
Or anything.
But it's too regimented sometimes.
But the coaches who do notknow how to do it, they don't.

(01:13:49):
They're not thinking abouthaving fun and.
And they want them to be perfect.
Yes, but.
Yes, and you can't.
Well, let me Let me wrap us uphere with just a little bit more
here.
One of the things I did inpreparation when I was writing the
outline for this week's showwas I went online and I started looking
at what questions people wereasking about outfield online.

(01:14:13):
And by far the number onething that the Internet wants to
know regarding outfield is whythe gloves are bigger, what size
glove you should wear.
All about the gloves.
So, Ethan, why don't you walkus through glove tech.
When it comes to outfield, the first.
Answer I would say is thatmake sure the glove is something
the kid can use conventionally.

(01:14:36):
I think an outfield glove isusually 12 and a quarter inches or
bigger.
But don't get a glove so bigthat the kid can't use it, because
then you're just doing them a disservice.
Too heavy.
100% too heavy.
But, George, I want to.
We talked about this brieflywhen it came to the gloves.

(01:14:57):
A lot of something I'm seeinga lot is players shifting their fingers
and putting two fingers in thepinky slot and then moving something
away from the forefinger.
And what did you.
When did you start doing that?
After Willie Stardew hit a.
Hit me in the hand and it gota bone bruise.
But I, I started doing thatbecause I.
With Willie Mays, he's sayingthat you have a longer reach.

(01:15:20):
Longer reach because I was using.
It was a long glove as it iskangaroo skin.
So we can.
We could stretch it, but beingable to put your hand there.
And so almost part of my heelof my.
My hand was out of the glove,but my fingers were strong enough
to be able to hold on to the glove.
Right.
I didn't have all fingers ineach pocket, but.

(01:15:42):
But that's something the kidhad to get used to.
So that opens up.
That opens up a couple of things.
So like we said, make sure theglove is usable because if it's not,
then it's not actually helping them.
Right.
When you're saying that, thatWillie mays taught you two into pinkies,
that's the 60s, and that'sjust now gaining popularity.

(01:16:03):
Which is funny because I, fora while I've been trying to figure
out who was the first personto do that.
And the only thing I couldfind in a book was Bernie Williams
in the 90s.
But what you're sayingpredates by quite.
So that's something that'sbeen around for a long time.
Not a lot been there, but ithadn't really been talked.
Exactly.
And so the.
There's a couple of advantagesto that, like you were.
The.

(01:16:23):
The obvious one is that nowyou have your pinky is your weakest
finger, and now you have thestrength of two fingers rather than
just one.
And it moves your pointerfinger out of the way.
And so you're closing likethis rather than like.
Exactly.
And no bone bruise.
No bone bruise.
And I.
So you're even seeinginfielders doing that now.
But.

(01:16:43):
But it's huge because it givesyou that clamping power.
The other thing, the.
The thing I don't think.
I think that gets overlookedis like you were saying, the.
The way that it shifts yourpalm when your hand is in the glove
like this.
Okay.
That line is right here.
But when you shift it likethis, now less of your hand is in
the glove.
When your hand.
The more hand in the glove,the more obstruction there is to

(01:17:05):
closing, because the leatherwill collapse on itself.
No big deal.
But if there's a, you know, afleshy hand in there, it can't close
around.
Right.
So it makes it floppier,easier to use.
So, like the crease in yourhand, that's one that.
The crease in the gloves.
100%.
It's funny you bring upkangaroo leather, because we don't.
We really don't see thatanymore, I believe.
Was that with McGregor, Gregor.

(01:17:26):
And so that's.
That's a whole nother thing,because McGregor doesn't even make
ball gloves anymore.
But they were a big.
A big player.
Kangaroos protested no more.
But.
But kangaroo leather isinteresting because I have done a
few, and I've seen them come.
I've seen them come from McGregor.
I've seen them come from Nakona.

(01:17:47):
But the thing about kangarooleather, like we talked about, is
it's very thin.
Yes.
And so it tears.
It tears inside.
So outside look like brandnew, but inside, it does tear.
But it's light.
Yes.
Sloppy.
So you can always know exactlywhere the ball is.
You don't.
Some of them, the ball helpclose the ball help close the glove.
So it's right there.

(01:18:08):
It fits right in.
But when you have to sometimeclamp, then that.
That takes time.
But being.
Because you're reaching, right?
So you're reaching, gettingthat extension.
So the ball goes right intothe glove.
It's kind of.
Kind of auto catch at that point.
Right.
But.
And so now we get to whythere's a difference.
And it's because of the.
The.
The functionality that.

