Brent Mayne

I Can’t Buy a Hit

“When you’re in a slump, it’s almost as if you look out at the field and it’s one big glove.”  ~Vance Law

I wonder if they had Vance’s quote in mind when they made this thing…

When you're in a slump this is what you see out in the field.

Some random facts about the big glove in San Fran….

The glove is a 26-foot-high, 32-foot-wide and 12-foot-deep replica of a vintage 1927 four-fingered baseball mitt. It is 36 times the size of the original model and weighs 20,000 pounds.

If hitters reach this glove, they will have hit a ball approximately 501 feet and it won’t be an out.

The mitt was constructed by scanning the original model to create a 3-D file showing every stitch and wrinkle. A computer router, using the 3-D model as a guide, carved the outline of the glove from high-density foam. The foam was cut into blocks to make them easier to handle and covered with fiberglass before being assembled, attached to a steel infrastructure, and hand sculpted by artists.

The artists who crafted the glove took great measures to maintain the authentic look and feel of the original mitt. The surface is a flexible epoxy compound that was molded and treated to look like worn leather. The grommets are real brass and the stitching, done by hand, uses marine grade rope.

Announcers

Announcing is a hell of a lot harder than it looks/sounds. The Vin Scullys and Chick Hearns of the world make it seem so effortless, like anyone could do it. Trust me, that’s not the case.

I know this to be true for a couple reasons. Firstly because I’ve been exposed to just about every baseball announcer in the U.S. for a decade and a half for every game of the season. I also know how difficult it is from my attempts at broadcasting/interviewing on my podcast series.

That being said, there’s good ones and there are bad ones. To be 100% honest, I think most fall into the second category. Maybe I’m spoiled because I grew up with Hearns and Scully. Maybe I’m just really hard on them because I’ve listened to so many. I don’t know. All I know is that most bug me.

The current trend of “teaching” while calling the game particularly bothers me. Think McCarver or Hershiser, or many others. They have a bad tendency to top off every situation with a mechanical breakdown and a tutorial which highlights their vast and superior knowledge of the game.

Instead of just calling the game. God forbid a little dead air or some simple sounds of the ballpark.

So who do I like? I like Scully, I like Kuiper & Krukow up in San Fran, I like Ryan Lefebvre in K.C. I like Bob Costas too. There are a few more, but these are the ones that immediately come to mind.

San Fran's Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper.

Kansas City's Ryan Lefebvre.

What got me on the subject in the first place was this interesting article in the #Wall St. Journal earlier this month. Basically someone tediously figured out how many words per minute every play-by-play announcer spoke. Figures were calculated by counting the number of words spoken in one non-scoring inning in one day. Here’s the results…

*Mr. Scully is the only announcer in the Dodgers’ broadcast booth

For more info on announcers, check out this blog. Cheers.

TWIB (“This Week in Baseball”)

Sorry for the late notice, but if you’re available today or have TIVO, “This Week In Baseball” (TWIB Fox 12:30 PST) is doing a feature on the European Academy in Italy today – Saturday.

MLB Productions was at the camp for almost the whole three weeks and probably got enough footage to make a feature length film. That being said, I’m not sure how much of the half hour show will be devoted to the Euro Academy.

I think the important thing will be how much face time I get. Enjoy.

A few of the 2009 Euro Academy staff. From left - Jeff Krushell, Garth Iorg, a player (sorry no name), Barry Larkin, John McClaren, Bruce Hurst, another player, me, Wally Joyner, Mike Randall (kneeling).

ChiCatching?

I’m reading an interesting book on running right now titled ChiRunning by Danny Dreyer.  I’m only about 50 pages into it so I can’t give a full review yet; however, the theme seems to be the author’s effort to apply principles from the ancient Chinese art of T’ai Chi to running. Thus Chi Running. Get it?

This is my first exposure to T’ai Chi, and I’m finding it fascinating. What I find most fascinating is how similar it is to the way I caught and teach catching.

For example, according to T’ai Chi, one of the main principles and the foundation for all movement in the body is something called “needle in cotton.”  This describes the feeling a practitioner should have while doing a movement. It is alignment of the body, concentration of energy in your center area (core), while your arms and legs are as soft as cotton, holding no tension.

So here’s the image as it relates to catching. Think of a needle held vertically inside of a ball of cotton. The needle represents your centerline (spine), your axis of rotation. The needle is very “gathered,” as the Chinese would say. It represents the gathering of energy toward a center. It is thin and straight and strong, which is how you want your posture line to be whenever you’re moving through space. As you gather energy toward you centerline, you draw it away from you peripherals, leaving them as soft as cotton.

Here I am in an Art of Catching/ChiCatching/Needle in Cotton stance.

As I read this, it reminds me of the way Barry Bonds used to describe and teach the baseball swing. He used to say that it felt like there was a vertical pole driven through his head, down his spine, and into the ground. Basically to swing the bat, he just rotated on that pole. Like the opening of a door. He talked about letting his arms being soft. Exactly “needle in cotton”…ChiHitting.

If any of you has heard me talk about catching or have my book The Art of Catching, you know that the first thing I talk about is posture. I harp on the concept of “staying stacked,”  athletic, and powerful throughout your movements and stances. Basically I’ve been teaching “needle in cotton” without knowing it.

It’s interesting and feels validating that The Art of Catching principles align with a 2000 year old Chinese art form. (At least what little I know of them so far). More as I learn more. Cheers.