Rock – Paper – Scissors

General Pitching Topics
#1

A coach that I knew had a JV club that was a great team in the making. His pitchers were very young but showed better than average potential. He wanted to continue their interest and enthusiasm so he posted all kinds of tryout information for summer leagues in the locker room.

By chance, I came into possession of some game tickets for a minor league club that was a few hours drive from where he lived. So, I offered the tickets to him and his young pitchers. In addition, I contacted the minor leagues pitching coach and asked if he could see to it that the kids got a good lookat the bull pen activity and maybe if he had some time – talk to the kids. “sure, no problem” —great!

About halfway through that summer I met my friend and asked him how the experience go for the kids? This is what happened.

The park was an older structure of wooden beams and flat seats. Not much on comfort but big on minor league sights and aromas. The kids and their dads fit right into the grove … but the moms were expecting a little more class. All the moms wore dresses which didn’t exactly fit the bill, and the various stains on the stadium seats didn’t help matters any. One mother seemed to ordain herself as queen bee – spokeswomen for the rest. Things did seem to simmer down a bit when the hometown club took the field and the pitchers were in the bullpen. Queen bee remarked to my friend… “what a fine group of young boys they have there”.
The first inning had some quick action and it kept everyone spellbound. However, after that things kind of fell apart. When the kids turned their attention to the bullpen then saw a few of the players poking pencils and paper through a wire fence trying to get the phone numbers from some girls in the parking lot, and a couple of guys had reached into their uniform pants and were comparing cups, another guy was clipping his toenails, one was reading comic books, and still others were playing Rock – Paper – Scissors.

I couldn’t help but come up with some sort of apology, but my friend just shrugged the thing off. He said the mom’s left right after that leaving the dads, the kids and myself watching the game. I expressed concern about the kid’s experience, for which I was told the only thing the kids had to say was….” Is this great or what!”

Coach B.

#2

Where else in the world do you get paid to play rock paper scissors in the bullpen?! NOWHERE! :shock:

Comparing cups? We all know I got the biggest cojones.
Lol Baseball chicks…

And hey, maybe the guy needed to clip his toenails because they mess with his performance.

#3

My 15yo son has already told me that he wants to be a closer because you pretty much get paid to watch ballgames from seats down on the field and you don’t have to work that much. :roll:

#4

CLOSERS !! :roll:

ROGER… that’s really thinking!!

I’ve got to pass on to you an experience I had with a rookie who I started off as a closer, just to get him going.

I had a youngster that had tons of potential but little confidence. Our club almost sent him packing –but, I convinced… no I literally pleaded to have him stay. He was only in his first year and he had so much promise.

It was agreed that he would go in as a closer – and only in certain situations. Well, as time when on, we both worked very hard. Every other day our skipper would ask “how’s he doing coach?” … Without too much eye contact I’d reply…“he’s coming along fine skip…just fine.”

Finally the day of … “let’s see what the kid’s got”, came around. After seven hard fought innings of work our ace was just about spent. Up in the bullpen went our rookie and a lot of my reputation. Time to got to work – our skipper walked out to the mound and took the ball then signaled to the pen - – out ran my boy with a full head of steam. He took the mound, got the ball from the skipper, listen to some words — then bent over with our skipper, shortstop and second baseman slapping him on the back something awful. He’d swallowed his gum and it went down the wrong pipe! He looked like an animated strawberry out there. Well, needless to say – out he came as fast as he went in.

Every once and a while I’ll meet some of the coaches and players that was part of that club, and the first thing that I hear is… “hey coach… have I got a closer for you!!”

Coach B.

#5

Great thread guys. I’ve done most of my work as a starter, but I was fortunate enough to have some bullpen experience a couple years ago. Anyways, there was one game that stood out from the rest.

If any of you have played pro ball or been around a minor league stadium you’d know just how many little kids come to the game. My first stint in the bullpen, the first thing I realized was just how many kids asked “Can I have a ball!” It must have been a hundred times a game, atleast! So what we did was place a small gatorade cup maybe 10 or 15 feet away from the railing and made it clear to the kids that if they made a quarter in the cup then we’d give them a ball. Man did we make bank! Needless to say, we gathered up quite a sum of money. We used them for team bullpen night at the nearest restaurant/bar and we had to buy a pair of binoculars. Nothing beats a good pair of binoculars from the pen!