Today’s Tip: “Hit the Pitcher in the Head”
February 20, 2010
The Bod was the catalyst for this tip.
Here’s another catching tip….
1991 was my rookie season with the Royals, I was 23 and thought I was pretty cool. We’re in the bullpen in Milwaukee and I’m warming up my teammate (and at that point, 11 year veteran) Mike Boddicker for his start. He’s throwing and I’m kind of nonchalantly flipping the ball back to him. Let’s just say not every toss back was on the money.
Well, after about the fifth time he had to bend over to catch my return throw, Mike stepped off and screamed, “Dammit Brent, hit me in the chest!” There may have been a stronger word in there.
He took me by surprise, and my initial thought was, “who’s this old guy telling me what to do?” But then I kept thinking about it and a light went on. Mike was right.
First of all I thought, the poor guy is like 100 years old (he was probably 33, but that seemed ancient) and is going to have to throw about 100 pitches out there. The last thing he needs to do is chase my errant throws around.
Secondly, it dawned on me that if Mike’s standing on the mound and I throw the ball back to him head high at about 75% velocity, and instead of catching it he ducks out of the way, guess where the ball ends up? That’s right, second base.
This was big. I knew I was going to have to throw the ball back to the pitcher about 150 times every game anyway. If I just paid attention to that throw half the time, I was effectively practicing a throw to second base 75 times a game! Now if a Ricky Henderson or a Carl Crawford runs, I don’t have to think about a thing. That’s just where I throw the ball.
It’s a simple thing. But then again, if you want to be a player, you better pay attention to these simple things because baseball is a game of repetition. Whatever you do the most is what you’re going to do when the heat is on. Aside from being a bit selfish, mindlessly flipping the ball around creates bad habits. Police yourself to throw accurately and you’ll be a better teammate and a better player for your efforts. I sure was. Thanks Bod…you old man.
Till next time, good luck, have fun, and keep your eye on the ball.
Question, I had a situation where my catcher was firing it back to the pitcher fairly hard. I sat him down and let him now not to throw the ball too hard back to the pitcher in the case for some odd reason the pitcher couldn’t handle it. I have seen a few times in youth baseball, even high school baseball where catchers throw it back to the mound so hard with a guy on third base that the middle infielders weren’t able to back it up and the ball went into center field. I teach my catchers that with runners on, to be firm with the throw, but don’t fire it back 85mph. What are your thoughts?
Excellent question. I might have to do a whole separate tip on this. I really liked to use the velocity of my throw back to the pitcher as a tool. Holding it a little longer if I wanted to slow the momentum, flipping it back quickly if I wanted to get a guy in a good rhythm, or firing it back to wake him up/get his attention. In other words, mix it up. I never had a problem (from youth ball to the big leagues) of not hitting a guy in the chest with the throw, so velocity and overthrow was not an issue. Just tell your catcher to mix up his throws, arm slots, etc. and keep things interesting….and hit the stinking pitcher in the chest.