Baseball can create special bond between fathers and sons

It's not easy being a sports dad these days as the challenges seem far different than when I was playing ball decades ago.

Dads are usually the ones who first played catch with their sons, showing them the right way to put on a glove and to hold the bat. They showed them how to take leadoffs and hit the cutoff man and to make sure they backed up the plays.

But getting their sons from those happy but frustrating tee-ball games to stepping onto the field at Busch Stadium for an elite high school event -- such as the PNC High School Baseball Showcase, which was Thursday at Busch Stadium -- could not have been easy.

It was the culmination of many years of work, hope, dreams and travel that had brought them to this point. The all-star game served as a fitting reward for the entire family.

But those families have a lot more on their baseball minds than they did in previous decades. Dads of today now have to decide when to make the step from Khoury League and Little League to select ball and travel teams.

It's not an easy decision since it involves politics, finding coaches, paying for uniforms, paying for leagues and a lot of tournament travel.

There's tough decisions at every turn.

Which select team? Which coach? Do you keep players from the same town together, or do you put together an all-star team of players from several communities?

The financial investment in playing sports these days cannot be overlooked. There's lots of money for equipment and league fees, but dads of today are sometimes asked to dig a little deeper.

Many pay for private hitting and pitching lessons and send their sons to summer camps or rent batting cage or mound time.

Some elite level summer travel teams for high school players charge as much as $3,000 to participate, and that doesn't include the cost of traveling to tournaments around the country.

There's gas and meals and hotels and a lot more.

What does it all guarantee?

Nothing.

While a lucky few do reach the major leagues like Jake Odorizzi, the former Highland High School star pitcher who more than held his own against the Cardinals last week, there's a lot more that don't.

For some ballplayers, the final game of their senior year or their American Legion summer season might be their last one. For others, it's college baseball or maybe the Mon-Clair League or Clinton County League.

Even being drafted, like Collinsville senior pitcher Tanner Houck was recently by Toronto, just gets you one more rung up the ladder toward the big goal.

That's the rough thing about being a baseball dad. You know at some point, the whole process is going to end.

And when the games are over, you might remember a few scores, a few big hits or strikeouts. There were probably some championships involved.

But more likely than not, the favorite memories shared between father and son will involve something that never even happened on a baseball field.

Maybe it was something funny that happened at a hotel or restaurant or the time a uniform or glove or spikes were forgotten. Maybe it was being in the stands together for a Cardinals' World Series game or participating in a regional or sectional championship.

Maybe it was a quick hug shared after a big moment or a tough loss.

Baseball has always created a unique bond between dads and sons. Maybe it's the passing down of that special baseball knowledge from generation to generation, or just the time spent together at games and tournaments and practices.

It doesn't come without its share of arguments and disappointments and tough times, but the memories created will always be there.

And all it takes to tap into those memories again is a game of catch in the backyard. That doesn't cost a thing.

Norm Sanders is a sportswriter at the News-Democrat. He can be reached at 239-2454, nsanders@bnd.com or follow him on Twitter: @NormSanders.

Source: http://www.bnd.com/2014/06/15/3256746/basebal-creates-a-special-bond.html#storylink=cpy

Too much practice and specialization can hurt instead of help child athletes

Recently, a preteen tennis player came into Neeru Jayanthi’s clinic for follow-up on an overuse injury to his wrist. Jayanthi, a sports medicine physician at Loyola University Medical Center in suburban Chicago, learned that the child’s coach had instructed him to take off his splint before a tryout, for fear that it would hinder his performance. “He’s only 11!” Jayanthi says.

The tennis player’s story may be an extreme example, but Jayanthi says it’s emblematic of a growing emphasis on performance and specialization that has invaded many youth sports. Efforts to corral children into highly focused sports programs often arise from good intentions, Jayanthi says, yet research suggests that kids who specialize in a single sport when they’re young risk injury and burnout but don’t improve their odds of attaining an elite sports career. In most cases, giving kids more time for unstructured play and a chance to sample a wide array of athletic pursuits provides a better recipe for success, he says.

