We're Talking About Practice

Episode Transcript
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(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 ofMDNI Baseball 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.

(00:24):
All right, welcome to episode five.
The topic today is practice,practice, practice.
Talk about practice.
Not the game, but practice.
Yes, Mr.
Iverson, we are talking about practice.
We're going to start out withname five, and we're going to start
off with name five elementsthat should be part of every practice,
every effective baseball practice.

(00:45):
So, Ethan, why don't you kickus off with your first one?
So my first thing that needsto be part of every practice is dynamic
warmup, because too often Isee just static warmup.
And you're just going to standthere and.
And kind of, you know, touchyour toes, you know, reach across
a little bit and then start throwing.
And that doesn't get yourwhole body warmed up.
It doesn't help you with youragility or your footwork at all.

(01:07):
And so I think it can leaditself to more injuries because your
whole body's not ready toparticipate in the practice.
Cool.
George, what'd you have on your.
That's good.
Getting the body warmed up forthe activity.
But I stress.
People say, why are youstressing running?
You know, stressing it.
Why don't you talk abouthitting or things as such?

(01:29):
But running is the integralpart of the game.
You gotta run when you're ondefense and offense.
So teaching these kids how torun, not just go out there and knowing
that you're going from onespot to another, but teach them how
to get there, synchronizetheir legs with their arms when they're
running and being able to runin a straight line.

(01:49):
A lot of these guys are.
They're not able to run in astraight line.
They're going zigzag.
And you can advance a base.
Learning how to run, likerunning the bases, you want to tag
the inside part of base andhave those knees waist, waist high
because you're going to have alonger stride.
But we do a lot of therunning, although the kids complain

(02:09):
about it, but that's part ofmy practice.
And I.
But also I let them know why.
Yes.
A lot of times they'recomplaining and they.
Because they don't know why.
So.
But the one thing I would say,if you want to be a team player,
I stress it.
Be a team player.
You need to Run because you'rebeing able to advance to that next

(02:29):
base.
So that's one thing that a lotof coaches may not stress during,
during practice or beforepractice running.
I run before and then dosprints afterwards.
You run the bases afterwards and.
Cause you're gettingaccustomed, acclimated to what you're
going to do during the game.
Well, that makes it so muchmore fun to know why you're running.

(02:50):
Because if you're just linedup running from point A to point
B with no mind towards how ittranslates to the game, then it becomes
a chore.
That's the key.
But if you know why you'redoing it, then you're leveling up
and you're getting better as aplayer and that's way more fun.
And also too, with running,you can play multiple positions too.
So our outfielders could play infield.

(03:11):
Okay.
Play angles and be athleticand be agile enough to be able to
get play angles, you know, sorunning is great, man.
Well, the other along thelines of what George was saying,
talk about being a good teammate.
Like you can't, you can't getthere to help your teammates if you
can't run and get there efficiently.

(03:31):
Like, right.
If you, if you are in aspecific situation like you're in
play in the outfield and yougot to cover ground to get to a ball
because.
Or you got to back up the guy who's.
Who's next to you, you can'tget there and efficiently do your
job and back him up and helphim out if you can't get there efficiently.
So you know to be that supportfor your other teammates, you got

(03:53):
to be able to move and movequickly and efficiently.
That's a good point.
Exactly.
Go ahead, Rick.
Okay, a third one.
Since we've, we've got properdynamic warmups, we've got doing
base running and sprint worknow since the body is warmed up now,
we can long toss throwing andwork on throwing catch mechanics.
And that's real important.

(04:14):
A lot of kids don't know,especially if you're playing infield,
they don't know how to develop.
They, they throwing catchmechanics very well.
They'll open up this sideinstead of always say, have your
chest and shoulders towards,you know, who you throwing with and.
Or the cans drill keep theirfeet completely still.

(04:35):
Like you got to move your feet.
Yes.
You gotta move towards the ball.
Right, Exactly.
And so a lot of kids, and alot of kids don't know how to deflect
either.
I work on that a lot either.
With the, with the short gloves.
And I, I see myself doing thata lot.
So I show them how to deflect.
I use a pad at times and say,man, how you able to do that?

(04:57):
Man, hey, I work on it.
But I think that's importantbecause I was a part of a lot of
practices where we would goand do some sort of little warm up
and then immediately just graba partner and throw for a period
of time and then move on tothe rest of practice.
And there was no thoughttowards why we were doing it.
The different aspects ofthrowing and catch, like you're talking

(05:18):
about listening to your body,trying to feel, feel out how your
arm feels.
You know, if you're in a midseason practice, you know, you played,
you know, three or four gamesin the week, the weekend before,
you're gonna play three orfour more, you know, listen to your
body.
Don't just go out there andwear your arm out for no reason.
Do it with a purpose.
Exactly.
But three things I stress inthrowing is, number one, move your

(05:39):
feet.
Yes.
And then throwing.
You playing catch, throw afour seamer, it's not a two seamer.
And the other one is, I see alot, but they feel that it's not,
not a big deal if they catchthe ball on the glove side or the
throwing side.
I want them to catch the ballon the throwing side.
And I tell them why, becauseyou can get rid of their balls quicker.
And I was asking one kid, Isaid, one year this kid led the league

(06:02):
in assist and the next year he didn't.
What happened?
Well, the answer is the factthat they stopped running on him
because he's able to get theball back to the infield quicker.
But before, when I, when Iplayed, or seeing outfielders catch
the ball on their glove side,I know during a game they catch a
fly ball.

(06:22):
I'm in a situation to advanceto the next base.
I'm going because I knowthey're not going to get the throw
off as soon as quickly.
Yeah, but that's the kind ofthing that you, you build that foundation
in practice and it translates.
It's automatic second nature instinct.
Well, and what you guys areall bringing up is the idea that
there are a lot of differentskills and specific things that you

(06:43):
can practice just while you're throwing.
So while you're throwing andwarming up, you can practice transfers,
you can practice which side,you can track this footwork, you
can practice, you know, youknow, lots of things that you can
build into that time ratherthan say, all right, everybody go
out There, get a partner andjust throw for 10 minutes.
Right.
You know, while I get, youknow, sit here and make notes and
talk to the people.
It's like danger, danger.

(07:04):
Because the balls are goingall over the place.
Yeah.
You know, so.
So actually give somestructure to that time.
You know, we're gonna.
We're gonna throw.
And here's what I want.
I want you to work on this forso many minutes.
I want you to work on this,you know, and structure that time
so that we're not justflinging balls all over the place
and the guys are getting boredand throwing knuckleballs at each
other and all kind of crazy.
There's a purpose.
Yes.
Throwing catch mechanics.

(07:26):
So you have a long arm fromthe outfield.
Okay.
And you got a short armmechanics from the infield.
Okay.
And also with your catcher.
So understanding and teachingthose throwing mechanics to different
positions is very important.
And I hone on that becausekids need to know, you know, especially

(07:47):
at the younger.
It got a long arm, especiallyin the infield, and a lot of guys
just don't know how to justseparate here at midline, especially
in the infield, so.
And also while you'rethrowing, you got all different types
of.
You got the do or die play,you got the sidearm, then you got

(08:09):
the over the top throws.
So you got to practice all ofthose mechanics, man, because it
comes, like George was saying,it comes second nature, you know,
if you charge and ban you offhere, boom, you know, so those are,
I think, throws that kids needto work on continuously.
Yeah.
My encouragement to coacheswould be, you know, as.

(08:31):
As a dad who's watched I don'tknow how many practices in my lifetime
try and build some.
Some know how and somereasoning and some structure into
every bit of the time you have.
You've only got a couple hours.
Yeah.
So that quality in there.
Yeah, get that.
Try not to have time whereyou're like, okay, everybody just

(08:52):
go do this thing, right?
Without knowing why or.
Or without instruction in theprocess, parents are looking to you
to develop their child.
They're looking to see theirchild learn new skills.
They want to get in the carafterwards and say, what did you
learn today?
Right?
And have the kids say, oh, weworked on this, we worked on this.
They don't want the kid to getin the car and say, ah, well, we

(09:14):
ran for a while.
Yeah, same thing we did lasttime, you know, whatever.
So just keep that in mindbecause, you know, the parents are
looking for development.
You guys are looking, youknow, coaches are Looking for lots
of different things.
They want to develop players,they want to win ball games.
They want to do a lot ofdifferent things.
Parents really only care aboutwhether you're developing their kids.

(09:37):
That's what they want.
And so, you know, to keep thatin mind and have.
It's important for the coachesto learn as much as possible so they
can impart it to the kids.
And.
And not just being out therelabeled as a coach and say, here's
the ball and bat.
You guys entertain yourselves.
You're not the babysitter.
Right, right, exactly.
Yeah.
So that leads me to my firstthing, which is baseball iq.

(10:00):
Building baseball IQ intoeverything that you do.
You know, being able to say,okay, here's the situation.
Stop, freeze.
What happens next?
You got the ball?
Where are you going with that ball?
What are you going to do here?
You know, okay, if he's goingto do this, what does that make you
do?
If he does this, what are you doing?
You know, the idea thatanytime somebody is doing something
on the field, everybody elseshould be doing something in response

(10:20):
or in preparation for what'sabout to happen or what just did
happen.
And so there should all.
Everybody should be able togive an answer.
Even if you're standing out inright field and the ball is at third
base, what are you thinking?
What are you doing?
What?
How does that work?
So, you know, are you cominginto back up first base?
Are you doing what?
What are you doing?
And that is when you make that.

(10:41):
When you engage the brain inevery aspect of what you're doing,
it quits being work and itstarts to be fun and you start to
see the point in what you're doing.
And when they get back in thecar and the parent says, what did
you talk about?
You say, well, I learnedsomething today.
I learned that if I'm here andthis happens, I need to be thinking
about doing this thing.

