A sit-down with George Brett

Here is an excerpt from Peter Gammons writing about his interview with George Brett near the end of George's career. This has been referenced a time or two a practice.

GAMMONS: In September 1992, ESPN sent me to the home of one of my all-time favorite players, George Brett, for a Sunday Conversation as he edged closer to his 3,000th hit. "What do you want for your last at-bat?" I asked George.

"I want to hit a ground ball to second," Brett replied, "bust my butt down the line and be out by an eyelash."

---

I was a big fan of George's when I was growing up, even though the Twins were my team. Rarely has there been a player that has played as hard as George Brett while enjoying the game as much as he did.

One more to the NYCBL

Former Blue Devil Jordan Basile (2009) has been hired to be an assistant coach in the New York Collegiate Baseball League. He will assist Frank Jagoda III for the Allegany Nitros. Basile is currently the volunteer assistant coach at the University of Buffalo. He played with Jagoda on several Chautauqua county teams over the years. Frank is currently an assistant at Canisius.

Basile joins Matt Bauman (2008) (pitching coach for the Adirondak Trail Blazers) and Sean Larson, who will pitch for the Blazers. Both Basile and Bauman played in Collegiate leagues. Both spent a summer with the Weyburn Beavers in the Western Major Baseball League (in Canada). Bauman also played for the Orlando Hammers of the Florida Collegiate League. Bauman was an all star in both seasons.

Pitchers'Nightmare

An old teammate of mine is also an inventor. My catcher back in the summer of '94, Chance Reynolds, invented the Pitchers' Nightmare. I ran into him a few years back at the ABCA Convention, so I had to buy one of his PNM's. Our team uses it for guys with a long swings and at our clinics. Kos likes it the best.

Chance also has his own blog that talks some hitting. Although some of it is geared to younger players, it is a good resource. He's good people.

Lunch with Dave Winfield

"Hit the cutoffs and heads up on the bases."

Inking deals

This past week has been busy for the Blue Devils as far as signing baseball contracts. Matt Bauman (2008) singed on to be the pitching coach for the Adirondak Trail Blazers in the New York Collegiate Baseball League (NYCBL). The Trail Blazers then signed sophomore pitcher Sean Larson. Dozens of NYCBL players have gone on to Major League careers.

Adirondak Trail Blazers website
NYCBL website
FSU webpage story on Lars, Bauman

On Wednesday, the Washington Wild Things of the Frontier League announced the signing of Rob Herrmann (2010). Check out the story on their webpage HERE. Hermm is currently playing in Australia. The coaching staff consists of former major leaguers Chris Bando and Lenny Randle. Randle was the first major leaguer to sign with the Italian league circa 1983. I remember there was a big story on him on 60 Minutes. Quite a star and a character back in the day.

Lenny Randle

All Decade Team

Over the course of the fall, we have had a weekly poll on our website where viewers could vote for the Player of the Decade at each position. Click here for the final results. Congrats to Super Joe Kephart for receiving the highest percentage of votes at 70%.

Devils put FUN in Fundraiser

We had the first of our Kids' Night Out fundraisers this past Saturday. We played host to over 90 local youths. The team provided activities (football, soccer, kickball, swimming, etc.) for the kids in a safe, fun environment. Safety First is our motto. In addidtion to the kids, our players enjoy the activities.

The team has to raise a portion of the money for our annual Florida trip. Kids' Night Out beats selling subs and car washes! Here are a few videos as filmed by senior communications major Dan Greco.

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G'Day, Mate

Recently, former Blue Devil Rob Herrmann arrived in Australia for what will be roughly a six-month trip to continue his baseball career. Here is what he is up to according to a recent email:

 Even though we haven't played too much I am keeping busy coaching some of the younger teams as well as my own, and training a lot during the days so far. I'll be starting a job next week which will eat up a lot of my time but have been getting out and about a ton so far. Attached are a couple of pictures from the coast here in an area called Pebbly Beach. The wildlife here is absolutely amazing and I have been having a lot of fun just seeing and photographing all of the new things around. The bird picture shows you how friendly most of the animals are for a free meal. I had some sunflower seeds with me so I was an instant hit with a ton of wild Rosellas and parrots.

The people here are wonderful and are especially caring a friendly towards Americans like myself. Weathers been great and temperatures are starting to touch the upper 80's low 90's at times.

Positive people

I'll take today as an opportunity to pump up one of our most humble players. At the end of the fall, one item we included on our written evaluations was the opportunity to evaluate our teammates. Each players ranked everyone on the team on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being and Energy Taker, and 10 being an Energy Giver. Coach Sully compiled the results, dropped the highest and lowest scores, determined the average, and we came up with a winner.

Scores ranked from a low of 4.6 to a high of 9.0. Angelo Sciandra, known to his friends as 'Ace', was ranked as the team's top most positive influence. What separates him? Obviously, he is great to be around and a great friend to just about everyone. I think the biggest key is he has what Taylor Gahagen would call "Self Efficacy".