The push to start children on focused training programs stems in part from the idea that practice distinguishes elites from the rest, a notion Malcolm Gladwell popularized with his “10,000-hour rule” in his book “Outliers.” Citing research by Florida State University psychologist K. Anders Ericsson showing that a group of elite violinists accumulated an average of 10,000 hours of practice before reaching the top, Gladwell asserts that 10,000 hours is the “magic number for true expertise.”

Yet Gladwell’s rule contradicts the evidence regarding sports. Studies have found a wide range in the amount of practice that athletes require to reach the top, says David Epstein, author of “The Sports Gene,” a book that examines sports performance. He points to Swedish athlete Stefan Holm as an example. Holm devoted most of his life to training for the high jump, only to lose the 2007 World Championships to a competitor who had taken up the event 18 months earlier.

Hours spent training are just one aspect of an athlete’s development; motivation and other psychological factors are also important, says Karin Moesch, a sports psychologist at the University of Copenhagen. Kids who have completed many hours of concentrated training by age 12 or 13 may start to lose interest, Moesch says. “They think, ‘I’ve already done enough of that,’ so they stop.” Studies show that as specialization increases, satisfaction often drops, and that puts kids at risk of burnout, she says.

Injury is another concern. Jayanthi’s research team studied young athletes who had come to a clinic either for sports-related injuries or sports physicals. Among the 124 tennis players in the study, those who were injured spent more than five times as much time playing tennis as they did in unstructured recreation. Uninjured players spent slightly more than twice as much time in organized sports as in free play. In another study, Jayanthi’s group evaluated about 1,200 athletes between the ages of 7 and 18, and found that injuries occurred more commonly among those who did specialized training.

“It’s not just the hours spent, it’s what you’re doing during that time,” Jayanthi says, and unstructured play appears less risky than organized practice. “Kids have self-restraint. When they’re playing for fun, they stop when they start to feel a strain, but if they’re at practice they may continue because they don’t want to let the coach down,” Jayanthi says.

Early specialization cuts short a period when young athletes would otherwise sample a wide variety of sports and robs them of the opportunity to stumble upon their best fit, Epstein says. “Though narrowly focused child prodigies fascinate us and garner media attention, it turns out that later specializers are more the norm than the exception,” he writes in the paperback edition of his book. Research shows that when children are given an opportunity to engage in many different sports, they’re more likely to find one they like and then stick with it, Moesch says. “They are more intrinsically motivated in sports in general and in their specific sport.”

Early specialization does not seem to increase an athlete’s chance of turning pro. Moesch and her colleagues compared 148 elite and 95 near-elite Danish athletes from sports such as cycling and track and field and found that the near-elites had amassed more training hours in their favored sport up to age 15. By age 18, the total hours accumulated by both groups had evened out, suggesting that athletes who start specializing in their late teens can still catch up to their peers who got an earlier start. The study also found that elite athletes in cycling, running and swimming tended to specialize at a later age and to participate in their first national and international competitions at an older age compared with near-elites.

Often, kids who excel at an early age are just early developers, Epstein says. For instance, a Swedish study of youth tennis players found that many who experienced early success reported that they had grown larger and stronger before their peers had. When they reached puberty, their physical advantage diminished, and they lost faith in their abilities. Many quit the sport all together. By contrast, players who reached elite status (competing at top national or international levels) in tennis had taken part in multiple sports when they were young and played tennis in settings that did not emphasize performance.