(11:01):
And that happens.
Now, wouldn't it be great ifall teenagers actually talk that
much to their parents?
But they could.
I'm hungry, Mom.
Yes.
All right, Ethan, what do you got?
My next one is drills thatfacilitate communication.
Because that is something thatlacks seemingly every level.

(11:21):
Facilitate.
Yeah, right, that down.
But trying to find a way tobuild that.
That communication practiceinto the drill.
So, you know, you have yourfly balls and you're.
You have your outfielders talking.
You got your BermudaTriangles, you got those three guys
talking.
You're doing relays.
And from the outfield in your.
Or.
Well, from outfield to thirdbase to home and, you know, catcher

(11:44):
trying to direct the thirdbaseman, or you, Gus, double cutoffs,
all that kind of stuff thatrequires communication.
And I think if you spend alittle bit of time practicing that,
that will.
That's number one on my list.
You have to practice that.
You do.
And then in order for it totranslate into the game.
Yeah.

(12:04):
The number of times I've heardcoaches, you know, laying into the
kids, I don't hear any chatterout there.
Nobody's talking out there.
Nobody's talking.
Why would they?
Because you haven't told themwhat to say.
You haven't told her why youhaven't told them, you know?
Yes.
So here's the thing.
If you're a player, okay, andyou're in the field, there are a
few things that you can yellout at any time, you know, and no

(12:27):
one's going to wonder if youhave Tourette's.
Okay.
You can just yell them out.
You can say how many outsthere are.
You can say what the pitchcount is.
You can say how many runnersthere are, you know, at any given
time.
Yeah, should be.
You can, you can call out whatthe batter did last time.
If you can remember it, you'dbe the hero.
If you can remember that kindof stuff, you know, what did.
Where'd that batter hit thatball last time?
Last time went to left field.

(12:47):
Everybody slide over.
You know what?
I talk to a teammate, say, Igot, I got you.
You got me.
I'm going to go.
Here you go.
Here.
That's the baseball.
I got you, babe.
Yeah.
Every, every, everythinghinges on being able to talk to one
another.
And I'll tell you what, itwould be downright intimidating if
your team talks constantly onthe field, that when they're playing

(13:10):
another team that doesn'ttalk, like most teams don't talk.
They'll be like, whoa.
These guys talk all the time.
It's intimidating.
It is.
And that's what I stress.
I stress it.
I played like that.
So, yeah, I, I, I play, I play like.
I coach, you know, but as I.
Tell the kids, it's not a library.

(13:31):
You're allowed to talk.
Yes.
Where are we?
Did we.
It's George's turn.
George, my turn.
I'm batting third.
No, batting fourth.
So situational play.
I love doing situational play,especially what, not only infield,
outfield, but knowing where tothrow the ball, how many outs, you
know, what's the situation?

(13:51):
You're on first base as ondefense, and the guy's on first base,
and the ground balls hit.
What's your first move?
What are you thinking aboutyou're not going to just hold the
ball and you got, you know,it's one out, you're going to throw
to second base.
So you got to practice thosethings in practice, so to speak.
So that in the game situation,you don't hesitate once you start

(14:13):
hesitating.
Now you're giving that otherteam more than three outs per inning.
And the other one is that itstands out that who's going to be
the cutoff man.
Each team has a different aspect.
I want, say, a ball comingfrom left field.
The third base is going to bethe cutoff man.
Ball come from center or right.
The first base is first quarter.

(14:33):
But you have.
Sometimes you have that thirdfirst base and run way over to third
base to cut off.
I said, that's too far to go.
And I was going to.
I was on the brink of teaching softball.
But they wanted the pitcher tobe the cutoff, but I want the pitcher
to be backing up.
So like we said earlierbefore, there's a place that you
need to be, but you don't knowuntil somebody tells you where to

(14:56):
go.
And I said right away, I said,well, this is the way we're doing
it.
Cause they're going to say,well, my coach, my dad or I saw somebody
on the major league level.
I said, okay, this is whatwe're going to do here.
And it's fun, though, when you're.
When I played, I knew therewas someplace I needed to be and
it was exciting.

(15:16):
It's on.
The race is on.
But I'm playing left field.
Ball hit down the right field line.
Where should I be?
Should I be over there signingautographs or making friends with
someone who's with Chick Fil Aor things and such.
So.
But I'm backing up third base,but the third base coach doesn't
know I'm there.
And the ball get past third,even though it does not happen, you

(15:37):
know you need to be there and.
But that's come back to running.
You got to have the legs ready.
And that's exciting for mebecause before a game, before a game,
I always run my four sprintfoul pole to foul pole.
People are like, oh, it's,it's too hot.
But you got to get your mind,your body ready for the game.
But situational play can winor lose a ball game for you.

(16:00):
But I want to, I want to buildoff of that.
When you said, well, this ishow we do it, right?
Every team is going to be different.
You're going to have adifferent amount of Plays that you
run for different scenariosyou're going to have just different
ways you like to do things.
So maybe on a bunk coverage,maybe you like to run a wheel, maybe
you don't run a wheel.
Maybe first and third, youlike to try to do the thing where
you cut it off short and getthe guy at third.

(16:21):
Everybody's going to do it differently.
But it's important in practiceto have those, form those plans in
practice.
And then when you get to thegame, say, hey, we went over this.
We're going to pick thisoption that we, that we created in
practice and use it in the game.
If you're a parent, realizethat you need to give room for that,
that not every coach is goingto do it the same way.

(16:43):
And it doesn't mean that thelast coach didn't know what he was
talking about or this coachdoesn't know what he's talking about.
It just means different philosophy.
People are doing thingsdifferently, learn lots of different
ways to do it.
And then, you know, down theroad when your kid coaches something,
then they can decide, youknow, I liked it when we did it this
way rather than that way.
But there's room for that.
Different, different,different teams have different strengths.

(17:03):
So, you know, if you have, ifyou have a catcher and really good
middle infielders and you canget the guy at second on a first
and third, you know, then gofor it.
But maybe you don't have thatand you can't risk the run at third.
So you, you can't fit the samedefensive plays to every team.
And that's why you have tofigure that out, see what you have
with your team and practiceand fit, figure it out in practice

(17:26):
so that you're ready for the game.
Yes, I agree.
A good example with the Reds.
Cincinnati Reds, usually if aball's down the right field line,
the second basin is going outto be the cutoff.
But with our team, Joe Morgandidn't have a strongest arm as Davey
Dave Conception.
So Davey would go out and bethe cutoff and Joe would stay at

(17:47):
second.
But it comes fromcommunication from practice and doing
it so that you're knowing thatit's going to be a strength for you.
Yes.
To add to that, George.
And then coming back down onthe youth level, youth level from
13, 14 to high school, a lotof guys don't know how to double
cut, how to run a double cutor what a double cut is, you know,

(18:10):
on that elf, and you got tocontinue working with them on that.
And one of the Things that allof you guys will talk about is baseball
iq.
The boringest things are thethings you continue working on which,
which is going to help you wingames or lose games, you know, if
you don't work on them enough.
When you talk about boringthings, everybody just want to go

(18:31):
out there and swing the batand see how far they can hit the
ball.
But like I say, the smallthings make a big difference.
And like I said, a cutoffsituation because you don't want
that guy to advance to another base.
And double cut.
But like I say, you gottapractice at it in, in practice and
we have line drills so thatwhen you're throwing the ball to

(18:52):
the cutoff, the cutoff menhave to know the footwork too.
Yeah.
So as they don't want.
Back to what Ethan has said.
It's static.
You don't want to just standthere and catch.
You want to be moving towardsthe target.
Yes.
And then now communication.
A third base and say thirdbase or someone.
Yeah, right.
But, but you gotta also backto that when you're saying 3, 3,

(19:13):
3, 3.
Sometimes you gotta know what.
Because each team may saysomething different.
Yes.
And they may say, you say Igot it, I got it, I got it three
times.
Yes.
Or things as such.
But you gotta be able to know that.
And that prevents a lot of injuries.
And also like I say, it helpsyou to knowing that you're gonna
catch the ball or someone elseis gonna catch the ball.

(19:36):
But always being able to backsomebody up and talk, communicate,
letting know what thesituation is.
You may end up being wrong,but you be, you're corrected.
Now everybody's on the same page.
Rick, what's the next thing onyour list?
Buddy, for me, catchers, theysee everything out in front, right.
You got to have a leader manwho can talk and he's got to think

(19:57):
like the manager, head coachas far as calling pitches and everything.
Being able to be acommunicator, Tell them to cut and
hold, they see everything.
Okay, so communication again,that's what we talking about.
And one of the, the mainthings I do a lot of, I work with
my catchers more than anythingmight come in early, work on receiving,

(20:22):
dropping blocks, signals andsigns, how to work certain pictures.
Just knowing the game and thatfor me, that's fun.
Yeah, that's fun.
Because you know, they control everything.
And then as they get to highschool, of course most coaches like

(20:42):
to call the game for them, butat least you giving them a foundation
of understanding the game.
So once you get.
Once they get to high school,coaches will start.
Wow, man, this kid understandsthe game pretty well.
He's not afraid of being late.
He's not afraid, Afraid wemight give him some little time to.
And then he'll say, well, the,the, the catcher is almost like the

(21:06):
psychiatrist for the, for the pitcher.
Right.
You know, like, hey, man, yourtwo same man.
Wait, let's try something else.
And I always tell pitchers is,hey, you got more tools in your toolbox,
man.
Work on those.
Use another tool.
So as a catcher, it's veryimportant to have a good catcher
and having fun, man.
Give them the autonomy to calla game, man, you know?

(21:28):
Well, and if you want them tolead in game, you have to give them
opportunities to lead in practice.
Yes, absolutely.
Exactly.
You are a manager.
You are in a management position.
Your job is to manage them to efficiency.
Not to, not to, to get inthere with them and do it for them.
Because you really love it.

