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Optimism and a solid fastball called best foundation for kids who admire Glavine or Maddux By
Casey Hobson If you want your children to have it all when they grow up, teach them to play baseball. More specifically: teach them how to pitch. The average baseball player makes just over $1.5 million per season. Pitchers, however, make much more. Even the most mediocre pitchers are signing $3 million to $4 million contracts nowadays, and those costs seem to be on the rise. In 1997 two-time Cy Young Award winner Pedro Martinez, arguably the best pitcher in baseball, signed a six-year, $75 million deal with the Boston Red Sox. Four-time Cy Young Award winner Greg Maddux signed a five year, $57.5 million deal with the Atlanta Braves. One year later Kevin Brown became baseball's first $100 million man when he signed a seven-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, worth $105 million. In 2000, Mike Mussina signed a six-year, $88.5 million deal with the New York Yankees and Mike Hampton signed an eight-year, $121 million contract to pitch for the Colorado Rockies in homer-friendly Coors Field. Neither Brown, Mussina nor Hampton has ever won a Cy Young Award, and only Brown has a World Series ring (Florida, 1997). Yet these pitchers are among the highest paid players in the game -- and in all of sports for that matter. So why are pitchers bringing home more pork than anyone else? Because as baseballtips.com puts it, "pitching is the most important aspect of the game. A dominating pitching staff can make all the difference in determining a team's success." Pitching wins championships, and while good pitching is always in demand, there is never enough of it to go around. Thus, in an era when 50-home run hitters seem to be growing in the bullpen flower boxes, 20-game winners are in heavy demand. When a successful pitcher files for free agency, teams from across the country come running with money. Not only are pitchers among the top moneymakers in baseball, but they also make up nearly half the players in the major leagues. Generally every team carries either 11 or 12 pitchers on their 25-man roster, which means that roughly half of the 750 players in the majors are pitchers. So it stands to reason if a kid wants to play professional baseball, his best chances of making it are as a pitcher. Yet Logan Cardinals assistant coach Nate McBride said few kids want to take the ball anymore. Finding a player in the 12- to 14-year-old Logan Pony League who not only wants to pitch but can do so effectively can be just as hard as finding an effective pitcher in the major leagues. "Anyone can throw the ball down the middle if they want to," McBride said. "As far as good pitching goes, there's only a few out there. The players that do want to pitch are the ones that really have talent and are really confident about what they're doing." McBride said control, placement and knowledge of the game are what make an effective pitcher. Pitchers, he said, have to do more than throw the ball. "Knowing when to pitch what pitch, at what time and where - that's what makes a good pitcher," McBride said. McBride isn't the only person who thinks control and preparation are the key to successful pitching. Bert Blyleven, who spent 22 years in the majors and won 287 games, said the key to pitching is pitching. "A pitcher should never 'throw' the ball," Blyleven said in the book Heads-Up Baseball. "He should make a pitch. A pitch has a purpose and a target." Tony Gwynn, who won eight National League batting titles with the San Diego Padres, says control is what makes a successful pitcher, and few pitchers have better control than Atlanta's Tom Glavine and the aforementioned Maddux. Any young pitcher who is looking for someone to emulate should look at these two guys. "Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine have been two of the game's greatest pitchers for more than a decade because they work with their strengths," Gwynn explained on ESPN.com. "More consistently than most major-league pitchers, they know how to locate the ball well with late movement and how to capitalize on a hitter's over-aggressive nature at the plate. "As a hitter, Glavine and Maddux were the ultimate challenge. They always made me work harder as a hitter because they knew exactly what they were doing on the mound. They are as dedicated as pitchers as I was as a hitter." Gwynn's observations on Maddux and Glavine's success go hand-in-hand with what McBride says he sees in the Logan Pony League. The best pitchers are the ones who understand the game, understand how to locate their pitches and understand the importance of changing speed. But such pitchers are rare at any level, and coaches in the Logan Pony League are looking for good pitchers almost as hard as major league scouts are looking. Coaches from the Logan Cardinals, Dodgers, Mets and Diamondbacks