“We need to change the culture,” Jayanthi says. If we want kids to reach their potential and retain a life-long enjoyment of sports, he says, we need to create an environment that de-emphasizes winning and puts a premium on play.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/too-much-practice-and-specialization-can-hurt-instead-of-help-child-athletes/2014/06/16/7e6ba03c-f0cc-11e3-9ebc-2ee6f81ed217_story.html

Craig Breslow’s Path From the Ivy League to the Big Leagues

Often called “The Smartest Man in Baseball,” Boston Red Sox reliever Craig Breslow is an ace of many trades. The lefty boasts a 2.91 career ERA in the majors, holds a degree from Yale (where he studied biochemistry and biophysics), and runs his own foundation, called Strike 3, which is dedicated to improving the lives of those affected by childhood cancers. But big league success wasn’t always a sure bet for the 33-year-old Breslow, a late-round draft pick who had to battle his way onto more than one roster. STACK sat down with the Ivy League grad and recent World Series winner to talk about how to balance sports and schoolwork, find the path that’s right for you, and persist through challenges to reach your goals.

STACK: You had a 4.55 GPA at Trumbull High School in Connecticut. Was school difficult for you or did those grades just come naturally?

Craig Breslow: Through high school, academics came pretty easily for me. Things just kind of intuitively made sense. I didn't spend a ton of time studying outside of preparing for tests.

STACK: Your mother was a math teacher and your dad was involved in physical education. What did they teach you about being a successful student-athlete?

CB: School had a serious place in our household, but my parents also gave me the ability to determine my own schedule. It wasn’t so much that I needed to do my homework before I could go outside and play. They understood I was going to get both done, and that it was a lot easier to play baseball when it’s light out than after dinner when it’s dark.

STACK: How did you divvy up your time outside of school?

CB: My free time was largely spent playing sports. I grew up with one of my best friends two doors over and another friend less than a mile away and so almost every day after school we’d be playing something.

STACK: You were a pretty good soccer player, too. What made you decide that baseball was the sport you wanted to pursue?

CB: Well, my dad was actually a soccer coach and we were historically a soccer family, but being left-handed gave me a competitive advantage in baseball. It was my junior year in high school when things started to take off for me, and I showed that I could compete with the best competition when it came to baseball.

STACK: Why did you choose to attend Yale?

CB: I always thought that Yale, which was 30 minutes down the street [from where I grew up], was the place where a bunch of nerds went to school. Later it dawned on me that that wasn’t true, or that I was one of those nerds. I always [thought that I] wanted to get out of my own backyard, but New Haven is so distinct and it offered a good college experience for me.

STACK: How did you balance athletics and academics at Yale?

CB: Carefully. I think I was a better student in season than out of season. Innately, you kind of find a way to get all of your tasks done in the amount of time you have. If you are given longer periods of time, you just tend to work less.

STACK: At what point during your college career did you realize that the majors might be a real possibility?

CB: At no point. I was just hopeful to get drafted. I figured I would maybe get a chance to play professional baseball as a really late round draft pick, probably toil in the minor leagues for a couple of years and then go on to medical school.

STACK: And you did bounce around between six teams in the majors and various others in the minor leagues. Was there ever a time when you thought you should throw in the towel?

CB: Fortunately, I’ve always been hired one more time than I’ve been fired, but the closest I came was back in 2004, when I was released out of A-ball and I had no taste of major league baseball. Seeking advice, I spoke to a former Yale teammate of mine, Matt McCarthy, who moved on to Harvard Medical School after one year in the minors. I asked him how he knew it was time for him to move on. He told me that I should quit baseball and go on to med school if I was OK with never turning on the TV to watch a baseball game and questioning whether that could be me standing on the mound. I realized that I wasn’t ready to make that decision, so I went ahead and played independent ball. With some luck, I ended up finding myself in the big leagues.

STACK: Does that winding road make your 2013 World Series victory even sweeter?

CB: Everyone who puts on a baseball uniform at any point in their life thinks about winning the World Series. For me, [that championship] was the realization of an accomplishment that I’d set out for my entire life.

This article originally appeared on STACK.com: Craig Breslow’s Path From the Ivy League to the Big Leagues

Source: https://sports.yahoo.com/news/craig-breslow-path-ivy-league-160046753.html

Do left handed hitters really have an advantage over right handed hitters?

(1907- Ty Cobb)

The answer is yes, for 3 reasons.

