I was reading the Renegades mission statement the other day and it states that our goal is to get underclassman college scholarships, incoming freshman prepared for college and to try and win the Connie Mack or NABF National Championships. I believe it is also our job as coaches and mentors to make the players better men than when they started in the summer
My first teaching moment of the year came before our first game against the Cougar Baseball Club. I made out my lineup earlier in the week after discussing it with Associate Head Coach Ryan Peavey. Our team had already taken batting practice and was warming up when A.J. Mackey showed up to the game. A.J. and I had a talk about responsibility and consequences before the game started. I took him out of the lineup because of his lateness, but explained my reasoning and told him we were not upset with him.
I interrupt this column to note that I will use names of my players and opponents in these weekly blogs to bring a personal touch to the issues discussed. I will do my best not to embarrass any players (coaches are fair game). In the case of A.J. it must be noted that he was one of the first players to report for the games the next two days. One quiet discussion was able to set him straight versus making a big deal out of the situation. What I also liked about the A.J. situation was that instead of blaming the world for his lateness in the end he took responsibility like a man. Having coached A.J. in the fall I know that he is a high character young man, which allowed me to handle the situation the way I did.
As for the opening game, we beat a very good pitcher in Steven Ewing. You could see his stuff was off from the long layoff after the high school season. But he showed good velocity early in the game. He is not a pitcher that I want to see later in the year when he gets back into synch. The key to that game was a 13-pitch at bat by Chad Taylor that tired Ewing in the first inning. The next batter Jimmy Dowdell hit a first pitch fastball nearly 400 feet over the center field fence. I felt that after the long at bat Ewing wanted to throw a first pitch strike and Dowdell must have had the same thought as he was looking fastball.
The second game was a home run derby. The problem was that the Fresh Water Storm was hitting all the home runs. Alex Kush, Zach Pitts, and Chad Modomo all hit homers in the Storm's 8-7 win. From my perspective I was happy that the Renegades battled back and tied the game after being down 7-3 in the hour-long first inning. I was very impressed by the Storm's offense. If they hit all year like they did this weekend they will have a great summer season.
On Sunday, Team Mizuno topped the Renegades 5-3. While Team Mizuno is a good team, I felt we beat ourselves with errors this game. The Renegades made four crucial errors to allow four unearned runs in the loss. As a coaching staff this enabled us to talk to the team about remaining focused throughout the entire game – not just certain innings. Three of the runs scored on a two out error with a Team Mizuno runner at third base.
The Renegades headed into a Memorial Day doubleheader under .500 for the first time in many years. In the first game Central Florida faced a tough South Florida Bandits squad. Before the game Coach Peavey suggested we move up catcher Ladson Montgomery to the No. 2 spot in the lineup. Ladson made Peavey look like a genius when he had the first RBI of the game en route to a 2-for-4 day. Ryan Fitzpatrick, Paul Kameris, and Neil McClellan combined to shutout the Bandits.
In between games of the doubleheader we had to teach our players about respect. We try to recruit players with Christian morals. As a Born Again Christian it is important to me to recruit solid citizens. Of course they do not have to be Christians – just good kids. Kevin Gottlieb, who is one of our top pitchers and a tremendous young man, is Jewish. To me character is very important in the selection process of the team.
The respect factor came into play when one of the players deleted a picture from my computer of a Red Sox pitcher and added another picture as a joke. Anyone who knows me knows you don't mess with my Red Sox. The computer is ins the dugout as we use it for statistical and scouting information during games. After the players ran several polls as punishment we spoke about respect as a team – another teaching moment early in the season.
In the South Florida game Coach Peavey spoke to a player about his at bat and the player basically argued with him in front of the team. Whether Coach was right or not (and he was right) the player should not have argued with his comments. That was used as an example of respect towards coaches.
The computer issue and the leaving of equipment where it is not supposed to be were also discussed. My feeling is that we must respect everyone's personal property. That respect means if the team's ball bucket is sitting somewhere we don't just walk away and leave it. We take it with us to the next field. I believe that the fact that we are emphasizing the respect issue will not only help the team over the course of the summer, but also help these players grow as young men.
We then got to play our last game of the weekend against the Apopka Baseball Club coached in the summer by a parent on the team. This game is a perfect example of why parents should not coach their children at this level.
I knew when we scheduled Apopka that we would see the coaches' son on the mound against us even though it was the last game of the tournament. I knew this because since Apopka was playing against the Renegades there would be scouts at the game; therefore the father would have his son seen that day – whether he was the best pitcher on the team or not. It turned out to be a bad decision when his son was rocked for six runs in the first inning as the Renegades won 8-2.
It was even more embarrassing for Apopka as their center fielder threw his glove at a ball over his head and jogged to retrieve the ball as our runner hit a triple. The lack of hustle did not deter the player as he was talking smack the entire game – even with his team down. I know that Apopka Coach David Lee would not put up with this type of behavior if he was coaching the team in the summer. But having a dad coach means losing discipline on the baseball field.
On a side note, the Apopka summer coach sent me an email after the game telling me they were not going to play in the Osceola Invitational in June – one of the biggest tournaments in the Southeast. It's a shame when a dad puts his son's poor outing over the showcasing of an entire team. Once again, that is why I'm against Daddy Ball because the emphasis is not on the group, but on the son.
Overall, I think it was a good weekend for us. As a coaching staff we learned a lot about our players. But more importantly our players learned some valuable lessons about responsibility and respect that will pay off the rest of their lives. That truly is a perfect record.
Bob Pincus is the co-head coach of the Central Florida Renegades (www.centralfloridarenegades.com) and the president of the World Baseball Federation (www.worldbaseballfederation.com). He can be reached at RobPincus@yahoo.com. |
