Brent Mayne

Trash

This is kind of random and off the subject of baseball, but I had this thought as I was taking out the trash yesterday.  Monday is our trash day and somehow we managed to fill up a couple big bins full of stuff like we do every week. It finally hit me that this is a lot of junk to be throwing out every week. Because I just toss it in the can in the backyard and then once a week roll it all out to the sidewalk and then the nice trash man comes and it disappears, I never really gave it much thought. Then we went to Italy. In Italy they don’t have trash trucks that come right to your front door (at least where we were). Imagine that! You have to physically drag your trash out when it gets full and dump it in a main trash area (there is one every four blocks or so). This trash area has three bins, one for regular trash, one for recyclables, and one for organic stuff. So what ends up happening (in my case) is I became really aware of how much trash we generated because I didn’t want to be dragging stuff out every day. Plus it made me aware of recycling. Although it was a bit more inconvenient, I liked it and thought it opened my eyes.

Also, I wanted to clarify something that I wrote in the last post. When I say break a window, I mean on ACCIDENT.  As in, “I’ve never hit a tennis ball so hard or far and it traveled a LOT farther than I thought it was gonna and just accidently went through Mr. Mayne’s window.”  Not that you just threw a rock through my window. I want you to be bummed that you’ve got to spend your summer mowing my lawn to repay me, but deep down inside, really pumped that you hit a ball THAT far. Are we clear?

Where have all the kids gone?

I’m getting really frustrated. For the past week, I’ve been traveling around the neighborhoods where I live in Southern California with my camera looking for some kids playing a pick up game. I’m looking for what they used to call a “sandlot” game.  Geez, I would settle for a random game of “three flies up”.  Nothing doing. Bagels. Zero. Zip. Nada. I just wanted some simple pictures to show the pure joy of unstructured ball and encourage kids to get out of the house and play.

You see, I’ve got this theory that we Americans are NOT the best ball players in the world anymore and that this is directly related to the lack of pick up games that kids play. I got this idea loud and clear when I played ball in the Dominican Republic in the early 90’s.  I stepped of the plane and a rock whizzed by my head from some little rat playing “rock ball”. Since they don’t have the equipment there, they play with rocks and cut out milk cartons for gloves. And they all play. Every open field or street has kids playing some form of baseball…just like we used to do when we were young.

 Now what I want you to do is switch off the Playstation and turn it to the regular TV and tell me where most of the big leaguers are from. Surprise! The Latin countries. They don’t have the gear we do, they don’t have the organized leagues we do, but by the time they get to high school age, they’ve played about a billion times more baseball than the kids here have. And is it any wonder the best in the world come from the Dominican or Puerto Rico or Venezuela or Mexico?  By playing in an unstructured environment where they are free to make mistakes and try new things and goof around, they learn how to play the game with ease and joy. Instead of getting 2 or 3 at bats and a couple grounders like kids do in a little league game, they go home when it gets dark with 25 at bats under their belt and a truckload of defensive plays. No parents to judge or please. Because they have no umpires they have to work things out amonst themselves and they have to really KNOW the game and the rules. All good positive things.

These are things we all learned in the pre Playstation days. I know I sound like a grumpy old man, but I’m just trying to help for crying out loud! In order to be the best in anything you’ve got to do it more than the next guy. It’s got to be second nature. It’s got to be part of you. And baseball, unfortunately, isn’t part of the deal here anymore. At least not where I’m looking. 