Statistically, left handed batters have a batting average that is 7 points higher than right handed batters - .270 for lefties, .263 for righties (J. Walsh, The Advantage of Batting Left Handed).

From the hitter’s perspective, batting left-handed is advantageous several reasons.

1. With a runner on 1st base the 3-4 hole is much easier for a lefty to find.  This is a great spot to be a left handed hitter.   With the 1st baseman holding on the runner and the second baseman playing double play depth, a huge hole is open up on the right side of the infield.

One of the easiest things to do as the batter is to roll over a baseball and hit a ground ball to your pull side. Right handers will hit ground balls to shortstop and third base all day and get out quite often.  The third baseman and shortstop can pinch and take away the holes.

But when you have a runner at first base lefties have a great opportunity to use that hole and hit a ground ball through the infield.  This could be the single biggest advantage for a left handed hitter.

It is not as easy for a right hander to hit a ground ball through that hole.  Most hitters usually will hit more ground balls to their pull side and more fly balls to the opposite field.

2. Left handed hitters are one step closer to 1st base than right handed hitters.  It’s commonly believed that being one step closer to 1st base gives you a better chance of beating out a ground ball in the infield.

Every year there are a handful of plays that you are thrown out by a half a step.  Being one step closer to first base when hitting may get you that extra half step to beat out a few extra balls a year.  As an infielder I feel that fast lefties put more pressure on the infielders than righties.

Walsh (mentioned earlier) didn’t find this factor to be statistically relevant.  He believes it’s because lefties pull more balls to the 1st and 2nd basemen, and the shorter throw neutralizes this advantage.  I’d love to hear if what you think about this issue in the comments section below.

3. Left handed hitters get more off handed match-ups making it favorable to the hitter.  Another advantage for left handed hitters is that they get to see a lot of right handed pitching.  Having an off handed at bat (lefty facing righty) usually makes for a more comfortable at bat.

Here’s a few reasons why:

Better view of the ball.  You get to see the baseball a little better when the pitch is coming into you.  Many lefties are uncomfortable when facing  a left handed pitcher.

Disarming the Slider.  One of the most difficult pitches to hit is a slider that is thrown from a same sided matchup (righty vs righty).  The reason for this is that if your front side opens up even a little bit it opens up the outside part of the plate making it very difficult to reach the pitch.  With an off handed matchup you don’t have to worry about that pitch.  Everything is coming into you.

Head position.  It is easier to see the ball with both eyes with an off handed matchup.  Surprisingly many hitters will only really be looking for the ball with one eye when he is facing the same sided pitcher because he doesn’t have his head turned far enough.  Have you ever tried to catch a ball with one eye?  It is difficult.

Source: http://probaseballinsider.com/advantages-of-being-a-left-handed-hitter/

Improve eye-hand coordination

What is eye-hand coordination?
Eye-hand and eye-foot coordination refer to how quickly and accurately an athlete's muscles and limbs react to the input of visual messages gathered by the eyes.

Eye-hand coordination is the athlete's ability to synchronize finger, hand and arm movements with constantly changing visual information from a dynamic sporting environment.

Why is eye-hand coordination important in athletic performance?
Visual coordination affects timing, reaction speed, body control and balance.

Numerous studies across various sports have shown that eye-hand coordination speed is faster among athletes when compared to non-athletes.   In addition, studies have shown it to be a characteristic which distinguishes expertise levels among athletes.

How can athletes improve their eye-hand coordination skills?
Athletes can improve their eye-hand coordination skills with deliberate vision training exercises that require the sychronization of motor movements with visual input.

Effective exercises may vary from simple visual-response tasks that require minimal brain processing, such online computerized reaction speed tests, to more complex visual-response tasks that require greater analysis of visual information, such as juggling, soft toss, or computerized target shooting games.