Ace was an academic all-Western New York selection in high school and does well in college. He has around a 3.0 now, but everytime I ask him how classes are going, you'd think he's almost ineligible. He knows he can do better. He never makes an excuse on the field and takes time in practice to work with, and learn from, our other players. He always does what he's told, yet he is one of the most competitive athletes on the team. Despite his slight frame, he holds the WNY record for wins by a HS quarterback. A real leader.

He is involved as one of our team's SAAC rep. He's was the first player to sign up to visit School No. 4 with our community service project. He missed a weekend practice this fall to attend a fundraiser for a young man from the old neighborhood that was ill. He went so far as to have his teammates get the 12-year old an autographed shirt and passed a jar around the team for donations.

Being an Energy Giver never stops. On the field, off the field or in the game of life, your character will reveal itself over time. Glad to have Ace on our team!

Happy Halloween

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM ADAM BRONSON
AND THE REST OF THE BLUE DEVILS

In our last trip to School 4, the students turned Adam Bronson into a monster. His whereabouts, at this point, are unknown.

On the bases with Tommy T

“A great base runner never loses track of the ball.”  That is a quote I heard when I was younger, and now every time I take the field that quote means more and more to me.  Transferring in from JCC I knew the FSU program was a good fit for me right away, base running and hustle are highly stressed.  It doesn’t take talent to hustle, and a great base runner isn’t always the fastest guy out there, I feel it’s the most alert guy out there. 

We take a lot of pride in our base running.  There are a few things I always like to be aware of when I’m on the bases.  I could be here for days, but the main things are, the score and inning of the game, the positioning and arm strengths of the outfielders, how fast or slow a pitcher is to the plate and if he is getting into any type of pattern.  

A few things I always like to remind myself of are, when people scream halfway when the ball is in the air it doesn’t really mean halfway, it means go as far as you can go as long as you can get back.  When stealing a bag, get a big lead and make the pitcher throw over. Learn what his best move is and exploit it. If he doesn’t step back, you can get a moving lead. If he isn’t paying attention or gets predictable, get a good jump. If he slide-steps, stop and stay because you’ll be thrown out.  

Base running is my favorite part of the game, many games I have played in throughout the years, there has been big plays on the bases that had big outcomes in which team won or lost.  I know the attitude here at Fredonia is Pete Rose-like, and we believe in letting the other guy lose, so we will continue to pay attention on the bases, take some chances, and never lose track of that ball.

Baserunning is a huge part of the game. Look at the action below. Everyone on the bench is making some noise and into the game! Take pride in your baserunning!

Tommy T

v

Jeremy Borst trucks a pitcher. Ouch!

Donny Baseball diving into third....

 ... Donny Baseball scoring a run....

...again...

...and again

Melquist with a perfect slide.

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Taylor Gahagen attacking the plate!

Our own Tommy Tantillo can't slow down Dan Fetes in a JV game in 2010!

Mr. Adam's room

Angelo Sciandra, a math education major, works with some youngsters from School 4 in Dunkirk on the Promethium Board. Every Monday and Wednesday, members of the Blue Devils take a ride to School 4 and work with the After School Program from 3-4::30 p.m. The program is run by former Blue Devil player and coach, Kyle Adams, who is a teacher in the school.

On Monday, Angelo, Kyle Koslowski, John Bennett and Sean Urckfitz made the trip. Bennett is now known as "Snake" around his new friends.

Prime Time Plans

We recently wrapped up our fall with individual meetings. Each player brings with him a written self-evaluation so he will begin to think about what he needs to do and so I can understand what he is thinking. I change the format every year. I was going through old evaluations and came across this one from the fall of 2006.

It is the all-time Hit King Jordan Basile describing his approach after the fall of his freshman year. Suffice it to say, he had a specific plan from the start. He went on to earn a starting position mid-way through the season, and batted .345 that year. In later years, he also glossed himself as having "The sweetest swing in the SUNYAC."

Here is what he wrote (he was a left-handed leadoff hitter):

Describe your preparation while you are on deck or in the hole: I tell myself right away whether I am going to take a pitch, and work on keeping my hands in and not hitching.

What do you look for first pitch/early in the count?: A ball to hit on the inside half, can be a curveball if he’s a right-handed pitcher. Early in the count or if I have [one] strike I’m looking to drive a pitch.

What is your approach with two strikes?: Looking to hit anything close, most of the time. In a 3-2 count I like to take a big swing because it’s usually down the heart of the plate.

Strengths: I love to hit the fast pitching and I know the strike zone so I am able to work the pitcher.

Weaknesses: Left-handed pitchers with hard-moving slider; pitches above the belt.

…

Long-term (career) goals: I’d like to set some hitting records… 

---

The bottom line is each player needs to have a concrete idea of how to go about something -- anything from hitting, to pitching, to off-season workouts. HAVE A PLAN. Jordan did and worked at it.

