Baseball Coaching Hitters 09 23 2025

 Baseball Coaching Hitters 09 23 2025

It seems to me like a lot of the great pitches to hit are the first pitches the pitcher is throwing at my team! If I were a pitcher and I thought, I had “a sucker” up to bat that is the first pitch I would throw. Hard and fast bullseye strike. That also changes the mental framework of the batter after you throw that first pitch successfully as a strike.

But there are a multitude of statistics in baseball. One of them is how a batter has fared against a pitcher before. It might say this batter is 0 for 4 against this pitcher.

One would believe some sort of batting coach might have that statistics handy for each of his batters versus the pitchers they would likely face with another team. But not only that, was the first pitch this pitcher threw at this batter a center strike? I mean if you can't do that you might as well drive the beer truck.

So a batter gets up to the plate and it is like a change of phase. But at the level of professionalism, it shouldn't be that way. Their eyes should be warmed up and keen to see if that first pitch coming in is coming in straight. And their muscles should be coiled or loose or whatever is recommended to be ready for them to hit a ball that comes in past them. You can't get up to the plate and act like, “Oh this is what I am doing now. I am supposed to swing at pitches that are hittable. Okay after the first pitch is when I could figure this situation and situational awareness out.

So how are batters made ready to get to the plate in prof baseball? They need some way to have eye coordination teamed up with power swinging. Perhaps you drill a hole in a baseball and drill a hole in a goodwill bat. And you attach the two with a bungee cord a yoga woman would sell you. And you hit it like that. And you get really good at that. Or perhaps you use one of those paddleboards the perverted latent homo ivy league frat boys use on each other in order to create allegiance to the good ole boy network. And you create a bullseye on that board and drill a hole in the center of it and same as before with it.

My father taught me how to throw a perfect spiral with the football. He also taught me how to throw a baseball. I tried pitching in little league. But they wanted me to throw it a lot faster. Most sons play catch with their fathers. Who wants to throw the ball so fast that they beam their father with it? I suppose if your father drives the town beer truck, he might encourage that? They replaced me or chose a pitcher that threw the ball fast and beamed virtually every person up to bat. And they were happy with that choice. I didn't find out till 48 years later what religion that little league coach was of.

My mother told me a story about a pitcher in a small town in Iowa. He threw the ball so fast that he killed someone with it. He might have killed two people with it. She said he just sat in church on Sunday Mass with his head hung low.

And I want to ask what the h3ll the requirements are to be an umpire? In terms of vision? In terms of being drug or hangover free? In terms of what they might sound like when they talk? What am I getting at? Something like having to have a license to drive around on a bicycle with a cooler on the back of it selling popsicles?

In summary: “This pitcher took you for a sucker on your last 4 times at bat with him pitching and threw the first pitch dead center over the plate.”

© 2025 Thomas Paul Murphy