To access the Articles, Videos and Research Studies click this link: http://www.sportsvisionmagazine.com/training/vision/eyehandcoordination.html

Baseball's Pitching Dilemma: 'Too Hard, Too Fast, Too Much, Too Soon'

Josh Beckett grew up as a baseball star in the baseball hotbed of Texas. He was so good at his Houston-area high school that the Florida Marlins made him the second overall pick in the 1999 draft

He played high school baseball. He played fall ball. He played summer ball.

But during those three months of the summer, Josh Beckett almost never pitched. His father wouldn't allow it. His coach wouldn't allow it. For those three months a year, Beckett played the outfield instead.

"I definitely don't think I was abused," Beckett said one day in late May. "My dad would never have let that happen. [Summer league coach] Clay Hill wouldn't let it happen. My high school coach, too."

A few days after we spoke, Beckett would make the 321st start of his 14-year big-league career, and it would be a memorable one. He threw the first no-hitter in the major leagues this year, against the Philadelphia Phillies.

One other thing about Beckett: He's never had Tommy John surgery.

He's 34 years old. He's closing in on 2,000 major league innings. He's been on the disabled list with blisters and with mild strains, and he needed surgery last year for thoracic outlet syndrome. But at a time when it seems every pitcher has had Tommy John surgery once, more and more have had it twice and others are on the way to get an MRI to see if they need it, Beckett has so far avoided it.

There's no real way to know if not pitching for those three summer months in high school has helped in keeping his elbow relatively healthy for the 15 years since then. Not every pitcher whose arm is abused gets hurt, and not every pitcher who was protected stays healthy.

But at a time when doctors and trainers describe what we're seeing as an "epidemic," with another baseball draft fast approaching (it begins on Thursday), and more and more of the available pitchers having already had Tommy John surgery or likelier than ever to need it in the years to come, it's probably worth paying attention to some guys who didn't need to get cut.

* * *

The numbers really are staggering.

In just April and May of this year, 28 professional pitchers underwent Tommy John surgery, according to an online database maintained by writer Jon Roegele. Only two of those pitchers (Josh Johnson and Peter Moylan) were past their 30th birthday. Five were 21 or younger.

Roegele's list doesn't even count pitchers who aren't yet in pro baseball. Studies by the American Sports Medicine Institute in Birmingham, Alabama, reveal that anywhere from one-quarter to one-third of Tommy John surgeries performed in recent years have been on pitchers in high school or even younger, a huge increase from 10 years ago.

East Carolina University pitcher Jeff Hoffman, who likely would have been one of the first players drafted this year, was one of this spring's victims, going under the knife on May 14. Nevada-Las Vegas pitcher Erick Fedde, another likely first-rounder, according to Jim Callis of MLB.com, also had Tommy John surgery in May.

Doctors and trainers increasingly believe that overuse of teenage pitchers is behind the rise. They also believe that overuse and overthrowing as a teenager leads to a far greater risk of serious arm trouble as a professional. And they have studies to prove it.

"I don't think there's any question it starts in youth baseball," said Kevin Rand, who has spent 33 years in professional baseball, the last 12 as the head athletic trainer for the Detroit Tigers. "You read medicals of kids in the draft, and you'll see one where this kid could have been a good pitcher, but it ended at 15.

"They're throwing too hard, too fast, too much, too soon."

Ask around the baseball world, and you'll hear the same thing from everyone—from current major league pitchers to trainers, doctors, scouting directors, college coaches and even coaches involved in youth baseball.

You'll hear of kids pitching 12 months a year. You'll hear of kids playing for multiple teams during the summer so that they can pitch multiple times per week. You'll hear of kids throwing in a high school game one day and then visiting a private pitching coach and throwing more just two days later. You'll hear of kids visiting private strength trainers, lifting weights and then pitching in a game the very next day.

You'll even hear of 12-year-olds trying to throw split-finger fastballs.

"It's nothing short of child abuse is what it is," Rand said.

But it's not illegal.

"Many [youth baseball programs] have good regulations," said Dr. Glenn Fleisig, the research director at ASMI. "But there's a lot of baseball that is unregulated. Little League Baseball brought [overall limits] up in court, but the kids and the parents won.