(21:49):
I'm great.
I'm glad you really love it.
We all really love it.
That's why we do it.
But at the same time, your jobis to not invest yourself into the
game, but to divest yourselfinto other people so that they can
be the ones who play the game.
That's the point.
You're training other peopleto do it.
And like I said, I like theword managing.

(22:10):
Not just being a manager,having that label, but managing being
active.
It's active.
Make them make decisions.
Make the kids make decisions.
If you're going to, you know,let's say, let's say we're going
to have somebody runningbases, we got somebody running bases.
Put two guys on base, putthree guys on base.
Yeah.
Make them have to make achoice when they take that ground

(22:30):
ball.
Right.
You know, put a guy on third,put a guy on, on.
On second or just put a guy on third.
Let the kids run to first.
Now that guy hit the ball tothird base, he's got to decide whether
he's going to try and keep theguy from going home or he's going
to go to first, you know.
Oh, yeah, make them make decisions.
Okay.
Make them make decisions.
Because the more they do that,the more they understand the why

(22:51):
every kid's got a modicum ofskill or they wouldn't be on your
team.
Again with, yes, we need totalk mechanics.
Yes, we need to talk skill,but we need to make them make decisions
and then give them room tomake bad ones.
Yeah.
Make mistakes.
Yeah.
And it's okay.
That's what practice is for.
Right.
If nothing else, it's a safeplace to make mistakes.

(23:13):
Yes.
So that you make smart decisions.
That's a perfect segue into mylast one, which is going over and
correcting in game mistakes.
So preseason, maybe you don'thave that as much if, you know, if
it's the same team, maybe youcan go over what you struggle with
last year.
But if it's an in practice, ifit's an in season practice, you know,
you just played a whole bunchof games, you know, you should have

(23:34):
notes about what went well,what didn't, and use that practice
time to go over what didn't gowell so you can correct it going
forward.
Yes, I agree with you.
You point I have.
That's learning.
That's learning, exactly.
And I have like index cards.
So every time I'm coaching,I'm writing notes down on all my
players situations.

(23:54):
So when we go back topractice, I know what we're going
to.
I know how to structure my practice.
Okay.
On the things that we need towork over.
So I'm kind of aperfectionist, but I want, I'm developing.
Right.
Okay.
So like on these index cardsyears ago, I'll go over a lot of
stuff with the guys andthere's certain things that we need

(24:17):
to go or an individual we needto work with on that, on that point.
That's part of development.
And that's what, going back towhat you guys were saying, that's
what parents want to see.
Well, that's an excellentpoint, Rick.
And that every practice isn'tgoing to be exactly the same.
You have a base going to otherthings you want to add too.
But the one thing that I foundwith kids is I tell them that I don't

(24:43):
know is not acceptable as an answer.
Because you would ask a kid,why did you do this or do that?
I don't know.
I said, I don't know.
It's not acceptable.
So I want, even if the answeris not correct, I want, I want to
know what you're thinking.
Yes, that's, that's the keyright there.
But that give them a chance.
You talk about making decisions.
Yes.
So they got to decide and intheir situation, like, oh, say a

(25:08):
man on third base.
And so now you have the saythe infield's in, so balls hit the
first base.
I said, what I tell the firstbase and what are you going to do?
And more times than done, theysaid, I'm going to go and tag first
base.
I said, in the meantime,you're losing sight of the guy at
third.
So this is the key play.

(25:29):
I said, get the ball and runat the batter, batter runner, so
that now you can tag him outand keep the guy at third base.
But I've seen that on themajor league level, they go and tag
first base and the guy fromthird ends up scoring.
Scoring, yes.
But with the kids, you know,you have to go over it and let them
know and not during the game.
Why did you do this punk fake, right?

(25:52):
Oh, yeah, I like that one.
But small things like thatmake a big difference in a game situation.
Well, we run long on oursegment here, but do we have any
more that we need to get in?
Guys are really importantsigns and signals, and I have a lot
of them, too, man.
That over the years since I'vebeen involved with a lot of different

(26:12):
teams through travel,baseball, certain.
Certain guys, signs andsignals are long.
Certain was okay.
And I kind of integrated someof them I had to dumbed down because
each team that I was a partof, you kind of find out how kids
learn, you know what I'm saying?

(26:35):
You know, if they can retain alot of stuff with signs and signals,
you got to go over that a lot.
It's also learning your teamand how they process.
Yes.
And how they process to the team.
I was in a situation, I justyell out, go ahead.
Still, I've done that before.
I like everybody in theballpark, know who fast.

(26:56):
Because I think one dad came,was my brother.
His son was playing for the team.
So the dad's asking the otherkids, what are the signs?
And we don't have any signs.
He just said, go.
Because I wanted.
It was part of thepsychological part is that I'm telling,
I'm daring that catcher.
I said, go.

(27:16):
He can't throw you out.
Go, go.
And now the catcher, like,okay, I'll show you.
And he throws the ball out incenter field or with the.
But the one that I was goingto talk about is, I don't know if
you finished, but bunning.
It's not just Bunny, but workto bunt the ball.
Yes.
So in batting practice, I tellthem, okay, we're going to go, but

(27:37):
we're going to bunt first.
Yes.
I want you to bunt the firstone to bunt the third.
Yes.
And then I say, okay, man on first.
Sometimes I tell them wherethey need to bump, but this time
I said, man on first.
Where are you going to bunt?
They bunt the ball third base.
I said, why'd you bunt theball at third base?
I don't know.
That's not acceptable.
Yes.
So they learned that there's aplace to bunt the ball.

(27:57):
Yes, exactly.
And the third, say bunting the first.
Bunting the third.
But I said, on a squeeze play,this is a delicate one because you
don't.
Yeah, you want to make sureyou get a good pitch to bunt.
But where do you bunt third first?
I said, no.
Okay, where do you bunt sothat you have more room for error?

(28:18):
Okay.
Bump right back to the pitcher.
So if it doesn't go to thepitch, you're going to go down third
or first.
But you're not going to getanother chance in that squeeze play
situation.
So make it count.
But the other one is that hitand run.
And kids don't understand that.
I said, it doesn't have to bea good pitch.
Swing the bat.

(28:39):
If the catcher can catch theball, swing the bat.
Then, then it's like I kindof, I take a deep breath when they
say, my bad.
I said, you're bad.
We just lost that, lost that situation.
I remember we're in achampionship game and the guy who's
up, he, my catcher was, was on first.
He didn't have good speed.
So it's going to be more likea surprise situation.

(29:00):
But this guy can hit the ballthe right field well.
So even if he hits the groundball to second, basically a hole,
we're hitting run and moving.
So what happened?
The guy, I, I brought him together.
I said, this is what we'regoing to need to do.
And you guys get it.
Yeah.
So what happens is that nowthe guy took the fastball right down
the middle.
And I said, that was the gameright there.

(29:23):
Because we could have maybehad first and third or even have
it a guy at second.
So my catcher get thrown outof second.
But the parent was upset.
Why.
Why are you running?
I said, okay, it's on me, butit's not really on me.
It's on him, Ben.
And then the mom had said,don't blame it on my son.

(29:44):
I said, no, we're just beingable to execute.
Go just do what I asked you to do.
My, my last one would be.
It's kind of a, kind of a twopart, but it's pitcher cover.
Oh, we got a Rick.
A two part.
It's.
It's picture covers plays.
Yeah, that's first.
Picture covers home.

(30:04):
Yes.
Yes.
Make sure that you with your pitchers.
Got the World Series with the Yankees.
Yeah.
And Gary Cole said, you got,you got it.
You got to be so.
Well, that's the thing withthe, the.
The.
Your pitcher's got so muchgoing on in his head.
What am I throwing?

(30:25):
Is my curveball working?
Is that.
You know, he's got so muchgoing on in his head all game long
that that pitcher covers playhas to be second nature.
Pfp.
It has to be something he doeswithout even thinking.
Without even thinking.
And that is.
I see more errors, more costlyplays on Metro.
That's a metal error.

(30:45):
Yes.
Yeah.
So picture covers.
And then with.
With an extra little side note of.
Eliminate wasted movement.
What.
What are you doing with yourbody to eliminate the wasted movement?
And that way time, you know.
Yeah.
It makes you more efficient catchers.
Are you doing.
Don't do the.
God, don't do the pump fake.

(31:05):
Don't do the pump fake.
Okay.
If you really are worriedabout that guy at third base, if
that guy at third base is soin your head.
Oh, my God.
If that kid at third base isso in your head that you can't live,
you can't handle it, then youtake the next pitch and without any
warning whatsoever, you fireit to third base.
Okay.

(31:26):
Fire it to third base.
And then if that kid knowsthat you are not going to hesitate
to fire that ball at thirdbase, now make sure you can do it
without overthrowing him.
But you know, then.
Okay, now it's in his head that.
Okay, that kid's not going to hesitate.
He's going to.
He's going to let loose.
Right.
All right, so.
But pump faking, it justwastes time.
It was.
It's wasted movement, wasted energy.

(31:48):
Yeah.
It just doesn't.
It doesn't make anything any better.
So.
But backing up back andbacking up home play is very important.
Third I or third base.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, you know that there's achance that the guy's going to get
a triple.
Should be over there.
And once again.
And it's same thing with theleft field.
They got to be over there.
Yeah, but you have to have.

(32:09):
You don't want to be rightbehind third base.
Have a distance there.
Yeah.
And backing up.
I've seen pitchers almostcollide with the runner because they're
late backing up home plate andso back.
It makes a big difference.
Even if you don't get the guyat the plate, you may have a chance
to get someone who's going to.
The batter hitter is going to advance.

