Articles from April 2010

Dallas Braden 4/22/10 – “It’s a shame because that guy is a tremendous talent a superstar in every sense of the word and he plays for a very classy org who always do things first class the right way every time. And for him to not understand the baseball etiquette of running across that pitchers mound is right next to terrible and inexcusable.  I’m not a speck on his radar and that’s fine, but he will know I was out there, and he will know not to do that again because there will be repercussions if he does that again.”

A large smile crept across my face as I saw the video clip and listened to Braden tell Alex Rodriguez what is what. At least there was still one pitcher in baseball willing to stand up for himself before he won a Cy Young award or an ERA title.  Ever since baseball began keeping statistics for every game in the late 1800’s the sport has vacillated between offensive and defensive eras.  The early years or “dead ball” era saw very few homeruns and poor defense.  Afterwards Babe Ruth stormed on the scene and boosted the offensive output of the league.  By the 1960’s the scoring outputs were so low that the league felt compelled the lower the pitchers mound.  A more moderate period followed which game way to the offensive era we have seen since the early 1990’s.  In this more modern era ballparks have shrunk to a fraction of the size they were at the Polo Grounds, Ebbets Field, or Candlestick park back in the day.

It seems that every move including a complete aversion to calling the high strike has led to more and more offensive output.  In the very recent past a few rules involving ejections and warnings after what the umpire deems intentional acts have gone too far.  The pitcher has been emasculated to the point where only Cy Young award winners are willing to stand up to the game’s best hitters, but any rookie who hits a deep fly ball feels comfortable flipping his bat and trotting to first base.  Dallas Braden showed me that pitchers can still be noticed and recognized and feared.  They just have to be more willing to step up and do it.  The best pitchers of the last decade or so all had a mean streak to them.  Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, and Pedro Martinez all struck fear in the hitters because of their big fastballs and willingness to throw the ball inside.  Even control artists Maddux and Glavine were willing to throw a pitch inside with a purpose ever now and then.  Hitters now have body armor covering every part of their body and are totally willing to hang with their elbows two or three inches over the inside corner.  It seems the only safe place for a pitcher is the small dirt mound they call home.  Alex Rodriguez thought he could show Dallas Braden up by walking slowly across the mound on his way back to first after a Robinson Cano foul ball.  I think he might flinch on an inside fastball the next time he faces Braden and once again the pitcher will have the upper hand

So this blog has existed for around a month now.  We have almost 30 pieces written by six different bloggers from various corners of this country and London.  I personally view the blog as quite the successful project even though it is only in its infancy.  Arlo(Mike), the mastermind of the operation, has done an exceptional job creating the layout and design of the blog, and I personally think it is a real joy to read.  Most of all, however, the blog represents to me a way that I can express my ideas on the game to my friends as well as a way that they can convey their thoughts on the game to me.  Since we can’t physically be in the same place all that often…I did get to see Towel(Justin) last weekend and will see Griff this coming one…this is a pretty awesome way to maintain the conversations that were started years ago in the dugout or around a television or on a bus.  Griff and I have been having this same conversation for almost 20 years now.  His new project on Ricketts truly hits me in the heart because everything he says about that yard is the way I and every other San Juan County player feels.

I love talking about baseball.  Every single day at school I talk baseball with people who neither are interested in nor truly competent of the game.  I still ramble off information during lectures to my neighbors that they likely deem distracting, disruptive, and useless.  All the while, up until a month ago, I was thinking to myself, “It sure would be nice to have a medium that would allow me to communicate my thoughts on the game with someone who may actually be interested.”  Who better than my old homies?  This blog allows me to talk the game with people I love who I know want to hear what I am thinking.  Thanks, dudes.  I love reading all your stuff too.  It was a very pleasant surprise to see Rickathee’s(Rick) name on a post, and we are all really glad you are onboard.  I think your upcoming pieces should be really fun.  The first one sure was.

So, let’s expand.  My guess is that most of the folks reading this blog are our old buddies.  If you are reading this, write something down.  Put your name on it.  Send it to Arlo.  Let’s get this conversation bigger and better.  I can think of a handful of dudes right now who have tons of cool and creative ideas on the game.  Let’s hear them.  Bloggers, let’s have another great month.