Let me put it to you this way. If you haven’t broken your neighbor’s window with a baseball, or taped whiffle ball, or rock ball, or tennis ball you are NOT going to play in the big leagues. It should be a requirement that you must have broken a window and peed your pants as you ran away and worked half the summer to replace the window if you are going to play in the big leagues. You have to have that on your resume or no dice. You should also be required to be able to replicate the stances and swings of at least a dozen major leaguers past or present. You should be able to spit at LEAST 4 feet and adjust your crotch like you know what you’re doing. You should know how to play a game in the street and be able to field a baseball consistently on uneven pavement. You should know how to play a game with three or less kids. You should know what ghost runners are. Your glove should have a worn hole in it, your bat should have a dent in it, and your hat should have sweat stains. Your pants should have holes in the knees from practicing the Jackie Robinson hook slide. You should lose at least 30 balls a year over fences, to dogs, in windows, onto freeways, into lakes, etc. What I really want is for some neighbor kid to break MY window. I want to be the guy who gets to chase him down the street. And I want him to mow my lawn all summer to pay for it. Is that too much to ask?

Now damn it, get out there and do it! Turn the damn set off. I want to see YOU on T.V. someday. Oh yeah, and drop me a line to let me know where you’re playing so I can snap a few photos. Over and out.

Posture

By now I’m sure you understand how much I harp on posture and good athletic foundation. Consistent success athletically (no matter what the sport) just won’t happen without it.  The term I think describes it best is “stacked”. The best athletes stay stacked throughout their movements more often than the mediocre athlete. I go into this in much more detail in the book (what, you haven’t got the book yet?!!!) Anyway, I was browsing my photos of Italy and it occurred to me that there is a good architectural analogy that might help people understand what athletic posture and balance (stacked) looks like vs. out of balance (unstacked). So here it is…pretty self explanatory, yes?

The Exchange part II

I was looking at my photos of the European camp catchers and the Russ Martin images and it really hit home how much better his exchange is.  And how his handwork really allows his body to stay in a more athletic position and deliver a throw with some power and authority. You can see for yourself in these images.

With my Euro catcher, he’s snatched the ball up to his ear in an effort to be quick, and in doing so, pulled his whole body up (almost on his toes) and eliminated any arm arc.  In the Martin image, you can see how low the glove stays and how it goes no farther back than the middle of his chest.  This keeps him grounded and powerful and gives his throwing arm plenty of time to gather speed.  Not to mention the time it allows him to find a good grip.  And I dig how he is throwing from behind home plate, he hasn’t swung around into the right handed batters box. You can’t see it because of the angle, but I can tell by the footwork that the Euro catcher’s momentum has carried him way to the left. Live and learn people, live and learn. Adios.

The Breakdown

So I had a little breakdown yesterday as the reality of trying to operate a business starts to dawn on me.  You see, my idea of organized is to write it on the back of an envelope and put it in a pile. Then my wife cleans the pile and I loose the info and start the whole process again (after getting into it with my wife). This technique officially no longer works for me and I finally realized it yesterday. Basically I’m trying to get these books out and the website running and have the capacity to take and process orders and on and on. If you have a business you know what I’m talking about. There’s a million little loose ends and writing them on the back of an envelope isn’t cutting it. Yesterday I lost my list of user names and pass codes for the 2nd time and I’m cranky anyway because of jet lag and I just lost it. I lost it like I lost it when I was playing baseball and struck out for the fourth time or something. I was just so pissed at myself (I can’t be that stupid, can I?).

Its kind of funny. It is really dawning on me how little business skills (or any skills for that matter) I have outside of playing baseball. Baseball is pretty much all I’ve done. So now I’m out of the game and its like I’ve got the social skills of a teenager. Major League Baseball is basically turning out these social misfits into society. A bunch of 16 year olds in 40 year old bodies! Scary. And trying to write and self publish a book and run a website and keep the books and all that….what the hell is going on? I’m just making it up as I go along and taking some lumps. Maybe that will be my next book…..”How To Deal With Life After the Big Leagues”.  I’ll have a chapters on how to go through an airport alone, how to do laundry, how to pay a bill, how to live in one place for more than two weeks, how to get to know your wife and kids, how to check into a hotel, how to grocery shop, etc. The only problem is it will only appeal to a limited market. Oh well, it was a good idea. Wish me luck. Adios.