(32:30):
Right.
So like we said before,there's a place you need to be.
And this is another.
Another excellent reason whyit's good to go watch baseball in
person.
Yeah.
Because you can watch, youknow, you don't always get to see.
You get to see the camera angle.
When you watch on television,you don't always get to see what
everybody else is doing.
So if you are a left fielderor a right fielder, you know, or

(32:52):
whatever, go watch it inperson and stick on your guy.
Watch what he does, watchwhere he goes, watch why he goes
there, watch what he's doing.
Whether he's running up theline to back up this person or he's
over backing up that person,or he's the cutoff man or he's the
cutoff man or what's going on.
Go see it in person and.
Because when you see it inperson, you can see it all.
And you'll learn so much moreabout baseball than watching it just

(33:15):
on television.
I'm gonna add something to that.
And I think that kids 13 and14, they need to go and watch games
in their community, theircommunity high school, their varsity
or JV team.
So when we moved toWestchester and we were playing for

(33:35):
a Westchester team, anyway, Iwould take Ricky to.
He is in eighth grade, I wouldtake him to Lakota west, the varsity
of jv, to see, you know, sincehe plays center, like, hey, you gonna
take his job next year?
You know, but to get him the process.
Look how they practice andthings like that.

(33:55):
That'll kind of build that.
Because I think more kids needto see how the older players play
the game and how they, youknow, take care how they walk the
walk and stuff.
Man, you know, if they don'tknow it, then, you know, they're
just walking in.
I think more parents need tounderstand that, you know.

(34:15):
Yeah, you playing select ortravel baseball, but you need to
see what the high school teamis doing.
So you'll be prepared as a freshman.
Coming in, seeing what's atthe next level.
You got to see what's next.
But I find that no matter whatyou do is trying to get an edge.
Yes.
And so I go, go and watchsomeone who plays the same position
I play and say, okay, what arethey doing differently?

(34:36):
Yeah.
And then, then as a, as a baserun, I want to see what is that outfielder
doing that's going to give mean edge, is how he's going to feel
the ball.
Say a left fielder, a ball isdown the line, how does he feel that
ball?
And.
But it's back to time wasted motion.
So there's a lot of wastedmotion there.
So I have a chance from thebatter's box.

(34:57):
I'm thinking going to secondbase because he may get to throw
off but it's not going to beaccurate or with much velocity.
So that now is a situationthat I got an edge, I get a chance
to advance.
Say no, I also am at second base.
There are many ways thatyou're able to advance to third,
but if you're just standing atfirst base, oh, I should have gone.

(35:18):
You got to know from homeplate what you're going to do.
And something that a lot ofparents might not know is that you
can go watch these upper levelteams play.
And a lot of times it's free.
Like if you live here inGreater Cincinnati, you can go to
Miami and you can watchMiami's baseball, baseball games
for free, right?
You can watch college levelplaying for free.

(35:38):
You can go to if you, ifthere's a semi pro team in your area
or like a, like a FlorenceYalls or know an independent league
or a minor league.
It's even probably not thatexpensive to go to a minor league
game.
You can go watch the highschool A lot of times it's little
to no money to go do it right.
And you can learn so muchabout doing that.

(36:00):
So you finished the seasonlast year exhausted from all the
travel and the tournaments andyou 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.

(36:20):
Wouldn't it be great if youhad a glove guy who could help you
out with that?
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, whatever you need.
If you're in the area, you caneven just stop by the shop.

(36:43):
That way you don't have tobother with shipping.
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

(37:03):
and on the web.
@glovehound.com you're onlygoing to get busier.
So reach out today and giveyour glove the love it deserves.
At Glove Hound, we're going tomove on a little behind today.
We're going to move on intoour main thing.
Okay, Ethan's fault.
We got a little wasted motiongoing on.

(37:24):
It's not wasted that way.
Hopefully we're.
Yeah, hopefully we're, we'rebringing out a lot of good gems here.
So what I asked the guys to dothis week was to come up with a structure
for a two hour practice.
And I gave him some parameters.
I said, okay, you've got a twohour practice for 12 to 16 select

(37:45):
level players of junior highor high school age and you got three
coaches, including yourself.
So in a moment we're going tofind out how they did that.
But first, what I want tostart with is what are the keys to
a successful practice?
In other words, how would youanswer this practice will be successful?
If I just.
I have a pretty simple one andI would say the practice is successful

(38:08):
if you are more confidentheading into the game.
Because that, that is thewhole point is to, you should, you
should leave practice feelingmore confident, more prepared for
that game coming up.
And you know, regardless ifyou feel that you got, you know,
a ton better at hitting or aton better pitching, just that you're
more ready to attack that gamethe next one that comes up.

(38:30):
Cool.
How would you answer thatquestion, George?
This practice will besuccessful if it's organized.
There you go.
You have to have good organization.
Once again you're managing andso you know the time aspect that
you want to utilize, but ithas to be organized.
Yes.
You can have kids over theretalking about what they're going

(38:50):
to do later, but everybody'sdoing something.
And that's the worst thing ishaving kids standing around wasting
time.
Yes.
So being able to be organized,you can utilize.
It could be a become quality.
Yes.
Or standing in line waiting todo something.
Oh man, I see that so much.
I'm a big one for if, if they are.
If you are going to have aline, it shouldn't be any longer

(39:10):
than three people.
Right, right.
And you know, break them up in groups.
Yes.
But that's also to add toGeorge is being organized.
But that is making sure yougot the right assistant coaches and
understanding their skill setsto be able to break up in a group
so you don't have to micromanage.

(39:31):
And I think that is key rightthere to a successful practice.
Also going over the weaknessor whoever needs to work on something,
being able to take the time towork with them on that.
I think that'll be asuccessful practice for that kid
because maybe he's like, man,man, I made that error or I didn't,

(39:53):
wasn't in the right spot.
Taking them practice to gothrough that, that makes them feel
a little bit more confident now.
Sure.
And if you don't have enoughassistant coaches, maybe you didn't
have enough people volunteerfor your, for your youth league or
you know, there's not budgetto hire enough guys in your.
Whatever situation you're in,you know, then you got to use what
you have.

(40:14):
You have to use players.
You have to, you know, playercan handle, player can hit a fun
go bat, probably hit it betterthan you can.
You know, a player can, canthrow fly balls.
A player can do a lot of things.
You're not asking that playerto give instruction necessarily,
but they are the onefacilitating the drill and you can
do that with players if youneed to.

(40:35):
Front toss or whatever,whatever you need to do.
So Rick, this practice will besuccessful if.
What, how would you answerthat question?
I guess for, for me justmaking sure that we go over the situational
stuff that we probablystruggle with.

(40:55):
Yeah.
And that's that.
Because going over that,that's going to help you win games
or be in games.
So I would say that would be asuccessful practice for us.
Cool.
Yeah.
Well, I'm going to start, I'mgoing to start with you on the.
Walk us through your structureof a two hour practice for 12 to
16 players, junior high orhigh school age, using three coaches

(41:16):
including yourself.
Okay.
So one would be like dynamic,warm up and toss.
And this is with catchers.
Okay.
They work on receiving drills,bare hand with mid rapid fire blocking
drills, transfer and throwdrills, fielding bunts, angle drills,

(41:37):
inside outside pitch setup andthen we'll be hitting.
And so each practice would bea little bit different because one
practice, if we're working twodays a week, one practice might just
be all defense or pitching,the other must be offense and other
things.

(41:58):
So.
But it will have everything in there.
So as you see here, I have alot of practice.
Some might be tagging up,start at first base, start at second
base or third base, bunningand tee work.
We work middle away pitchersduring hit.
They might work on PFPs,working on backing up bases, bullpen.

(42:21):
And one of the things that Ido with our pitchers, and I've been
doing this for years, thatafter I throw a bullpen they do sprint
work either five sets of 20 to30 yards and a lot of people don't
know that, you know, you cando long distance but sprint work,
man, it's about explosiveness.
Fast twitch muscles.

(42:41):
Yes, fast twitch.
Also you got to feel bunched too.
You got to get off right tofeel bunch.
So outfielders, when they'llcome up throwing or just field the
ball and get it in, trackingthe ball off the bat, a lot of communication
cutoffs, you know.
So I, I might have new playersthat we have to spend more time with

(43:03):
versus kids that's been on theteam long.
So you have to know how tosplit your practices up to make sure
they get bring them up thespeed to how your philosophy is and
how you teach the game.
You know a lot of stuff ofbase running.
And so I have a lot ofdifferent things how I do practice

(43:24):
with of two hours.
So again, it does vary.
So you, are you communicatingwith your coaches once everybody
arrives at practice, justbefore practice, are you distributed
before we send it email.
We'll send that.
I'll send out an email and youknow, we'll go over.
We might call each other upand you know, if they got any questions,

(43:46):
they'll let me know.
But it's pretty straightforward.
The first meeting we'll talkabout philosophy.
Okay.
A lot of the guys, I kind ofknew who they were.
Some, you know, I asked them,okay, what's your strengths and what's
your weaknesses?
You know, what you, what doyou like to work on?
And then you kind of form that bond.
And then as practice goes, youknow, when you break up your team,

(44:10):
then, you know, okay, this,this, this hitting wise.
The funny thing about it, thisone time I had three coaches plus
myself.
The good thing about it, Ihave two lefties and two righties.
Yeah, that's good.
That works a lot.
Man.
I was like, man, I had twolefty dads that could throw BP man
in real righty.
So what it does is it madekids make adjustments as they move

(44:32):
on.
Of course I threw harder thaneveryone, but.
But it allowed kids to make those.
No brag, but fact.
Yeah, yeah.
So.
And we would.
There.
There's so much man pitching drills.
We'll go over slow motiondrill, flat ground drills.