A Jordan Basile story: When Jordan would take his final round of batting practice, he would always point his bat three times -- once to the left field line, once to center field and once to right field. He would then proceed to hit a ball to left, then center, then right. He could hit the ball wherever he wanted. And he ALWAYS hustled.

One of my greatest thrills over the past 22+ years as a pitcher was striking out Jordan in the Glenwood League All Star game. He fouled off a bunch of pitches, but I finally got him on a sweet curveball.

Best athletes on the field

For our pitching staff every year, one of our main points of emphasis is to field our position well. In order to do so, we put our pitchers through many repetitions of covering first base, fielding bunts, and taking ground balls.

Along with the PFP (Pitchers' Fielding Practice) we also focus on our pickoff moves to each base. Over the past years, we have won many games because of how our pitchers fielded their positions. We teach our pitchers that fielding your position is as much mental as it is physical. You have to have the attitude and the desire to field your position well. We take pride in fielding pitchers fielding their position. Coach Bonge gets into the mix when stellar play are made by yelling "Billy Chapel."

-- A.D.

No rest in the off-season

Here is a submitted video that breaks down some baseball workouts.

Dan Uggla workout

A lot of getting better as a player is to try out new things and gain information on your own. There is some good advice and a few new workouts than can help players as the get into the off season.

Around the horn

Our infield will have a new look this year, having graduated our firstbaseman, secondbaseman and shortstop. We will still have experience, with a large number of juniors on the roster.

Firstbase will be a good battle. Junior Dan Fetes was our top hitter this fall and is a left-handed bat and a heads-up player. Sophomore 'Big Cat' Lawrence is the right-handed option. He led our team in doubles this fall and is very strong. Fetes came in as a catcher, but played a lot of first over the past few years.

Second base looks to be a battle, too. Connor Lorenzo, a sophomore, will bat at the top of our lineup and will be in the lineup a lot. Tommy Tantillo, one of only two seniors, had a strong fall at the plate and is ready to play after not seeing a lot of action last season. He batted over .300 both seasons at Jamestown C.C. He has been known to  "pick apart the opponent", according to Rob Herrmann, while on the bench. He definitely has coaching in his future. He also showed me he had some pop during summer-ball action.

Shortstop will also be a good battle. Right now, John Bennett is our main man. I recruited him out of high school, went on to play two years at FLCC, and opened some eyes with his all around play and composure this fall. He's the only player that swings a 32'' bat, and he looks slender, but showed some solid pop. He's our Splendid Splinter. Freshman Erik Krohl will be a good one. He'll get some starts. He came to see us play at Oswego last season (he's from the Syracuse area) and saw Joe Kephart drive in 9 runs steal four bases and make several great plays, so he knows he's got some big shoes to fill. I also told him to "Run with the wise," so he will be training with Lorenzo this off season.

Third base will be a battle between Dillon Lowe and either Sam or Sean Marren (they look alike). Lowe is looking to bounce back in 2012. He hit over .500 as a freshman, but dropped off last year. He wants to anchor the middle of the order. Marren came in mainly as a catcher, but due to our depth, will see most of his time at third. He played an errorless fall and hit well.

Another pair of infielders are Ian Gallagher and Jake Nowak. We are hoping to move Gallagher to the outfield where he should see a lot of time (assuming he gets a haircut), but he just wants to play. He will bring both gloves to every game. Jake is a 4th-year junior (he received a medical redshirt as a sophomore, but was able to get in some significant playing time). He will play SS, 3B, 2B, DH and pitch. He will hit for us and do a lot of things to help us win. He is one of our top hitters.

We have a lot of depth all over, so the off season is big. I had individual meetings with each player after the fall and each one set a goal or two. We'll see who achieves what. Somebody is going to get left behind.

I still feel strongly that right now, no position is set. Last year, we knew Gahagen, Dee, Kephart and Lowe would be our infield from the start. A few guys will definitely be in our batting lineup based on what they earned. However, how everyone around them produces will affect who plays where. Let's be honest, they can all play multiple infield positions.

Web resources

Note in the right-hand menu the web videos and articles have been added. A little something for the off-season.

--CP

Catchers aplenty

Heading into this fall, we had eight catchers listed on our roster. We still have all eight, but moved some around. Catchers often make great coaches/managers, so their experience can be helpful. Each has made a solid contribution, and we are hoping to have a Catcher's Day at some point this year -- all eight in the game at once.

Experienced returnees
Dan Fetes and Brian Sheehan did the lion's share of the catching last year. Both swing lefty and are take-command type players.

Fetes played significant first base in high school/summer ball. He will see significant time there in the spring. He was our team's top hitter this fall, and, as we like to say, an Energy Giver. Our other first base options are all right-handed batters. Like any catcher, he wants to be back there mixing it up, but his versatility will help us. He was our best picker this fall, and loves to run the bases.