(01:18:29):
And the different situationsthat the player finds himself in.
Right.
So in the infield, you needfast hands.
Yes.
You Kind of.
You're more just want a wall.
Some.
You're just deflecting.
Deflecting, Exactly.
You're never doing that in the outfield.
You're trying to secure it.
That is your number one.
If you have a giant glove andyou're trying to secure it at second

(01:18:49):
base, you're never turning adouble play.
Right.
So number one, get somethingthey can use.
Secondary is starting to think.
I like that word you said, set.
Usable.
Usable, absolutely.
And.
And that even comes into playwhen you're talking about upgrading,
even if the player's notchanging positions.
Upgrading to the next qualityof glove.
Yes.
Unless you're having aproblem, don't change anything.

(01:19:10):
Because if you get too stiffof a glove that you can't use, it's
not helping you.
And I want to exercise.
I want you to exercise somecaution when buying as a gift because
I understand the idea ofwanting it to be a surprise.
But be careful because if it'snot what they want or need, you might
be headed in the wrong direction.

(01:19:31):
So maybe they're not cheap andthey're not.
I was gonna say it's a big investment.
Yes.
Yes.
And not only the investment,the monies you put out, but you want
to have a usable.
Back to the word usable.
You don't want to get it oneyear, then it's thrown aside.
You got to get another one.
So go to an expert who knowsso that you.

(01:19:51):
Starting from a goodfoundation, knowing that this is
the correct glove and this isthe way.
This is the way to break it in.
Yeah.
That's not just a.
It's not necessarily a onebreak in fits all or one right.
One style fits everything.
There's different.
Different styles and patternsand sizes and webs for different.
And I think that's what peopleneed to understand to the different

(01:20:13):
webs and I think differentcolor of laces.
He used a trapeze.
Rainbow color.
Well, the different ways theyuse a glove.
One of the things that used toblow my mind and I.
I still have never been ableto figure this out because my dad
would.
Would play.
Would play church softball.
We'd all be on the softball team.

(01:20:34):
And he.
The man is crazy.
He would.
He would feel ground balls onthe back of his glove.
It would never actually gointo the glove.
Sometimes he'd just trap it onthe back of the glove so he could
take it off at the throw it.
Yeah.
And he just.
He was tough that way.
I always appreciate it.
No, but that's going back.
Mazeroski.
All these great.
Infielders are for gosi knop.

(01:20:57):
You know, they, they didn't really.
The ball didn't go into their glove.
It's maybe on the heel or inthe back of the glove because they
can be able to get rid of it.
Yeah, that'll have to be awhole another segment for, for infield.
I forgot.
Do not try that.
Yeah, that's not good.
It'll run right, knocking it level.
Swing, let it travel, wait foryour pitch.

(01:21:18):
Be aggressive out there.
It's no wonder young playersget confused at the plate.
What if your son or daughtercould learn not only how to hit the
ball, but also where to hitit, when to hit it there, and why?
George Foster has playedbaseball at the very highest levels.
He was the National League MVPwhen he, he hit 52 home runs and
149 RBIs in a single season.

(01:21:40):
He led the major leagues andhome runs twice and RBIs three times.
He was a five time All Star, aSilver slugger, and he helped the
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During his 15 year career,George developed a unique approach
to hitting that made him oneof the greatest hitters of all time.
And now your favorite playercan learn it too.
That's right.

(01:22:01):
Baseball legend George Fosteris currently accepting new students.
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So check outgeorgefosterbaseball.com to learn
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(01:22:23):
Reds.
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Spots are limited and theroster will fill up fast, so don't
wait.
Apply at George Fosterbaseball.com All right, fellas, well,
let's just kind of wrap us uphere a little bit.
We talked a lot aboutoutfielding today.
We talked about the fact thatembracing the outfield can open up

(01:22:43):
some opportunities, can helpyou make a team, get some playing
time, get some at bats.
We talked about some importantskills to outfield that you can practice
both in a team setting and onyour own.
We talked about some glovetech today, so I'm sure we'll be
back to outfielding more, youknow, in the future.

(01:23:04):
It's a, it's a wide topic andwe have some pretty great expertise
here at the table.
So we're, we're thankful forthe opportunity.
But if you've enjoyed thisepisode today and you want to check
it out, you can dothat@completegame podcast.com and
until next week, we'll see you.

(01:23:25):
We hope you've enjoyed theComplete Game Podcast, the show that's
all about baseball.
New episodes drop each week,so be sure to subscribe so you don't
miss a thing.
If you'd like to support thepodcast, consider leaving us a five
star rating.
Or better yet, drop us acomment or a question.
Let us know what you think.
The Complete Game Podcast isproduced and distributed by 2Creative

(01:23:48):
Digital Marketing.
Check us out at2CreativeDigital.com on behalf of
Ethan, Coach Rick and theSilver Slugger George Foster, I'm
Greg Dungan saying have agreat week and we'll see you real
soon.

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