(44:53):
You know, depending on.
We might only throw 20 to 25,you know, depending on where we at
in the season, especially indoor.
And then build up and then Iwould break down how many guys I
would pitch that day.
Those guys that didn't pitchthat day, will they.
They'll pitch the next time orpractice so you kind of spritz, split

(45:16):
the pitching up a little bit.
How do you keep everybodydoing something in.
You got two hours to fill, yougot 12 to 16 kids to work with.
How do you keep them all doing something?
Setting a culture, setting a philosophy.
So when our guys came intopractice, they knew to do band work,
they knew to do foam rolling,they knew how to stretch their hips

(45:37):
and everything.
So then when everybody came,it was like that.
I never had to play.
No, it wasn't.
It was focused, man.
That was focus.
And that's, you know, whenpeople look at that like, man, you
guys look like you're incollege or high school now.
Well, it's a differencebetween just coaching a team, you
know, as a dad, because yourson's on the team, versus building
a program with a mind towardsthe future and the mind towards development.

(46:00):
And I think that's becausethat circling back around, being
around mentors, okay.
Or guys that we coach to getagainst each other and watching them.
But being a mentor, I thinkMarco Staggy was a great mentor for
me.
My son played for, for abouteight years.
Even though I played, Markplayed at Xavier and you know, all

(46:21):
the things I understood and hewas just like me, very organized
man.
So it worked hand in hand howwe develop players and stuff and
our players move on and by thetime they're freshmen, 9th or 10th
grade, they're already playingvarsity because of the structure
that we had.
And so having coaches thatunderstand structure was very, what,

(46:46):
what makes your program lookgood to do.
And the thing I like about,about your rundown there is you just
gave so many different optionsthat you could plug into a practice
because you're not going tohave the same practice every week.
No.
And I, most of the teams Iplayed for practice and I played
for a different team every year.
Select ball, which wasunfortunate, but it was what it was.

(47:09):
But more often than notpractice was get there, do a little
warm up, throw, and theneverybody go to their position and
we rotate one guy in to hitwhile the coach does batting practice.
And you just rotate in untileverybody gets done.
And if the guy at the plateisn't up, he's not doing well, you
know, he's not split sprayingthe ball over the field.
You're just standing therehoping he hits the ball to you.

(47:30):
It was horribly inefficient,but that was the most common practice
that I participated in.
And it happened all the way uptill I was 17 playing in a pretty
well known program here in Cincinnati.
And we were still Doing thesame stuff that I was doing when
I was 12.
Well, the coaches need to bemore accountable and understand that

(47:51):
there's a responsibility,ability of being a coach, and you're
out there to help grow thekid, help develop the kid, and just
standing around and not doinganything, it's not helping.
And they're not reallylearning anything.
So it's like, what did.
What can you teach them thatparticular day to help them get better,
not only in the game, but life itself?
Because I always stresslearning life skills through.

(48:13):
Through baseball, through sports.
So if you're not out theretrying to challenge that kid, because
I tell players today,challenge yourself.
Yes, sir.
When you go up to the plate,challenge yourself.
They.
They got.
The guy got two hits that day.
He was 2 for 4.
He had a home run, then hitone off the wall.

(48:33):
I said, that's good.
Now better your best orchallenge yourself for the.
For the next game.
But like I said, with thecoaches, they just feel that, well,
I'm a coach of this certainteam, but right away you take on
certain responsibilities andbeing accountable for what you do.
Yes.
So walk us through yourpractice, George.
What do you got?
I try to keep it simple, butRick's very sophisticated.

(48:57):
But I like.
No, but I like what he hadbecause once again, he's very organized
and he knows what he wants to do.
And with me, the one thing Ireally stress is being positive.
Telling the coaches, bepositive when you're talking to the
kids, being positive.
I don't want any negativevibes going here.
And using.
I mean, you try to be funny,but making sure that it's not tearing

(49:21):
the kid down.
Yes.
It's just finding a situationthat he's going to be successful.
So having coaches, if it.
Knowing this guy's gonna throwbatting practice or doing the running,
running drills.
And so I.
If the coach is not doingexactly what I want him to do, I
don't call him out.
No, that's not what he worked on.
Yeah.
So I would just.
I go and talk to him and say,no, let's.

(49:42):
Let's change this.
So I don't want to embarrasshim in front of everybody else.
So we're all on the same page.
So it's back to.
In the beginning, we want to run.
So from home plate to.
Or maybe sometimes run all theway around the field and get your
legs loose.
And then I want you to stretch.
A lot of times they're not loose.
So.

(50:02):
So I select maybe three orfour guys to do different exercise.
So everybody's going to participate.
So I have a good stretchthings as such.
And then we're going to throwand make sure we throw long and then
start using the correctfundamentals or mechanics.
Then we will take infield practice.
So now during that period oftime we're doing situational play

(50:25):
and, and then after theoutfielders throw then I have them
being the baserunners.
So that now you're knowing, okay.
Now you actually have a game,simulated game situation.
So now the infield is knowing, okay.
I would say one out and I, andI hit a ground ball, one out, a man
on second and I hit a groundball the third.

(50:46):
So it's like seeing what he'sgoing to do.
He's going to look the guyback to second or he's just going
to just throw the third throwto first base and the guy advances.
So being able to do that andget the infield practice and everything
done.
Then now we go into stations.
So we have station doing softtoss, doing bunning and, and so that

(51:08):
now we break that all up.
So each coach will say maybedoing the bunning and a coach going
to do the soft toss.
But with the soft toss I havetwo players at or maybe a player
at third player first at home.
And the coaches are soft toss.
So they head into the outfield.
So now they get a chance to beactive and playing in a planned situation.
So they're catching fly balls,ground balls.

(51:30):
And, and we do that.
So rotate in that aspect andwe do it like I said, the bonding
to the side, making sure thatthey're not just going through the
motion.
As far as bonding, there's apurpose you have a quality as for
what you want to do.
And last but not least, wehave running.
So you can, you know, run fromfirst two to two from first to home,

(51:51):
two from first to second, third.
And then I said okay, now hereit is, the final finality.
So you're going to run from,you're going all the way around.
Yeah.
So I, I remember back in, Iwas teaching or coaching Babe Ruth
16, 18 and it was an extrainning game and the guy hit a ball
that he should have got insidethe park homer but he ends up he

(52:13):
stopped himself at thirdbecause he didn't have the stamina
to go home.
So with my guys said we, we'repracticing what may happen in a game.
I want you to be able to goout, I don't want you to, to get
tired or fatigued at thirdbase that you carry that piano from
second, third.
So I Want you to be ready to go.
So that was the outstanding part.

(52:35):
They realized that runningcoach, you know, I'm you.
I said, you got good speed.
Utilize that speed.
And I'm not telling you to dosomething I didn't do when I was
almost playing in the game.
Right.
So that's basically what Iwould do in, in a practice.
And after practicing as ateam, I would have maybe one or two

(52:55):
guys come by themselves.
So we're going to work moreon, on the hitting aspect or throwing
aspect, but being able to takeeach individual and make sure that
they're doing what they needto do.
And then now we bring it together.
And I like what you, what yousaid there at the beginning, and
in the idea that you're adding runners.
Again, we're talking 12 to 16 players.

(53:16):
You only need nine on thefield at any given time.
So when you add runners, youmake them make decisions.
Right?
They have to make decisions ifthere's a runner involved.
If there's not a runnerinvolved, then it's just field it,
throw it.
Right.
There's no urgency.
Well, there's no variation.
There's no.
If I, if I pick it up andthrow it.
Oh, wait.
Something could happen.
Maybe I need to walk this guy.

(53:36):
Identifying the runner.
If it's your catcher, you gotmore time.
If it's your center fielder,you know, he's pretty quick.
You got to, it's one thing to.
Feel that ball and throw it toyour, to your, to your first baseman
who can freely come off the bag.
And if he's holding somebodyon now he's got a stretch for it.
Now you got to really be allright, on with your throw about it.
One of the things our, ourgoal was to tell the players, we

(53:58):
practice like it's a game.
Yeah.
Simple as that.
That's how I learn.
Yes.
Practice like it's a game.
Well, the other thing isthere's, you know, there's no set
of cookie cutter things.
You'll find yourself as acoach, you will have to develop,
create drills.
Yeah, I mean, like I watched adrill on YouTube the other day.
It was rather ingenious.
This is a guy at the collegelevel, and they were trying to cover

(54:20):
all of the funky, extra, extraplays in one shot.
So the, he had.
The pitching machine wouldthrow one in the dirt and they would,
the catcher would block itforward, pick it up, throw it to
first.
As soon as the first personthe first baseman caught, he'd throw
it on the ground.
Coach would hit a fun, go tofirst base.
He'd pick it up, throw it tosecond base, to the shortstop, who'd
throw it back to the pitcherwho was covering first, who then

(54:41):
at that point in time, goesback and the pitcher immediately
throws one to the side tosimulate wild pitch.
Catcher goes after it, pitchercomes home.
And this, this was all onegiant drill.
Whoa.
And I'm like, I mean, you talkabout a lot of moving parts, but
it all happened at one time.
We talked about this, what hehad to do for his team.
There's.

(55:02):
Well, there's a fine linebetween being ultra efficient and
being a little bit ridiculous.
Right, Right.
To have one guy waiting andobserving the drill.
There's.
I think there is value in that.
You know, it's not necessarilydetrimental if he's observing because
he can pick something up fromwatching somebody else do it.
So don't be afraid of it, butalso have a mind towards it.

(55:23):
So, I mean, you may have todefine, develop some drills and,
you know.
You gotta slow it down, slowit down so they can, they can see,
absorb it.
And you may try drills andthey just don't work.
And that's okay.
So you go, all right, guys,that didn't work.
It was better in my head thanit was on this, you know, but that's
okay.
Be honest as a coach.
Thank you.
Tell them.
I think that's.
I think that's the key thing.

