South Philadelphia Field of Dreams

Check out this video clip on Steve Koplove's Sunoco Field, home of the Philadelphia Senators. Jesse Biddle, Tyler Young, Slater McCue, Jon McAllister, and Ed Rooney, to name just a few learned to play with their hair on fire right here in the heart of the city's famed oil refinery complex.

See you on the field.

Call It Prescience

I have become the father of a professional pitcher. A professional left-handed pitcher, to be precise. Jesse Biddle is now pitching for the Gulf Coast League Phillies out of Clearwater, Florida. He's trying to earn his living sawing off wood bats and making batters whiff with wood in their hands.

We watched pieces of the college world series over the past two weeks. It made me sick watching pop flies to the outfield sail over the home run fence. Batters all excited along with their teammates left me sad and bereft, as if someone were dangling the game of baseball over a sea of stomach acid and half-eaten hot dogs and popcorn crumbs.

Jesse went pro and gave up a life-changing experience at the University of Oregon where he probably would have been the Duck's ace starter by his sophomore year -- if not earlier as a freshman. It would have been a phenomenal and heart-warming experience to take that sojourn before turning to professional baseball. But he also would have been throwing 120-140 pitches a game and learning to focus on pitches that literally can't be hit because with metal the only solution is to not let a batter touch the ball.

You need the same approach in pro baseball, of course. As a pitcher, you can't help thinking that it's a severe slight against you as a player that anyone would touch your fastball. But at the same time, pro hitters are the best of the best -- even in the GCL. Good hitters find a way of making contact. And wood is different than metal. It's predictable. Unless a hitter truly barrels up on the ball with full force, most times contact isn't true and the ball gets fielded for an out.

You learn, I am told, not so much to pitch to contact, as to pitch at the batter's weaknesses. This is the way the game is meant to be played. A .300 average in pro baseball on any level is a good average. In college, it's what 7 and 8 hole hitters should expect.

Yesterday, Jesse pitched a fine 1-2-3 first followed by a glitchy second giving up a homer, hitting a batter and then giving up a triple...before settling down to three straight outs and then another three straight in the third. The homer surprised him. It was a big-time downtown shot and the report is that he and his catcher exchanged big-eyed "Wows!" as the batter jogged the base path. On the phone yesterday afternoon Jesse said, "My catcher called for a fastball inside and set up perfectly to get that sucker out. And I just threw it right down the middle." He giggled. "Wham! See ya!" It took the kid two more batters to settle down. And he gave up his first runs since April pitching as a high schooler. What strikes me though is that Jesse knew he'd been had by the batter and knew he deserved what he got. I imagine if he were to watch film of his efforts he'd see what he did wrong. And he'd also see that the triple was legit as well. But he'd also see real hitters focused on not letting him take advantage of them.

In college they run 'em out to 120--140 pitches, like I said. Yesterday with the GCL Phillies, Jesse ran up to a pitch count of about 45 and he was done for the day. What's most important here is to see that the pitcher knows he made mistakes and that good hitters took advantage of those mistakes. If he'd been throwing against metal, it would have been impossible to know how much was mistake and how much the magic bat.

See you out there on the field.


Thanks to Joe Wombough for the photo! Keep takin' 'em Joe!

Leslie Gudel Reports on Jesse Biddle

Longer, finished piece with my favorite, Leslie Gudel running point.

Latest video clip on Jesse "#27 Pick" Biddle. Very short and you get to see his brand of humor.

Press conference at Citizens Bank Park tomorrow afternoon. Contract signing before that. Dinner and a game from the owner's box. Graduation on Friday morning. The following Tuesday he flies down to Tampa to join teammates at rookie camp and then begin pitching in the Gulf Coast League.

Go Phillies!

Jesse Biddle is one of many young players about to have his life changed next week

Draft day 2010 is drawing near. Video below will show why I've not been able to keep up with this blog like I should. Once you start the video, don't click on it. Watch all the way through. We're working on a better cut...