"The courts said it's their free right to pitch as much as they want."

Fleisig, who serves on USA Baseball's medical and safety committee and also as the pitching safety consultant for Little League Baseball, can only work to spread the word and get his recommendations out to parents.

The Tommy John epidemic has helped his cause in a way, leading to this story and many others, and leading to Fleisig being swamped with interview requests.

"Someone should do a study on my overuse," he joked.

But really, he and the other medical people want this story to get out. They want it talked about, because they understand that their only chance to combat this epidemic is to convince parents that they need to protect their kids.

"I think a lot of people are looking at it—and that's a great thing," said Stan Conte, the veteran athletic trainer of the Los Angeles Dodgers and a member of a Major League Baseball committee studying the issue.

"Hopefully we can get youth leagues to protect the kids from themselves," Conte said. "It has to be the adults in the room making the decisions. But parents all think it's someone else's kid who is going to get hurt."

* * *

More and more kids are getting hurt, and more and more are getting fixed.

Tommy John surgery, originated in 1974 when Dr. Frank Jobe had the revolutionary idea of using a tendon from elsewhere in the body to replace the torn ulnar collateral ligament in Tommy John's 31-year-old left elbow, has indisputably saved the careers of hundreds of pitchers over the 40 years since then. It's been perfected to the point that 80 to 90 percent of pitchers who have the surgery are able to return to the same or higher level of competition in a year.

You'll hear that pitchers come back from Tommy John surgery stronger than before, throwing harder than before. You'll hear that you might as well just give all pitchers Tommy John surgery, just to get it out of the way.

Don't believe it.

First off, there is a risk. As much as Tommy John surgery has been mastered, there are a significant number of cases in which it doesn't work.

Second, nobody comes back throwing harder because he had Tommy John surgery. The doctors say the best they can hope to do is make the replacement ligament as good as the original. If there's any increase in velocity, it's due to other factors (such as getting stronger or normal development).

Finally, Tommy John surgery often isn't the final word. The best guess now is that the replacement ligament has a shelf life of about seven years, or at the most two or three years longer. Thus, a pitcher who needs Tommy John surgery at age 17 could be looking at another one by the time he's 24, or just when his major league career would get going.

And the success rate of a second Tommy John surgery is significantly lower.

Professional teams are well aware of that risk. At least 10 of the 30 major league organizations won't even consider drafting a pitcher if he has already had Tommy John surgery.

Read more: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2080837-baseballs-pitching-dilemma-too-hard-too-fast-too-much-too-soon

Joe Mauer's Inspiring Path to Becoming an MLB All-Star

                                                                       (Mauer on Right)
                                                       
Watch Video:
http://www.stack.com/video/3441939300001/joe-mauers-inspiring-path-to-becoming-an-mlb-allstar/

Minnesota Twins All-Star Joe Mauer talks about how his early years as an athlete shaped him and propelled him to MLB success.

MLB All-Star 1B Joe Mauer discusses his upbringing in Minnesota as the youngest of three boys. He relates how he and his older brothers developd their baseball ability in their basement by practicing with skinny, taped-up pipes and wiffle golf balls. He also explains his father's hitting invention, the Quick Pitch, which drops a baseball into the strike zone, forcing the hitter to use a compact swing to make contact.

Mauer played football, baseball and basketball growing up, which allowed him to develop a well-rounded athleticism. After a successful high school career, he was offered a football scholarship to play QB for Florida State. He chose baseball instead after realizing he had the ability to play at a high level. He discovered his prowess after making the USA U-18 baseball team following an impressive camp. Mauer was one of the youngest players and the only one representing the Midwest.

Within two years, he was the Twins starting catcher on Opening Day—less than ten miles away from his high school.

Mauer prides himself on playing the game the right way, working hard and keeping his mouth shut. He wants to be remembered for working hard, not for something controversial he said.