(55:44):
Because I laugh.
I like, nah, that ain't gonna work.
Don't, don't force it.
Yeah, you can't force it off.
Some things look great onpaper, but when you involve 12 year
olds, then.
But one thing I want to, Iwant to touch on that.
Both of you, both of youmentioned in different ways, you
had mentioned the culture andyou had mentioned the attitude.
When you have a good attitudeand good vibes in the practice, you're
going to get better qualityreps because the kid wants to participate.

(56:08):
If they don't want to do it,then they're not going to give it
their all.
So that attitude and payingattention to the overall vibe and
the culture of how youpractice, how you play games, it's
important because it's goingto dictate the quality of your practice.
Sure.
When I sign playing pro ball,you're thinking that everybody know
what they need to do, but youfind out they don't.

(56:28):
But I wasn't trying to impressthe coaches, but I was trying to
get myself ready for a game situation.
So during batting practice,I'm playing batting practice like
it's a game situation.
So then later on the, thewalls were paper thin and at the
hotels where we stayed, so theguys were talking about that George
Foster, you know, he'severywhere, you know, but they're
just there, you know, if theball came to him, they may catch

(56:51):
it.
But I'm playing the game,playing practice like it's a game,
because now it gets me ready.
So I'm getting a good jump onthe ball and knowing, okay, now I
will in my mind say, okay, manon second base.
What are you going to do witha fly ball?
Is going to hit to you?
So now when a game does start,it's automatic, it's an instinct.
But other guys just standingaround, they're not really practicing

(57:12):
or honing their skills, tryingto get better if the ball came to
it, that maybe they'll catchif it's right to them.
But I always had done that.
Well, you had, you had aninteresting situation, too, in your
career, because, you know,you'd played, you came up with, with
the Giants, and you had kindof taken your lumps and earning your
spot and kind of workingyourself in there.

(57:33):
You came to Cincinnati, yougot, you got your shot to play every
day.
And then that started.
You know, you're part of ateam that.
Just one of, just a legendaryteam group of guys who are all great
team players and wanting to,to, you know, support each other
and be a great team.
And you won two World Seriesdoing it.
And then you go to the Metswhere you're the first brick in building

(57:58):
a new team.
Greg, why'd you bring that up?
Well, no, I brought that upfor a purpose.
In that we talked about this.
In that you're there now andyou're bringing this work ethic from
this great team that you werepart of, and you're showing up and
all of a sudden you're findingout we're building a new one and
you're the first brick.
So then, now what do you do?
Well, the thing is striving toget myself together, and then there

(58:21):
are other guys that I, I workwith that say the team would go on
the road and they would stay back.
So I worked with the guy, andthe guy went 5 for 5 that game.
And I forgot to tell him,don't say that we work together.
Because once, once, once hesaid that.
Now the, the batting coachsaid, well, Foster should spend more
time getting himself ready.

(58:42):
But I just felt that they,they didn't really know what they
wanted to do.
And so I'm coming from awinning attitude or atmosphere to
a team that's trying to put it together.
But I'm thinking thateverybody want to win.
They're going to do things to.
To help enhance that chance.
But with the guys, the teamsthat are on the bottom, you know

(59:03):
why they're on the bottom?
Because you're not working onthe quality things.
And with the Mets, we go outthere and have a great practice.
Say we were two and a halfhours, and the next day, maybe it's
an hour.
Well, the manager said, youguys did a good job the other day.
So we're going to.
We're going to award you.
You don't have to do it as much.
But for me, I love takingbatting practice.

(59:24):
So after a game or afterpractice, I want to take extra batting
practice.
But the coach said, no, youcome in tomorrow.
And because they had a teetime, they don't want to miss their
tee time.
So you didn't have that same dedication.
And I said, this is really different.
And people would ask, if youhad to do it all over again, would

(59:45):
you do it?
I said, yeah.
But I would try to encourageKen Griffey Sr.
To come with the Met.
Getting somebody who knows howto win, it's a challenge playing
with someone who do not knowhow to win.
When the general manager said,well, we're going to start making
trades or moves on this team,we want to bring in guys who want
to win.

(01:00:05):
And I said, isn't it saying tomyself, wouldn't it be easier to
teach the guys who are here?
But no, it's just that attitude.
You want to get a guy who hadthat attitude and that want to win
and knowing the things thatthey need to do, the commitment they
need to make.
And I remember Jesse Orozco,this guy pitched forever.

(01:00:25):
Yes.
And this happened to me.
I was in minor league and I didn't.
I will always go out and do myrun and get loose and do the things
to prepare myself for the game.
Then one day I said, nobodyelse is doing it.
And a couple of days I wentout there, my legs were sore, my
back was sore.
I said, what?
What I'm not doing.
And I said, you gotta get backto doing those fundamentals, get

(01:00:48):
yourself prepared.
And that, in a sense, thatsaved my career.
Cause you can easily pull amuscle and in the mileage, you know,
it's a next next.
Cause you're not.
It's not for sure a guaranteeyou're gonna be there, right?
So I told Jesse was watchingthese other guys, he said, they're
not running.
I said, you gotta beaccountable for Yourself.
And I don't know that becausewhat I said helped him.

(01:01:11):
But I knowing that.
Okay, what can I say to thisguy that's that I feel is going to
help him.
But those leg.
I said not just for.
Not everybody.
I mean, not just for you, buteverybody legs are important.
But especially for a pitcher,you throw with your legs, not your
arm.
And I say he had a great long career.
Well, that was an interestingthing because during that period

(01:01:32):
of time, both you and Griffare in New York, right?
He's with the Yankees andyou're with the Mets.
And was he experiencing someof the same things that you were,
just on a different team?
Well, in his case, he had morebackup, I guess.
You know, he had a Don Baylorof Dave Winfield.
So you had other Mattingly.

(01:01:53):
So you had.
Had guys who were.
Had a lot of skills.
And in my case, guys were just starting.
Starting to like John John Stearns.
He was there catcher, wasn't he?
Catcher?
And Huey Brooks.
But the other guys were juststarting to.
To learn.
So they hadn't been in thatwinning attitude as of.

(01:02:13):
As of yet.
And so it's like, I'm the one guy.
I'm the guy that's going totake them to the promised land.
And.
But I laughed about it becauseI thought I could.
I said, this is going to be amiracle year.
But we didn't.
Because everybody wasn't.
Wasn't a team from thecoaches, coaching staff to the players.

(01:02:34):
So when Frank Cashing cameover, came from that winning attitude.
From Milwaukee.
No, from Baltimore at the time.
And so we started to fill in guys.
Keith Hernandez came over,Gary Carter came over.
You have.
Daryl Strawberry started to develop.
So you start to see it come together.
And, and I was, I was lookingforward to that because, wow, Gary

(01:03:00):
Carter's here, Strawberry's here.
I'm going to be behindHernandez or between Carter and Strawberry.
I'm going to get a lot offastball to hit.
No, you're batting.
You batting behind Carter andbatting six.
But I'm thinking I'm going tobe batting four.
So there's an adjustment I hadto make.
But with the Reds, you know,you have guys, hall of Famers and

(01:03:22):
also.
So it's a different attitudeand it's a big adjustment I had to
make.
Yeah, imagine.
Well, that's something I'mreally excited with the Reds, you
know, bringing in TerryFrancona, somebody who's been there,
done that, you know, going andgetting Gavin Lux, who he's.
He's won a couple World Series.
He's got that experience.
And we were talking about lastyear, they would play this commercial

(01:03:44):
where they would.
They would interview.
It was about the players.
And they were.
Who was the manager?
David?
And it would be.
It was Jonathan India and acouple other guys.
They're like, yeah, you know,we love David Bell.
Super laid back.
You know, whether we win orlose, lose.
You know, it doesn't put toomuch pressure.
They kept playing thecommercial over, and it was supposed
to promote David Bell.

(01:04:05):
And.
And I told.
I came in after they lost whenI said, if I see that dumb commercial
one more time, I'm gonna losemy mind.
I don't.
I'm sick and tired of themlosing and then seeing a commercial
like how David Bell doesn'tcare if they want.
How they were losing.
Like I say, it's justlethargic lack of days ago.
It's like, come on, you got tobe more aggressive out there.
And you see situation that they.

(01:04:26):
They didn't take advantage of.
You know, hit and run or bumpthe guy over, go from first to third
or.
Yeah.
Things as such.
And I look at the manager, Ilook at the coaching staff.
They're.
They're responsible for those,for those guys.
If you're going to let the guy.
Oh, yeah, you hit a.
Like freedom.
Not to call him out, but if hehit a ground ball to the.

(01:04:47):
To the pitcher, he just joggedto first base.
Oh, man.
So I, as a.
As a coach, and I would tellthe kid, I said, you're out of the
game.
He said, why?
I said, you're not hustling.
That's not only.
That's the number one thingyou got to hustle.
Yeah.
And I said, well, right backto the pitch.
I don't care.
I want you to run hard becausethere are times that he may make

(01:05:09):
a bad throw and you could havemade it there.
But it's also the main thingis what.
What are you showing as a team?
You got to look professionalout there.
And.
But they let that happen.
And so now everybody elsefelt, oh, it's okay.
On your best day, your bestthing that you could do is inspire
somebody to want to be better.

(01:05:30):
Right.
You can command it all youwant, but it's not really going to
take until you inspire them towant to be better.
Exactly.
Inspiration is far, far morepowerful than.
Than position, power.
And when coaches relyspecifically, I'm the coach, I say,
so this is how we do it.
This how we do it.
You're only going to be.