My first full season as a high school baseball coach has finally come to an end.  For the grand finale, we were able to hook the C-teamers up with a dream come true…playing at Ricketts Park.  They got the whole deal, including pre-game batting practice on the field.  Watching the grins roll across those 8th and 9th graders faces reminded me just how special Ricketts is.  I couldn’t help but smile too, seeing as how this was my first time coaching on Ricketts as a Scorpion.  It is that unforgettable feeling, that you can only get when you play baseball on Ricketts, which is acting as the inspiration for this piece.
Growing up in Farmington, New Mexico has allowed me to enjoy one of the greatest treasures that baseball has to offer, Ricketts Park.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with Farmington, or Ricketts, let me tell you about this ball field.  It is a spectacular yard.  Its dimensions are 330’ down the lines, 370’ to the gaps, and 400’ to dead center.  The wall is approximately 20’ tall, give or take a few feet.  The outfield walls are covered with two rows of signs advertising for local businesses.  Surrounding this field is a stadium setting, similar to a spring training or minor league yard.  The seats extend from behind home plate, down the lines, but not all the way out to the fence.  Seating is arranged in two tiers.  The lower tier has actual stadium seating, while the upper tier is comprised of bleacher seats.  The stadium holds over 6,100 people at full capacity.  If you would like to see larger pictures of this high-desert oasis, please click on each individual photo:

Ricketts Park holds a special place in a local baseball player’s heart.  As a young child, it is where you can go with your family to watch big kid baseball.  As you age, and enter high school, it becomes your goal to make the varsity squad and play and practice on the field daily.  At age 16, you have your first chance to play in the Connie Mack summer league whose games are played on Ricketts.  And if you win that summer league, you are invited to partake in one of the greatest amateur baseball tournaments this world has to offer…The Connie Mack World Series.  Teams from all corners of the nation come together in Farmington, for one week, and play on Ricketts in front of a packed house until a champion is decided.  It is one of the greatest weeks of the year for me, as well my fellow blogger, Dee.  See, Ricketts means something special to baseball players in Farmington, New Mexico.  Every age group sees something special about the place.  It is a diamond in the rough.  It is THE landmark of the entire city.  Ricketts Park is baseball.

This is simply an introduction.  It is the first in a series of pieces on Ricketts Park, and what it means to a kid who grew up playing baseball in little, old, podunk Farmington, New Mexico.  I feel truly blessed to have this baseball field in my hometown.  Hopefully, piece-by-piece, I will allow you to experience the joys of baseball at Ricketts vicariously.  Hopefully.  One.

I have always been told that I have unique opinions regarding baseball and their respected, organizational decisions.  At the same time, my viewpoint usually comes out while arguing a fantasy baseball point after a few beers while watching a game.  Therefore, I would be honored if The Golden Sombrero would allow me to contribute my opinion on how market size and the media seem to affect player development differently from city to city in Major League Baseball.

This concept of the media impacting player development came about while discussing the defensive abilities of Starlin Castro with my father.  I had noticed that during the Cubs recent spring training, the Chicago media began to paint a picture of Castro as a nearly finished, can’t miss prospect by using superlative adjectives every time he was mentioned.

When I first heard of Starlin Castro during last year’s spring training, he was described as a player who had good raw tools but needed plenty of time to refine those tools and turn them into consistent abilities.  So how did this raw player transform from an unpolished, toolsy infielder into a finished product in one year?  The simple truth is that he still is nowhere close to a finished project.  The defensive ability that was frequently discussed on Chicago talk radio as being the reason we may see him at the big-league level soon, was flawed to the tune of 39 errors in 119 games at SS between two levels in the minors.  Now I am not a person who believes that errors are a great measure of a players overall defensive aptitude.  However, that many errors in a shortened season makes it clear to me that what needs to be refined with a player like Castro, is his game to game consistency.
Baseball is a game that involves a great deal of repetition.  Players perform the same exact play thousands and thousands of times.  That consistency is the great differentiator between a college player and a pro player, and it is even more of a determinate of what makes a minor leaguer and/or a big league player.
The point that I am trying to make is that a player like Castro cannot be evaluated well in a short spring training schedule.  The only way to track his development is to watch him over a full season in the minors and see if he has become a more consistent ballplayer.  The hope heaped on him this early is nearly impossible for him to achieve by the time the Cubs fans and Chicago media would like him to.  Starlin just recently turned 20 years old and has played all of 29 games above A ball.
My theory is that the fans expectations begin to rise as soon as a prospect hits the fans consciousness.  Because of that phenomenon, a player who hits the cities consciousness at 19 years old will almost always leave the fans disappointed.  Players like Micah Hoffpauir and Jake Fox were not called up for any length of time until they were finished products in their late 20’s.  The fans were not calling these players busts while they toiled in mediocrity in cities like Des Moines and Peoria, because they were out of sight and mind.  In larger markets, steps should be taken by management to keep player expectations reasonable in order to aide the player’s development.