Sheehan has a strong arm, and at one point gunned down five straight baserunners in a four-game stretch in SUNYAC play last year. He isn't as fast as Dan, so his 'speed' won't be wasted behind the plate. He is also one of our top baserunners. Brian played some third base in high school, so that could give us a lefty bat option if needed.

Strong sophomores
Kyle Koslowski, Ryan Fitzgerald and Chris Messina all played well enough to earn the starting position this fall. Kos was our top power hitter and his throwing improved tremendously this fall. He also spent a lot of time learning the footwork to play first base. I just love his work ethic. He's strong as an ox and never takes a play off. He won a game this fall with his legs doing a great job advancing to third on a bunt, then scoring on a wild pitch that skipped only about five feet from the catcher. He had the dirtiest uniform on the team everyday.

Everything Fitz was told to correct from last fall was fixed. He was our top catcher as far as opponents base-stealing percentage against this fall. He a strong, husky kid with a great bat (built a lot like Phil Gavin). He broke into college baseball with a four-hit game last year. He's ready to go.

Messina came to the team from UB last January, so he did not have as much opportunity as a freshman. He's got huge arms and can hit and block like a beast.  He is another left-handed bat. He did play a little second base in high school, so he can play there when we have our Catcher's Day.

All three sophomores could end up starting for us. Overall, our catchers had the strongest fall as far as batting.

New guys
Sean Urckfitz (Monroe) and Sam Marren (FLCC) are a pair of transfers, and Adam Bronson is a freshman. I don't know if any of them will do much catching at all, but having depth here does not hurt.

Urckfitz is fast, and has a strong arm. He should end up as one of our four main outfielders this year. he tries to out-work everybody. His work ethic is where a lot of guys need to be. I told him if he wants to make our TEAM better, grab a few freshmen and get THEM in the weight room.

Marren played a great thirdbase this fall, and caught sparingly. He did not make an error all fall, and made some great plays. He caught a little and did well.

Bronson is behind a lot of guys. He is our strongest freshman and will develop into a power bat. I had him a lot in the outfield this fall, and he has shown great footwork. As strong as he is, he needs to use his lower half in throwing and hitting. He made a lot of positive adjustments this fall. He just needs more at bats right now. He also runs well. A lot of potential. He reminds me of a young Ryan Fitzgerald.

With eight catchers, practices sure run smoothly. I can remember when Fusco was our only catcher back in 2004. That was rough!

Outfield play

Our outfield play is not totally settled from the fall. We tried a number of different combinations. We had a lot of depth at catcher and infield, so we moved a handful of infielders to the outfield.

Senior Dan Greco returns. He split time in the outfield last year, and will be in the mix as a pitcher again this year. He's got a great arm (just needs to hit the cut off more often) and gets the most out of his at bats -- often it takes 12 pitches to strike him out. He'll be a bottom-of-the order hitter in our lineup when he plays. A lefty stick, great speed, like his brother Josh, nothing catches him by surprise on the field. E.G.

Sophomore Sean Larson looks to pick up some at bats this year. He's got a rocket arm in right field and the size to be a power hitter. He batted cleanup in H.S., but did not see any at bats last year. He led our team in innings pitched, and looks to do that again this year.

Sophomore Justin Burns is back and has made significant strides defensively -- he was an infielder in H.S. He's got the arm and great speed. He needs to be more aggressive on the bases than last year and trust his speed. If he can improve his hitting and square up some balls, his game will take off. He's strong.

Junior Ian Gallagher played short, third and DH last year. To get him in the lineup this year, we moved him to the outfield. He needs to play everyday and is rangy in the outfield. Basically, he's an Energy Giver, so I want him in our lineup.

Sophomore Ronnie Mannella is now in the outfield. He's a left-handed bat and his strength is doing whatever he needs to do. He played some short, third and pitched for us so far. He just got his new glove in and wants to play. First guy at practice all the time.

Sean Urckfitz is a transfer from MCC. He caught and played some third there. With all our catchers, we moved him to the outfield. He's fast and has a great arm. He and Lorenzo also spent an hour or two after every practice hitting in th cage. I think our bucket of balls and missing bats are still in his car.

Two freshmen are in the mix. Ryan Carmody is a smooth defensive outfielder and will get some starts this year. As he adjusts to college pitching, he could earn more playing time. Adam Bronson was a catcher in H.S. and moved to the outfield. He has a patient approach and as he makes some adjustments, will develop into a power hitter.

Heading into the spring, all our outfield spots are really still up for grabs. Greco and Larson will be on the mound at times. Gallagher still owns his infielder's glove and could play there. We have a long off season. Get better, fellas.

Congrats! Bowling!

During this past week we were hit with unfortunate inclement weather which did not allow us to practice for a full week. However, we managed to use this time to appreciate some of the more fun parts of baseball while still competing verse one another.

                Each team came up with a variety of skits to perform  during our rain delay which turned into a full fall suspension. We posted videos of the skits on our blog and allowed our followers to vote who they thought was the best overall skit.