(01:05:50):
You're limiting your own success.
If you're the kind of guy thatsays, all right, guys, here's what
we're going to do.
We're going to run all the wayout to that fence and we're going
to hurdle it and then we'regoing to run back and they're like,
yes, Coach, whatever you say,here we go.
Because they would live anddie for you if they would live and
die and do whatever you askthem to do because they believe that

(01:06:10):
you've inspired them to do that.
That's, that's successfulformula for life.
Yes.
Is not only to help yourself,but inspire somebody else to be better
so that each person does thatto see how it's going to grow.
Everybody's going to getbetter and better and believe in
themselves.
Because with a kid, you talkto them, doing things to help them

(01:06:33):
start to believe in themselvesand having that confidence and having
that commitment, knowing whatit is.
And I mean, that's when Icoach, I said by our winning and
everybody played.
That's, that's a winning,winning situation.
And if we, if we lose andeverybody play, I still feel that
it's winning because everybodygot a chance to play.

(01:06:55):
Kids don't sign up to sit onthe bench and watch.
They want to be up there, goout there and participate.
So I don't, I'm not going toselect, say 16 guys on the team because
they're not going to play much.
So I have 12.
So everybody get a chance toplay place.
Ethan is more than my podcast partner.
He's my son.
And like every baseballparent, my first priority was his

(01:07:17):
development as a player.
Every year we'd start out witha 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
kid.
And I'll never forget therelief I felt watching his first

(01:07:38):
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,he learned hitting, pitching, catching,

(01:07:59):
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 that open up intolarge areas for teaching fielding,
base running, speed and agility.
They even have a weight roomfor strength training.
So if you're wearing yourselfout running all over town to multiple

(01:08:22):
teachers or worse, you'recounting on that new select coach
coach to actually develop yourchild, you need to check out MD&I
Academy 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
Academy.

(01:08:43):
George.
So when you're talking aboutdeveloping specific skills in practice,
obviously you can't developall the skills for all the kids every
time you get together and practice.
So how do you determine as a coach?
All right, we got a practicecoming up Tuesday.
We played yesterday, and somethings went well, some things did
not go well.

(01:09:03):
How do you set that, set thatexperience up before anybody ever
gets there for success?
It's just planning, knowingwhat, what you need to do.
But back to, I would maybehave that kid, one kid that come
earlier, come later.
So that now he's up, up to, upto par with everybody else.

(01:09:25):
So that now he's not reallystanding out.
Yeah.
So like say the crow hop, perse, knowing that he's having a challenge,
knowing, doing that, he'sgoing to be embarrassed if he's in
front of everybody else.
So having to come earlier,come later to work on that.
So that now, when everybodyelse is doing it now they say, well,
he's, he feel confident thathe can do it.

(01:09:46):
Yeah.
So, but whatever skill that heneeds to work on is trying to have
him by himself so he doesn'tfeel embarrassed.
Right.
And so he could feel relaxedout there and feel that if he's not
doing it correctly, he hastime to do it.
And nobody else is out therelaughing at him or talking that well,
you should, should know how todo it.
But I found that some of theguys, they're, you see that their

(01:10:10):
skill level overall is good,but there's something that's missing.
If it's the, the running part,the footwork or catching, catching
the ball.
A lot of kids, they just feellike I could say it earlier.
Catching the ball, it's, it's.
They only put emphasis oncatching it, but it's how you catch
the ball.
Exactly.
And then talk about four seamer.
Okay, I want to throw on top.

(01:10:31):
Yeah.
A lot of them throwing sidearm.
He said, it doesn't matter howI throw, throw it as long as I get
there.
I said, no, it makes a big difference.
And I don't want you sometimesto throw it all the way in the air.
I want you to one hop so it's.
You find that it's going toget there, get there sooner.
But they always want to throwit all away, try to show the arm.
I said, you got to hit thecutoff man, right?

(01:10:52):
But having that kid to comeearlier, we could either go through
it physically or just talkabout it.
Let him know what it needs todo and.
But as a team, we may all.
Once he knows that, do thatdrill, do it over and over and over
again so it becomes second nature.
And the same thing as bunting.
You know, kids like, I don'twant to bunt, but, like, say right

(01:11:15):
away, I said, if you want, ifyou want to be a team player, this
is what you need to do.
But you know that some kidsdon't want to do it.
But they say if I don't do it,it's showing that I don't want to
be a team player.
And someone just go throughthe motion.
I said, no, you do it again.
Let's do it again.
And.
But I don't then like runningthe bases.
I said, I want to.

(01:11:36):
There are certain things Iwant you to do.
Run through the base.
A ball is in the infield.
Run through the base and lookto your right.
Yes.
And some of them would undo itand some don't.
I said, I learned from inspring training with the Reds that
if you don't run hard, you'regoing to do it again and they're
going to call you out, benchor false.

(01:11:56):
You guys didn't run hard.
So everybody runs again.
So they're looking at you andcall you different names.
I mean, calling.
But I was smart enough becauseI had a 3.8 grade point average in
college, so I was smart enoughto run against Ken Griffey Sr.
So they knew that I could notrun him.
But it gave me inspirations totry, at least try.

(01:12:20):
From the beginning, from that,starting by the first five yards
I was there.
Then all of a sudden he's gone.
How often would you meet andhow do you go about communicating
with your other, with yourcoaching staff?
As far as the coaching, we'll just.
We'll meet once or twice or something.
It wasn't nothing because Ithink that collectively we're on

(01:12:42):
the same page.
So I kind of.
Before the season, I would goover my philosophy.
And the thing about this wasit was a difference from travel,
baseball to mdni.
So with MDNI the coaches,their kids were already coming to
me for training, so theyalready knew the philosophy versus

(01:13:04):
with our Westchester Sluggers,Bandits, Midland and River Bats.
You know, we'll talk a littlebit more about, you know, certain
things because those are programs.
Some of them I was taking over.
So we would talk more withthis here.
It was pretty simple.
It's pretty fun, you know, sothat's all I have to add to that.

(01:13:25):
Well, and with your, your,your note card system, that is an
excellent point in that it'sawfully hard to be making notes during
a game if you're callingeverything from the bucket.
Yeah.
So, you know, the more, themore you can divest.
Yes.
Into, into your players to bedoing, the more you can actually

(01:13:46):
be, you know, observing it andfiguring out how to take the team
to where it needs to go ratherthan, you know, being making all
the calls yourself.
And I will add something tothat too because coaching those other
travel teams to mdni, MDNI isa, was a different type of player.

(01:14:07):
It's more developmental.
So I had to be a little bitmore hands on and making sure that
they did develop the baseballIQ because remember those were kids
that were playing rec whileone or two was playing select but
at a silver level and then nowcoaching them to play at a different
level at a higher level versusthe kids before were already more

(01:14:30):
experienced.
You know, I'm saying.
So a different.
But I will tell you this.
When I learned a lot fromcoaching after travel baseball and
playing all the top teams inthe country versus now using that
experience to get kids tounderstand the game and then it takes

(01:14:51):
a little bit more patience andit's funner too, I have to tell.
It's fun.
So when it comes to MDNIversus coaching the other teams,
seeing so many of thoseplayers for individual instruction,
did that allow you to adaptyour team practices to be more team
focused and take the focusaway from trying to.

(01:15:11):
Trying to address every littlething for each player.
I agree with you on that.
Yes, it did.
And it made it easier toobecause then that's why I said the
coaches that were dads thatwas bringing them, it made it easier
because they understood.
So I didn't have to micromanage.
Look over like George wassaying, hey man, you're doing something
wrong.
Didn't have to do that.
Yeah.

(01:15:32):
A couple of things to, to wrapup here in for with regard to parents,
some questions that you canask when you are looking at a new
team.
You know, don't be afraid to ask.
So how often do you practice.
Right.
Okay.
How many, how many coacheswill be at the practice?

(01:15:55):
How often do you, will yougive us any information?
Will we receive anyinstruction on what we should be
doing outside of practice.
Or the experience of the coach?
Yeah, yeah.
Don't be afraid to ask, you know.
Yes.
What, what is your main position?
Because when kids are say,going to college, I, I said, ask

(01:16:15):
the coach, what position didhe play and if he's were a catcher?
I said, yeah, he sees both,both sides of the game.
If he's a pitcher, then he,he's not going to be as patient with
the hitter.
So you're going to reallyfocus on the, the pitching aspect.
So don't be afraid tointerview the coach.
Sure.
Yeah.
That is the key and keyquestions that will tell you a lot

(01:16:36):
about the coach's philosophy.
Regardless of what's on theliterature that he hands you.
You know, does the catchercall the ball?
Call right.
All the pitches?
You know, are you teachingcatchers to call the pitches?
Do you, do you divest yourselfinto the, into the kids?
I mean, how often do the kidsmake the decisions versus Are you
given the signs or are youtrying to train the kids so that

(01:16:59):
at some point in time theymake their own choice whether they
steal the base or.
Not or how much plan time willmy son get and what, what positions
are available?
Because your, your son isshortstop and okay, now you already
have a shortstop, so where ishe going to play second?
Or will he get much playing time?

(01:17:19):
Yeah, what I would, what Iwould want to hear from a, from a
coach in that particularinstance, if I'm asking about playing
time, I would want my, mycoach to tell me, well, look, a lot
of things factor in the, theskill of the player, how hard he
works, how good his attitudeis, how much he's a team player as
opposed to out, to playing for himself.

(01:17:40):
You know, if he starts to tellme these kinds of things, then I
know that he's looking forquality of an experience.
He's not just looking for thekid who throws hardest to play that
attending practices.
Yeah, they're kids that I, Iwouldn't, they may not start because
they didn't attend the practice.
I don't feel it's fair forkids who are attending practice not

(01:18:01):
starting.
Like, I don't want your way.
Yeah, I don't want my kid outthere working his tail off and then
sitting on the bench becausesomeone who just had more nature,
natural talent is playing andthen screwing off all the time and
showing up late and not reallycaring and whatever, like, I want
to know that there's, there'svalue in that, that hard work and
that ethic in going on.