Maple Getting Minor League Treatment

Maple bat restrictions are getting some serious play in the minors this season. See this article from the news section at Minor League baseball's website: "Bat Rules Being Implemented for 2010."

In essence, results from last year's limitations (see my entry here for more on that) tally up to a one-third reduction in broken maple. Ash and maple both break, but maple can be more dangerous due to the explosive nature of breaks (ash more fractures or shreds over time).

What this may mean for the amateur player is the availability of more maple than you can shake a stick at...albeit, maple bats with out of spec, narrow handles and/or barrels in excess of 2.61" in diameter. I'd start calling up my favorite manufacturer and ask if they have bats they'd intended for pros that aren't going to meet the new standards.

Real Kids Doing Real Science

The Public Broadcasting System's Dragonfly TV show for kids ran a great little piece on wood vs. metal bats a while back. You can see it on YouTube by clicking the title of this post or by going here to their website.

I won't spoil the results of Nick's and Reed's experiment. It's a short watch -- about eight and half minutes.

Thanks to Jarrod Brissenden of JustWoodBats.com for bringing this to our attention.

Dead Arms On Arrival

We're a bit late getting word out to folks on this, but on August 9 the New York Times Sunday Magazine ran an excellent piece by Ron Berler detailing the travails of over-pitching for young players. It's called "Arms-Control Breakdown," and you can read it here. If you have a kid who pitches or if you're a pitcher yourself, but especially if you're a coach, this article is must reading.

Berler tells an instructive story about a young pitcher named Alden Manning. It's a very common story. And I think Berler does a good job of not judging the situation and showing how the problem of over throwing for young pitchers is a combined process of denial by players, coaches, parents, and even the medical community.

Amateur baseball has morphed into a three season sport for all intents and purposes. There's high school ball in the spring; summer leagues or travel teams; and then there's fall ball.

Three season baseball is especially true of elite players. The be all and end all tournament of the year is Perfect Game's World Wood Bat Association National Championship held in Florida at the end of October every year. That means the season is 9 months long for most elite players. If you live in the south or the southwest, you can play all the way through Christmas in tournaments, winter leagues, etc. Things are getting sophisticated too now for cold weather areas with indoor hitting leagues, clinics and in some cases even full games in indoor stadiums. Minor leaguers usually knock off at the end of August.

The problem for young pitchers is knowing when to stop, especially when they're good and they know that they need to get exposure with pro scouts and college recruiters. Certainly pain should tell you something. I hear of teenage pitchers who have been told by doctors that they have tendinitis (especially in the elbow) and that they need to rest their arms. Some ignore this advice. Some rest for a few weeks and then go out and pitch more. But if that pain persists even minutely it's time to hang things up and get some professional help, both through rehab and trainers and people who understand the mechanics of pitching.

Last September I watched a promising kid pitching in a college showcase tournament. He'd been throwing off a mound at least twice a week (once in a bullpen and once in a game) since March 1st. Seven straight months throwing maybe 150 - 200 pitches down hill a week (over 5,000 pitches in a season) -- not to mention all the long toss and flat ground work he was doing as well.

The kid was cooking with gas though out on the mound with his fastball in the high 80's. No one was hitting him (this was metal bat so he'd given up three sqwibbers into the shallow outfield). Then, after one out in the fourth his velocity dropped. He got this very odd look on his face. I was concerned. All of sudden hitters started ripping at his fasty and easily staying back on his curve. He was barely able to throw his fastball at 80 mph. He toughed it through the inning, but his coaches and catcher looked worried.

The kid wasn't happy when his coach took him out of the game. What the kid said, though, was telling: "I don't know what happened. It was like my arm just went numb. I mean I couldn't feel it. I still can't."

Dead arm. They kept him off the mound for three weeks after that and didn't let him throw at all. One of his teammates, a year older and looking to get drafted in the spring, kept on pitching. In fact his teammate wanted the ball every day. Sometimes he'd go out and throw 90+, others would be in the low 80s, but he just kept on taking the ball. They needed that. He was picking up the slack for others. All summer he'd start games and then get a closing assignment two days later. The kid was a workhorse stud...

