Major League Baseball - Chicago RBI Clinic

Recently, I lead a panel of speakers at Chicago's RBI Coaches Clinic. RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities) is a Major League Baseball Program that the Chicago White Sox oversee in Chicago. Led by Dan Puente, the Sox do an outstanding job at baseball related community outreach. The Coaches Clinic panel featured, myself, former big leaguers, Michael Huff, Lou Collier, Darin Jackson and Sox 3rd base coach Jeff Cox. I spoke on 3 of the 6 topics presented - practice organization, hitting and infield play. The coaches presenting and in the crowd all did a great job, with a lot of energy! Here are a few portions of my hitting presentation.

Major League Baseball - Chicago RBI Clinic Part 2

Great Experience at Jackie Robinson West

The other night I lead a free infield clinic for Jackie Robinson West Little League on the south side of Chicago. Jackie Robinson West is the most heralded Little League organization in Illinois, with numerous championships to their credit. Furthermore, they are the blueprint for the way inner city baseball should be run around the country. They have great leadership, facilities and a support group that helps grow the game in their community. Case in point, they reached out to me to work with their kids.

I was excited to go the field, as I hadn't been there in 21 years. My last appearance was in the 1989 Little League State Championships where I played with my hometown team (Robinson) from 5 hours south in Southern Illinois. At that time, it was the biggest thrill of my life. We were the first Robinson team to advance that far in 30 years. A bunch of farm boys, few of us had traveled anywhere before, and certainly hadn't been to Chicago. We happened to play and get beat by Jackie Robinson West 4-2. You can see how important it was to me then, as I still remember the score!

Even though I hadn't been there in that many years, as soon as I entered the neighborhood, familiarity took over and I knew exactly where I was. It was a surreal feeling on how vivid your subconscious can be. The GPS was no longer needed, and sure enough I turned the corner and the field was just about as I had seen it years ago!

The kids were excited to have me out, had tons of energy and were doing everything they could to soak up what I was trying to teach them about infield play. They were so appreciative of the opportunity, and nobody (including myself) wanted to leave the field that night. My best compliment...30 smiling kids when I left that were all asking me when I was coming back.

Jackie Robinson West has been just a game or two from advancing to the Little League World Series in Willamsport, PA the last few years. Hopefully I helped them take another step in furthering their baseball experience.

What do you do when you are in a slump?

I enjoy the emails I get from all over the country with regards to questions about hitting. A recent email though stands out. Chuck R., residant of Florida, saw some of my work and thought I could be a help to his 14 year old son Jordan. Chuck had a few questions about Jordan's swing, and after we talked on the phone, decided to book a flight for he and his son to Chicago to work with me for the day.

Jordan is a powerful kid, with pretty darn good hands. He and his father both have a good understanding of swing mechanics, so when got to work, we really got after it! Jordan had a few set up issues that we saw right away in his video analysis. We went back and forth all morning, working drills, filming his swing over and over again. During our lunch break, I took him out to the field to film him on my high speed camera at 1000 frames per second.

We had a blast! Jordan got some valuable information that will get him going on his way and I really enjoyed the effort and energy Jordan and Chuck gave throughout the day. After 4 hours, Jordan's hands were bleeding (literally) and it was time for him to fly back to Florida. They were great people, and its good to know I have some new friends in the Southeast.

It's amazing how connected the world is today because of the web. Now my client base has exploded from coast to coast as I am doing a lot of Skype lessons and DVD analysis with players from Los Angeles to Boston!

Perks of the Job

One of the valued perks of my is the off-day BP sessions I throw at the stadium. Coroporate groups or special workouts are some of the workouts I run. I took a couple of my instructors to the Stadium friday and we ran one of those workouts. The good part is we will take a few swings of BP and field ground balls ourselves, and I'm not going to lie, we have a blast! Instructor Billy Malone, joked that he wanted Ozzie to see how far he could hit a ball, and Billy hit one about 25 rows up, almost to the concourse in left field (too bad Ozzie wasn't present).

The only part of the game I miss playing still is taking groundballs. Not even groundballs in a game, just the routine I use to be in of taking 100 ground balls a day before practice or games. Being at the quiet stadium reminds me of those times, for the exception my range may be a step less than when I was 21. . .maybe. haha!