met at the Logan Parks and Recreation offices on April 13, to draft the league's newest and youngest players. More than half of the first 10 players drafted were primarily pitchers or had pitching experience. At one point early in the draft, three of the coaches had one pitcher circled as their next draft pick, but were disappointed when the player was drafted before they could get to him. "Oh, I was hoping you wouldn't take him," said one coach. "I had him next on my list. I was hoping he'd slip past you unnoticed." "He was the only kid out there with any zip on his pitches," said another coach. "If you all hadn't taken him, we were going to." The overwhelming willingness to put the ball in the hands of a 12-year-old pitcher in a league where most of the players are two years older and, on average, four inches taller, shows just how scarce good pitching is. The danger in the scarcity of good pitching is that once a coach finds a quality pitcher, he'll overwork him and the kid will develop arm problems. Youth leagues across the country are trying to take preventative measures by setting caps on the numbers of innings a pitcher can pitch in a week. However, it is not uncommon for young pitchers to experience arm troubles, even when practicing good pitching techniques. Dr. Ralph Saltzer, an orthopedic sports medicine surgeon from Beaufort, S.C., told pitching.com elbow problems are the most common injury he sees in 9- to 13-year-olds. "The cause is flexibility problems all the way up from hamstrings and hips to the shoulder internal rotators," Saltzer said. "Throwing begins in the legs, then rotation at the hips, through the spine, then ultimately to the shoulder and to the elbow and wrist at the end of the chain. When kids at that age are beginning to develop and grow a bit ... they get flexibility problems in the hamstrings and hip flexors." Saltzer said this decrease in flexibility can lead to injuries in young players. Mel Curtis, who also coaches the Logan Cardinals, said his coaching staff tries to teach the kids not to rely on curveballs and other pitches which cause stress on the elbow. Like McBride, Curtis said changing speeds and locating is more important than throwing a big breaking curve. "Stick with a good, solid fastball," Curtis said. "I think it's better to teach the kid accuracy and turn him into a good, solid pitcher. You learn these trick pitches and it blows out your arm." Good pitchers at any level have one thing in common: good coaching. It should come as no surprise that Maddux and Glavine, who have six Cy Young Awards between them, are coached by Leo Mazzone, one of the game's most respected pitching coaches. Players in the Logan Pony League, like their major league counterparts, require a lot of coaching. Dr. Richard Gordin, a sports psychologist in Logan, said one reason pitching is so difficult for kids to learn is because it requires so much concentration. The most challenging thing to overcome is "their loss of composure and concentration, because it takes a lot of composure and concentration to pitch," Gordin said, noting many 12- to 14-year-olds have difficulty concentrating. "Take them back to the basics because they've already lost the ability to focus," Gordin said with regard to young teen-aged pitchers. "They lose (the ability to focus) in school and at home. It's not something that happens on the field. But they have learn to focus. "You've got to be a good teacher, you've got to be patient, and you've got to be fair because kids pick up on that," Gordin said. According to an article on webhome.indirect.com, pitching skills won't develop by just throwing a ball. Good pitching takes good practice -- a philosophy Gordin believes in firmly. "They say practice makes perfect. I don't buy that," he said. "Planned, purposeful practice makes perfect." Gordin said teaching kids in all sports -- not just pitchers -- to approach the game with confidence and a positive self-attitude will do wonders for their performance. "Teach them to be optimistic," he said. "Teach them to not take things personally. Teach them that things can change." Gordin said the pressure we put on kids at these young ages can be too much. He questions how a parent can get upset when their child's team loses a soccer game in the 6-year-old league. Teaching them to love the sport will do more for them at that age. "The problem with our society is that we've got it backwards," he said. "We tell people to work hard, get really good, win, and then I'll love you. "You can't leave the parents out of the mix. There's some days you feel you want to leave the parents out of the mix because they're not the best ingredient, but you can't." And that's probably a good thing. After all, until a player makes it to the big leagues and starts earning major league cash, it probably won't hurt to have mom and dad around for support.
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