Taking first place was of course Coach Matt Sullivan for their creativity in their bowling skit with 32% of the votes. The roller, played by Dillon Lowe, threw roommate Ian Gallagher into a crowd a pins with the head pin (played by Connor Lorenzo) going down first and to complete the strike, the wobbling 10 pin was played by Big Cat.  

Coming in with a close second was Coach Andrew Dlugosz with the very clever Tug O’ War with 21%. The other three skits put up a good fight, but were not good enough to win.

                                                                                                              ~ Coach Sully

Now we're done

Four days of rain effectively ended our fall season. Our Alumni game was washed out today (we are going to shoot for next Saturday). I will post our thoughts from the fall over the next week.

PITCHING
Pitching is deep. We have 12 arms -- 13 if we count Nowak, a real competitor and a solid hitter in our everyday lineup.We have a lot of strike throwers and most guys have three quality pitches. Our off season goal is to get stronger and increase velocity. We have a lot of pitchers in the high 70's. At the same time, practice three days a week limited what we could do this fall.

In order to get stronger, our pitchers are going to need to have a plan and push each other. Sean Larson and Steve Sturm have been doing the 90 MPH Club workout. Both picked up some speed from last year. They are two very motivated players. The other staff members need to follow thier lead.

Our only senior pitcher, Dan Greco, missed a lot of the fall to to an undisclosed illness. He also missed a lot of mound time last year with a pulled muscle, but did play a lot of outfield. Junior transfer Josh Gascon also missed some time as he is on the Rugby team. Both should factor big into our plans.

We also have four lefties this year after having only one last year. Ace Sciandra is now a junior. We got sophomore Kyle Grey on a rebound -- he went to another college as a freshman. Not only did he live around the corner from former All SUNYAC pitcher Ricky Carlson in Frewsburg, but he throws just like him.

Steve Ramsdell and Tommy Morris, both freshmen, are the other two lefties. We plucked Ramsdell from across the border -- Northeast, Pa. He had only one walk this fall and will see a lot of mound time. Morris has great stuff. We screwed around a lot with his pitches and tried some different things with him. He throws low to mid-80's with the best breaking ball on the team (according to Ronnie Mannella). He has some funk and could be an everyday reliever and work in some starts this year. he bounces back quickly.

Our two returning juniors Zach Murray and Ace have pitched like, well, themselves. They are pretty much the same everytime they throw. When we send them out to the mound, they give the same solid effort each time. The challenge for them now as the two staff veterans, is to push everyone else and get stronger.

Zach Hugg made the team as walk on fron Corning CC. No walks the entire fall. He got better everytime he threw. He picked up things quickly (fielding his position, a change up, etc.), and will learn a lot in the coming year. Five more MPH on his fastball, and he could be real tough.

Fellow junior transfer Joey Tingue transferred from Jamestown CC and showed great stuff. One small mechanical adjustment and he could be a horse for us. He throws hard and has a great breaking ball. Consitency is the key. He's a lot like Jordan Hibbard who turned into our ace last year as a senior.

Rounding out the staff are Zach Jordan, Ben Senior and Evan Carmello.

Zach had a great fall and may figure into our rotation. He never said much, so I won't say much about him, other than he's a big righty and reminds me of the original Hoss, Brandon Miller. He is also our team's SAAC rep along with Ramsdell.

Ben missed most of the fall with a twisted ankle. They must not have stairs in Angola. At 6'3'', he has good potential (which is French for "he hasn't done anything yet"). He was a three-sport athlete in high school, so it'll be good to have him focus on one sport year round.

Carmello only threw once, and may be more of a hitter -- batted over .350. He's smart and was the No. 1 pitcher at Fredonia HS this past season. His role is as of yet undefined, but he is a baseball player and very smart. His dad, Al, played at Fredonia State back in the day.

Sometimes it rains

Friday saw a downpour cancel practice. In order to pass the time, the players performed MLB-approved rain-delay skits. Vote now for your favorite one.

Bowling

Fight

Fishing

Joust

Tug O' War

Week 4 in the books

Friday ended up washed out, but we got in a pair of games Saturday with each pitcher on the staff tossing three innings. To work on some situations, we spotted runners at either 1st, 2nd or 3rd, and if they scored, they counted double.

We saw some solid at bats. Dillon Lowe and Brian Sheehan had big days at the plate. Lowe went 3-3 in Game 1 with a pair of doubles and two walks. He scored from second on an infield hit for the walkoff win. Sheehan finished the day 4-6 with an extra-base hit, two sac bunts and a few more well-hit balls. A little extra work in the cage earlier in the week paid off for both.

After a controversial Hammer last week, Big Cat Lawrence left no doubt going 4-8 with a pair of doubles. He also turned in a diving catch in foul territory and gunned down Energy Giver Dan Fetes as Dan tried to tag up and take third base. Great play.