After three weeks the player with dead arm was ready to return to the mound. The plan was for him to come in after the workhorse 90+ guy had thrown four innings. But after two outs in the fourth, the workhorse gave up a big shot to center field. When the hubbub of the big hit died down there was the workhorse -- the stud -- writhing on the ground holding his right arm near the elbow. The pain was so bad he blacked out for a few seconds. The next day we got word he was going in for Tommy John surgery and would be out at least a year. It's been a year and there's a chance he may never play again.

No athlete should be risking the long term future of their playing ability by "toughing" things out. I'd go so far as to say that if you're a serious pitcher, it should be just a matter of course that when you're done with your summer season you hang up that arm and let the guys who always complain about not getting enough innings have their time.

What's most important for parents and coaches and players to understand is that even when you're in your last year of high school or college ball and it seems like you have to impress everyone, you can't impress people when you're in pain or when you've thrown your arm out. And all these high school and junior elite tournaments mean nothing, absolutely nothing to the future of any young player. All too often people turn the "Big Game" into a do-or-die situation. For a pitcher there's only one do-or-die situation and that's in the 7th game of the World Series (when you know you can rest for at least 3 months). Until you get to that place, protect your arm and think long term.

See you on the field, but take it easy until spring training.

How Do You Know What to Buy?

Baseball is right up there with skiing, mountaineering, and golf in the "stuff" category. Players, and their parents, are always confronted with new bats, gloves, shoes, bags, performance undergarments, etc. To a certain extent word of mouth is how information on all the "stuff" that players need is passed along. Yes, you can look at catalogs to learn about all the new merchandise, but how do you know what works and what doesn't? How do you learn, maybe, the back story on certain glove designs or bat technologies? Most importantly, how do you know that the money you spend on something is going to be worth it?

To help with these questions, we've found a great resource that can be of service to folks on almost all levels of play. Baseball Equipment Review is filled with reviews and reference information on everything from cleats to training equipment. We love their wood bat section (and plan to provide guest reviews there soon).

One unique element of owner Brandon Bland's site is that there are numerous Google links built into pages that can take users directly to manufacturer's own sites. This allows the user to compare certain products easily and quickly without having to do a lot of work. It's a way to creatively use Google's Ad Sense system.

The site also has a useful set of recommendations for baseball equipment shopping and a very useful page on training aids that every Little League coach and dad of aspiring high school stars should bookmark and pay attention to.

If you know of other useful baseball equipment information sites, please send links along and I'll try to post information here at HittingWithWood.

In the mean time, I hope you're having good weather and that your coaches are encouraging kids to swing with lumber.

See you on the field.

Apology Post: A Personal Note to Readers

Since March, our family has been inundated by the initiation of Jesse Biddle's junior year of baseball with trips to Arizona State, Oregon State, North Carolina, and the University of Oregon (photo to left was taken in Portland at Game 2 of the renewed Civil War between Oregon and Oregon State, a cold and wet late March Saturday evening) -- all schools making scholarship bids to get the kid to pitch for them.

It turns out Jesse's choice of schools (after tremendous turmoil, he has verbally committed to George Horton's Oregon Ducks) was the easy part. We've been dealing with scouts, prospective advisers, media, focused training, lots of great high school games, and trying to match Jesse's schedule playing with the Philadelphia Senators with special opportunities to play in national showcases in June (USA Baseball Tournament of Stars) and August (East Coast Pro Showcase and Area Code Games).

This post, then, is an apology for not staying caught up on content. There's a lot going on in the wood vs. metal debate and I've dropped the ball.

At the same time, it's been an exciting and wild time watching this kid of ours move into the early phases of prime time as a player. Hopefully, now that the high school season is over and the summer schedule set, I'll do a better job reporting in these pages.

In the mean time, check out this short video clip that Comcast SportsNite did on Jess in April. More perspectives on hitting with wood soon...

See you on the field.