On the other side of Chicago a true star began to emerge in 2009.  Gordon Beckham played his first full season of pro ball and wound up making over 100 starts for the White Sox in 2009.  When Ozzie Guillen was asked about Beckham while the Sox were struggling early in the season he said that the Sox should not worry about Gordon and if Gordon comes up, we are in trouble.  This kept the expectations of Southsiders tempered.  I don’t mean to turn this into a post about how the Sox are better than the Cubs, that’s not what this is at all.  I am rather attempting to demonstrate the two very different styles incorporated in the same media market and the major differences.  Expectations for Joe Crede, Jon Garland, and Joe Borchard were far too high when the players were not fully developed.  Crede and Garland went on to have successful careers, and in this market are both considered underperformers to some extent. In my future articles, I would like to demonstrate that the market size can both positively and negatively affect player development and to some extent, minor league placement of players.

Late one evening, my assistant coach-for both my high school C-Team and my summer league Connie Mack team-his girlfriend, my girlfriend and I were entertaining ourselves with some rather deep conversation about teaching techniques.  By around 12:15 a.m. an epiphany had found its way through to my brain.  We all began discussing different success stories of education, via public high school, baseball coaching, or as a full-time educator in a youth detention center-better known as juvie.  I am a first-time, 9th grade English teacher, 3rd year baseball coach (first time high school), that coaches the Farmington High School C-team in the baseball program.  Jeff Rogers, the aforementioned assistant (the coaching variety, not upper echelon society) is a rookie in the coaching department and has a ton of new insight due to virgin eyes, so to speak.  My girlfriend, Jenna, is an educator inside the Farmington Youth Detention Center and has insight into teaching from a point of view that deals with some of the most unfortunate minds that America has to offer.  To be short, we are a group of educators that cover the gamut of educational opportunities.  During this conversation I found that every story had a common denominator; they all dealt in small group scenarios, where the learners felt that they were learning something that was uniquely new to their group and not to any other group of the population.  They felt that they were the new holders of knowledge.  Specialized learning is common place, even to the first year teacher.  How does that carry over to baseball?

By creating an environment that feels specialized (read as personal) the learning experience holds deeper within the young mind.  Thus, the educator must create small group areas in order to promote proper learning.  I have personally seen the production of teaching multiple techniques/practices, to particular groups of 3-4 players/practice and have found the turnouts to be just short of extraordinary.  For instance, with my six 8th graders ,I have two who are above the rest.  I am able to group them with a couple of the lowest freshmen, and teach one principle for a round of BP.  For another group of my most superior players, I am able to teach a much more sophisticated approach to what hitting is and means.  There are about 2 more distinct groups of players, such as speed guys and pitchers, that I end up being able to talk about my true passion in 4 different ways each and every practice; five ways if you count the average kids in the middle, right on track.  This is simply amazing.

I now have, maybe, the truest experience of baseball one could imagine.  I am able to focus the majority of my skills and prior practiced/played experiences on my one true passion in life (except for my previously mention girlfriend Jenna.  She’ll never be #2); baseball.  The pleasure brought forth, through realization of this, has made my most recent 45 minutes post-enlightenment, pure bliss.  I feel like I am living a dream, fuck the cliché.  It is this joyous, slightly extravagant, excitement that makes me thank baseball for my life.  It has lead me down a road that I am forever thankful for finding.  Baseball has taken all over the place.  New Mexico. Arizona.  California.  Colorado.  Wyoming.  New York.  Omaha, Nebraska.  Texas.  Missouri.  Simply put, it’s provided me with the chance to experience an eclectic environment and way of life (especially baseball life) that is unique.

It is unique in the same way that the teaching is unique.  From the immaculate artist, locked away, to the 8th grader who has never had proper coaching, to the kid who asks to ignore The Odyssey for a day, and find out how to eliminate the national debt.  Sure they are once in a blue moon, both the class discussion with freshmen and truly gifted baseball players, but that is the beauty of it.  It provides multiple opportunities to discuss some personal interests.  A personal investment is the most efficient fuel towards true education.  I feel lucky to have had baseball in my life.  Thank you baseball.  Thank you for leading me to where I have landed.  I am the happiest man I could be.  And all along the way, you have helped me discover a better way of educating.  Two passions for the price of one.  (Hey, I had to bring it all around full circle somehow.)  One.