This week's hitter's Hammer went to John Bennett for dropping his first homer on Saturday and adding a double earlier in the week. He's had a strong fall all around. He gave a great speech. He's been one of the steadiest players so far.

The pitcher's Hammer went to Zach Jordan. The big hoss keeps on pounding the zone, and once again walked no one on Saturday. He was speechless upon receiving his first Hammer, but pitched like a man!

Zach Hugg continues a strong showing on the mound. He's still at 0 walks for the fall. He had a 3-1 count on his last batter, but managed to induce a pop up. For the week, we had 15 walks in 50 innings as a staff -- still some room for improvement.

One more week of fall ball left to go.

Mental Toughness: Is it in you?

I found this article online about Mental Toughness interesting. It listed 69 characteristics of mental strength.

Mental toughness is not about showing your emotions on your sleeve, but dealing with a bad day or things out of your control, and sometimes your own sub-par performance. We did not make the post-season last year. I have to do better. The team has to do better.

Mental toughness allows you to be coached. A pair of sophomore catchers -- Kyle Koslowski and Ryan Fitzgerald -- both had major flaws last year and had little chance of playing as freshmen. I once kicked Fitz out of the batting cage for pulling balls foul in batting practice!

We began camp with 8 catchers. We still have all 8 players -- some have now been moved to new positions -- but Fitz ad Kos kept their heads up and are our two most improved players -- in every area of their game -- hitting, defense and baserunning and either could be our No. 1 catcher. Fitz has two legitimate steals this fall! It would have been easy see all the players in front of them and give up. They have proven to be solid leaders by example. They could also end up as our No. 5 catchers if they let up.

I heard a speaker at the annual ABCA (baseball coaches) convention last year. He spoke on emotional maturity. Self-awareness was a big part of emotional maturity which I feel athletes sometimes lack. Sometime athletes need to be more aware of their actual performance. Most players feel they should be "starting" -- however, when they take time to look at their performance directly with what others have accomplished, "starting" is not a reality at that point. Getting to where you should be after someone passes you up takes mental toughness -- and happens everyday.

That is what we are looking for this fall. Mentally tough BASEBALL PLAYERS!

Good or bad?

Intersquad this weekend saw Sean Larson toss an 8-inning no hitter. Hopefully that doesn't mean we can't hit! A couple of runs were scored on back-to-back walks, an infield error and a strike three that bounced in the dirt. Still room to improve.

Larson has been working hard. In addition to running, abs and the band work, he has been hitting the 90 MPH workout on his off days. I have always contended that players need to do more work outside of practice than during -- kind of like academics. As a pitcher, I mastered my mechanics by throwing BP everyday to my college roommate after practice my freshman year.

Larson took home the Hammer. We also gave one out to the hitters. Andrew Lawrence has been starting to show some of the power his big frame should generate. Both speeches encouraged the players to keep working. Jordan Hibbard still remains our all-time best speech giver. Hope to have him talk to the team after the Alumni Game.

A few familiar faces stopped by this weekend. Matty Clark -- for my money, the best hitter in program history -- and Rob Herrmann. Matty spoke to the team after practice Friday. Rob talked hitting with the players on Friday and Saturday, and helped with intersquad. He is headed Down Under for some winter ball in a few months. He is coming off an All Star season in his first year of pro ball. Good to have some talented players hang around!

-- CP

Gametime

Friday's intersquad consisted of a 10-inning contest. We played our starting lineup (white) against our second nine (in the blue shirts). The second nine jumped out to an 8-0 thanks to four walks and a hit batter early on.

The starters fought back to eventually tie the game at 8-all, then again at 11-all. Facing darkness, we spotted a runner at first in the bottom of the 10th -- he scores the white team wins; he fails to score, blue wins.

Pitcher Steve Sturm bounced back from sub-par outings the first two weeks to come in and slam the door -- took advantage of an opportunity.  He aided himself with a nice defensive play (not quite a Billy Chapel moment, though). Good to see him get better.

As happens this fall, the winners celebrate...

... and the losers pay.

Three triangles in 1:25, or we do it again.

"You need to hate losing more than you love winning."

First Base Foot Work

Over the past four years we have been lucky enough to have one of the best defensive firstbaseman in Division 3 baseball.  Unfortunately due to graduation, we need to find out who can fill the shoes of Taylor Gahagen.  If you ever watched any good first baseman play they have phenomenal footwork, which with a little bit of practice any decent baseball player can pick up.  Watch great first baseman like Mark Teixeira, Adrian Gonzalez, Albert Pujols, and Don Mattingly and just watch how great their footwork is. 

-Click Here to watch how to play first base properly.



--AD

Andy weighs in

Assistant coach Andy Dlugosz give his take on the fall thus far.

Making adjustments

Week 2 saw the pitchers throw 65% strikes as a group (483 strikes/743 total pitches). More importantly, in 53 innings pitched, we only walked 12, compared with 12 walks in 25 2/3 innings last week.