(01:18:23):
And those are things you canask a coach.
Those are things you can totally.
But don't be afraid orreluctant to ask the coach.
And if the coach is giving youan answer you don't like, you need
to go to try another team.
Yeah, sure.
Yeah.
And then the other thing isalso if, if you're into the season,
okay, and things are not goingthe way that the coach had told you
they were going to go becausethe coach had a really great plan

(01:18:45):
and he's a good guy and he'sworking hard, but then things just
start coming apart and you'reabout, you know, halfway through
the season and all of a suddenwe're not doing those practices anymore.
We're not really, we're notstaying up with all that stuff we
said and we're not, you know,then don't be afraid to ask, hey,
what happened to this?
And when we get back to thatand you know, you gave us this and
it said this, are we going todo that?

(01:19:07):
So, you know, that's fine.
But then also volunteer tohelp with things.
Volunteer to be part of the solution.
You know, how can I help?
You know, is there anything Ican do?
And then if you end up with,if the coach is like, oh, thank goodness
somebody asked to help, yes,here's what I need.
If you could, I mean, and evenif it's just, can you, you know,

(01:19:28):
type these things up or sendout the emails or help you with,
you know, whatever, anythingyou're helping now, if you're helping
and those things still don'tget any better and you're just being
used for cheap labor, thenthat's, you know, you got to cross
that bridge too.
Yes.
But you know, it, it's notalways the, that your coach has an
ego problem.

(01:19:49):
That isn't always the problem.
That is true.
Sometimes the coach is overwhelmed.
He's working a job, he'sraising his family, he's doing all
the stuff you're doing andhe's trying to figure out how to,
how to run your kids baseball team.
And so if you say, hey, coach,how can I help?
You know, that works.
One of the things that Itaught Ethan early on about working
a job for anybody anywhere,you get hired, okay, there's everybody

(01:20:12):
in, that's in the, the companyhas a luxury that the guy who owns
it doesn't have.
And that is the, the abilityto say, I don't Know, everybody else
can say it.
Okay.
Because if everybody in theplace, you say, well, why didn't
this get done?
I don't know.
Okay, well, guess who has tostay late and do it?
The guy that owns a company.
Right.
That's right.

(01:20:32):
And so he's going to go.
So if he's looking at you andsaying, all right, all I'm getting
is I don't know from thisperson, you're not a help.
He's going to move you downthe road and find somebody else.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Okay.
So, right.
If you're going to answer it,say, I'm not sure, but I'll find
out.
I'm not sure, but I'll work on that.
I'm not sure, but I would love to.
You know, I don't really knowwhat's going on or what's, you know,

(01:20:54):
not going well with the teamhere, but I would love to be a part
of the solution.
How can I help?
A step back when aboutcoaching, a lot of times I would.
I make sure that.
How, Say, maybe my coaches endup not coming or getting in there
late.
So I want to make sure.
How would I run the practiceby myself?
Yeah, you're right.

(01:21:14):
So you got to be prepared,show that organization.
Yes.
Because I.
The other day of the day, Ihad a clinic and there were five
kids going to.
Were going to come there, andalready in my mind saying, okay,
we're gonna have different stations.
Right.
So then I found out half anhour before that the guy wasn't able
to make it.
So now I had to go to plan B.

(01:21:36):
What would I do now?
By myself?
Yes.
So being able to make thatadjustment as a coach and we talked
about earlier, okay, we'redoing a certain practice, but now
it's not what I want it to be.
Let's go to something that'sgoing to be quality and.
But back to you say, divest to invest.
So being able to.
What.
What time can you put into itto make it more quality and not sit

(01:22:00):
back and complain.
Complain about it.
What can you, like, say youwant to be part of the solution,
not part of the problem?
Because you get to thathalfway point, man, and things start
coming apart.
And it is just so easy to sitin that stand.
Right.
And just complain.
Yes.
Because it's what everybodywants to do.
Because you feel powerless.
You feel like there's nothingyou can do.
You're in.
You're halfway into the season.

(01:22:21):
You can't really leave.
You're.
You're stuck riding it out.
It's not going the way youwanted it to.
And now, gosh, all you do iswant to complain to each other.
And my solution is just reallytry and dig in and be part of the
solution.
You can't always do it.
It doesn't always work.
But, man, you're modeling thatfor your kids.

(01:22:42):
You're showing them thatthere's something better you could
do than complain.
That's why at the travelbaseball level, earlier career, we
were trying to winchampionships and stuff like that.
And when I.
And then when I left Midlandand went to Riverbats, you know,
and then after Riverbats, Isaid, man, you know what?
I'm going to start something alittle different.

(01:23:03):
A developmental program whereI can take everything I learned and
develop and just get justregular kids and not worry about
wins and losses, right?
And develop their game towhere they.
If these kids want to go andplay in high school, school, I will
have you prepared for highschool and above.

(01:23:23):
And so.
So then I remember some of theemails I got, and I sent the email
out to the teams, like, hey,it ain't about wins and losses.
Don't focus on that.
Right?
Focus on your.
Your son getting better.
That's winning.
That's winning right there.
And that was the win.
Win for me.
When I can.
When I have two guys on thebench telling me I.

(01:23:44):
I gave the infielders thewrong side, that's when I'm.
I'm like, oh, man.
Good, man.
Like, man, you're right.
And winning becomes abyproduct of.
Of developing good quality.
That's it.
Yes, exactly.
Exactly.
Yes, sir.
Not you.
I love that word, byproduct.

(01:24:05):
Yes.
Because you go out there anddevelop the kids, then the byproduct
is with it, a lot of thesekids, a lot of these parents at my
team.
My team, or the coach at myteam, it's not really your team,
in a sense.
You're.
You're managing.
And when I see a kid go outthere and do well, because when we
won the championship, I lovethe fact that everybody got to play
and, and everybody was a partof it.

(01:24:25):
That's it.
Instead of some kids sittingon the bench, they may get a ring
and.
But they're not really.
They're not part of it.
I guess the one I could reallyidentify with in 72, when we lost
against Oakland A's, and.
And so I didn't really feel apart of the team.
I mean, we're in the WorldSeries, but I didn't feel a part
of the team because I Wasn't participating.

(01:24:46):
So, but now out thereparticipating, I feel that I'm a
part of the team and I broughtsome value to the team.
But it's, I try to put my,myself in, in the shoes of the players.
I said they want to play.
And last but not least, when Iwas coaching, I said everybody's
going to play.
And so this one kid, he sawhis name in the lineup because they

(01:25:07):
didn't believe me because alot of other coaches would say the
same thing.
So he saw his name in thelineup, said, coach, did you make
a mistake?
Am I playing first base?
Yeah, you're playing first.
Really?
I said yeah, you're in first base.
So.
But you could see theexcitement on his face.
I'm going to get to play.
He's not just lip serving andhe's actually out there going to

(01:25:29):
let me play.
And I said yeah, but I triedto find the best position that he's
going to be successful at andgoing from there.
Level swing, let it travel,wait for your pitch.
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

(01:25:50):
ball but also where to hit it,when to hit it there and why?
George Foster has playedbaseball at the very highest levels.
He was the National League MVPwhen he hit 52 home runs and 149
RBIs in a single season.
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

(01:26:10):
Reds win back to back World series.
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(01:26:30):
for power bunting and more.
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(01:26:55):
to wrap us up here a little bit.
Reminding us again, the keywith, with coaching or with practice
is inspiration.
And inspiration begins withthe letter I.
What am I doing?
That that that is going toinspire somebody to want to do more.

(01:27:15):
That they've got to see it inme if I.
If they're going to see it in themselves.
Right.
And.
And so that you care.
That you care.
Yes.
You care.
That's it.
When I'm putting together apractice, when I'm trying to figure
out how that.
That time schedule is going togo, what skills, what drills, what
things we're working on, whatthings we're going to tackle this
time.
Okay.
I'm trying to keep in mindthat the goal is.

(01:27:38):
Is to inspire the players andthat when they get in the car after
it's over, they can say, Ilearned this, I did this.
This made me better.
And looking forward to the next.
Yeah, that's the key.
And if you're going to have 12kids on your team, then you should
be planning to win a game.
You should be planning to wingames with 12 kids.

(01:27:59):
Right.
Meaning that you've got a reason.
You didn't just pick up three spares.
You got a reason to do that.
And so you're going to involveeverybody in that practice.
You're going to make them make decisions.
You're going to add runnerswhen you have drills.
So they have to think and theyhave to make decisions for themselves.
And you're going to divestyourself into them to encourage them

(01:28:21):
to do more and more of theplaying and the running, what goes
on, what goes on on the field.
And that's.
That's the key to.
To solid, to solid practice.
Not necessarily doing the samething over and over again or doing
the same thing every time youget together or doing something,
have a purpose.
And then one last thing Iwould encourage coaches is don't

(01:28:44):
be afraid to go get trainingfor yourself.
Right.
That's fine.
My goodness, we can all learn.
So there are trainings that goon all over the place.
Go sign up for something.
Get a training.
I know Rick does trainings.
I know these guys are going tobe doing some coaching training coming
up.
Make sure you go.
And you're constantly buildingyour baseball knowledge so that you're

(01:29:07):
becoming a better coach astime goes on.
You're not limited.
Yeah.
As you learn new things,you're going to be excited to share
those new things in apractice, and it's going to inspire
the players.
So I hope you've enjoyed ourdiscussion about practice today.
And we have.
You know, we're going to beback here next week doing the same
thing, and we hope that youwould join us for another Complete

(01:29:29):
Game podcast.
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.

(01:29:51):
The Complete Game podcast isproduced and distributed by 2Creative
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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