Ramsdell took home the Hammer, which could have gone to a number of pitchers. He tossed five innings and needed only 40 pitches! Efficiency. Hugg (78.6%), Ramsdell, Ace, Jordan, Grey, Morris, Murray, Larson and Gascon all threw over 60% strikes.

Offensively, at bats were better as well. We are starting to answer the biggest questions of who will play first, outfield and who will emerge as the top catcher from a large group.

Extra-base hits are also starting to increase. This will determine in large part who plays, along with baserunning.

Adjustments are being made. Here Andrew Lawrence, a.k.a the Big Cat, discusses his early flaws and adjustments he is making
.

Hey, we can't give away too much information!

Checking in with Tommy T.

Tommy Tantillo is one of only two seniors on the squad. Hear what he has to say after finishing Week 2.

Simple pleasures; Week2 ,Day 1

Assistant coaches make very little. A lot of their commitment comes from the love of the game.

Coach Bongiovanni has been with the team for six years now. One of his favorite things to do is dragging the infield. In the video below, you will see him dragging a "sand-trap pattern" on the best field in Division III. As a college student, he spent his summers working the grounds at various local golf courses.

Week 2 of practice saw the pitchers throw bullpens. After their live action this past Saturday, pitching coach Matt Sullivan and myself have begun giving each player one thing to work on. Zach Jordan and Joey Tingue are working on their balance. Tommy Morris on changing speeds. A few on devloping change ups, etc.

Steven Ramsdell was the top strike-thrower from the weekend at 80 percent (24 of 30). Zach Murray got ahead of the hitters the best, tossing first-pitch strikes to 7 of 8 batters (87 percent). Morris tossed a low of 2.1 pitches per batter -- very efficient. These are the things that get pitchers deep into games.

The practice began with a lot of throwing. The best Around the Horn time was 29.90 (I can't recall the team that won -- I'm getting old). We then did about 100 double plays up the middle, while the corners and catchers did slow rollers and bunt rotations.

Coach Dlugosz and Bonge then worked on some front toss and hitting the other way. The ability to hit the other way allows the hitter to make productive outs (moving runners from second to third) and take away the outside pitch (most pitches are to the outer half of the plate).

We finished up with bunting. We did a poor job of executing the first round, but got better. Tommy Morris laid down the Golden Bunt and got he team out of conditioning.

We are looking to extend the pitchers more this weekend with intersquads on Friday and Saturday.

--CP

Pitchers have potential, need to show progress

We completed our third day of practice with a number of intersquad games. We have three teams and are playing a series of three-inning games, winner staying on, losers pay. The L.A. Suitcases went 2-2 on the day. The Chadwick Bay Crushers went 2-1, while the Longballers went 1-2 overall.

Kyle Koslowski took home the Hammer award for his all-around day. He gave the Crushers a walk-off win with back-to-back great baserunning plays, scoring on a ball in the dirt. He hit a big triple and gunned down a would-be-base stealer in a number of close games. Had good at bats.

Most pitchers tossed two innings. Generally, a lot of strikes were thrown, and it looks like we have a lot to work with. Here's what pitching coach Matt Sullivan had to say following a hot and humid day at the Wig.

 

Enjoy the weekend. Back at it on Tuesday!

First video

 

Here is a video of senior communications major Dan Greco speaking with Ian Gallagher. Ian played part-time as a sophomore. He is expected to play some short, third and outfield. Any way to get him in the lineup.

Don't 'Stay back'

A hitter staying back.

Tue., Aug 31, 2011Don't 'Stay back' Today's entry will focus on hitting. A commom phrase heard around most batting cages is "Stay back". That is probably my most hated phrase in the game.

As a hitter, you should never hit off your back foot. You hit against your front foot or front side. Batters should more accurately use the phrase "Stay balanced" (A phrased constantly used by one of my former hitting coaches, Randy Cialone). Here is a video on biomechanics where the speaker makes that point. Scroll ahead to about the 9:45 point in the video.

A few throwback players illustrate this point (hitting against your front side).Roberto Clememte over-exagerrates this somewhat. Hank Aaron always hit on his front foot. There should be little or no weight on your back foot to maximize the torque you create with your core.

Clemente looks like he lunges a lot. Hitters will want to work on staying balanced so as not to shift to much weight forward on an off-speed pitch.

Here's a look at a modern day hitter.Here's Albert Pujols. Take a look at the back foot in both these videos. They are not "Staying back" -- they are staying balanced and hitting against their front side.

I tried to find a Tony Oliva video, but I'm sure none of the players would remember Tony O.

--CP

Pitchers - Day 1

Mon., Aug 29, 2011Pitching practice - Day 1
We are in the process of finalizing the practice schedule for Day 1 on Thursday. Our new pitchers will be introduced to our pitching program. We will start with long toss instruction the first day.

Here is an online video of how we instruct our pitchers to do long toss to strengthen their arms.

As a former pitcher, I am an advocate of a lot of throwing. As Ranger's pitching coach Mike Maddux say "Pitch counts are limits."

Our goal every year is to condition pitcher physically and mentally to go nine innings. The groundwork begins this fall.

--CP

Wed., Aug. 24, 2011
A new start

 

Classes started on Monday and are in full swing. Fall ball begins next week (Sept. 1st) with a number of questions to answer.

1.       What pitchers will step up to fill in for the loss of four seniors ? Senior Dan Greco, who also plays outfield? Juniors Sciandra and Murray? Sophomores Larson and Sturm? Three solid freshmen, five transfers and a couple walk-ons?

2.       What will the infield look like? Only thirdbaseman Dillon Lowe returns from last year as an everyday player. This looks to be the strength of the team.

3.       What will the outfield look like? Corner outfielders Jon Messina and Vinnie VanAuker graduated. Centerfielder Alex Foster is in Florida interning with Disney for the fall. Kody Hoth is nursing a broken finger and Greco will also figure into our pitching plans. We will look into moving some catchers or infielders to the outfield throughout the fall.

4.       Battle of the catchers. We have eight in camp. Returning juniors Fetes and Sheehan have the edge. Three sophomore Hosses bring the lumber – it’ll be exciting to see how they improved from last year. We have some talented new backstops, too.

Overall, we sport only two seniors – Greco and Tommy Tantillo – but the core of the team is juniors, so we do have a veteran presence despite the loss of nine seniors.

Stay tuned for the answers!

Infielders Warm Up the Hands

Here's a video of a warm up routine our infielders will be doing every day at practice prior to playing catch.  Coach Tantillo stresses this warm up in order to improve our hand-eye coordination and glove work in the field.  "27 Outs.  No more."

The Athletic Pitcher Workout

Here is a video of two of our current pitchers, Zach Jordon and Evan Carmello, going through The Athletic Pitcher Workout.  Our pitchers will be doing this multiple times a week this Spring, and so should be very familiar with how it is done properly.

Hitting Drills

1. Separation (hands back) - increases power and gives hitter more time to react to pitch

2. Low Tee Drill - improves power by increasing violence of lower half (hips), trains hitter to hit low strike

3. High Tee Drill - re-inforces short hand path to ball (esp. top hand), doesn't allow loop

4. Extension Drill - encourages hitter to stay in zone longer, improving power (drive through ball) and average (can be out front and still in hitting zone)

[watch from 0:30 - 1:20]

Speed Camp Ladder Series

This video demonstrates the ladder drills we will be using this Spring.  It is essential that every position player is familiar with these drills so that we do not waste time at practice showing how to do them.

These workouts focus on improving speed, agility, and balance to help our players in the areas of baserunning and defense (first step, DP footwork, tracking fly balls, etc.).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mg9eRnDdXkg&feature=youtu.be

The story of the Hammer

After each practice and each gameday, the Blue Devil coaching staff awards that day’s clutch performer with The Hammer. How did it all start?

Back in the fall of 2008, head coach Matt Palisin felt the makeup of his team was to the point where it would contend for the SUNYAC Championship and beyond. After taking over a program that was drained of prospects and gradually building it back up, the Devils finally amassed the talent and depth of a contender. He informed the team that the Blue Devils would be “the SUNYAC Hammer this year. Fredonia State will be the team swinging the Hammer in our conference.”

That winter, during the team’s annual Christmas gift exchange, Taylor Gahagen bought Josh Greco an actual carpenter’s hammer with a baseball-lace grip. They painted it up and put the word “SUNYAC on the hammer. Josh was thrilled to receive it.

However, as time went on, Josh left the Hammer on the shelf in the team locker room. Over the winter break, coach Palisin found it lying there. He got an idea.

The Hammer would be handed out as a kind of traveling trophy after each practice and each game. The players took to it.

The Hammer made the team’s annual trek south in the spring of ‘09. Just before leaving, then-senior Pete Lusk could be heard shouting “make sure we have the Hammer.” He packed it in his bag.

The Devils opened up with 10-0 and 12-0 wins over Dominican College on Opening Day. They went 8-1 on the trip. They continued the roll up north, defeating three Top 25 teams along the way.

By the end of the regular season, the Devils set the team record for wins and earned the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament. Upon entrance into the tournament, the players were presented with new travel shirt – the SUNYAC Hammer was boldly depicted on the front.

The Devils would also go on to play host to a post-season tournament for the first time in program history – The ECAC Upstate New York Regional Tournament. They won the first game in fine fashion, a 12-0 whitewashing of Cazenovia.

The Hammer helped the Devils pound their way to a 26-12 mark that year and crack the national poll.

The Hammer has a little more rust and were today, but is alive and well. After each practice or game, the player awarded the Hammer is required to give a speech to the team and is responsible for care of The Hammer until the next Blue Devil claims it for his own.