Baseball Digest - TIME MACHINE

As a young boy I could not get enough of Baseball Digest. It was great, it had everything and it spoke to me about everything that was baseball. Above is the cover of the March issue (you know, the month we are currently in) from the year when I was your age. Kind of like our own time machine. And you can go back in time and read them ONLINE!. You can go even further back if you want. Kevin Campbell (no relation to Campbell Queen) provided me with a link.


http://books.google.com/books/serial/by4DAAAAMBAJ?q=magazine_serial:by4DAAAAMBAJ&rview=1&lr=&sa=N&start=420

Kevin has also consented to come out and fungo baseball at you this weekend, and throw you some nasty curves. His curveball is just like mine only his actually breaks and make you fear for your life.

Kevin is a former SU pitcher who I used to catch. Actually I never caught him at SU, he is younger than I am, but we have played in various leagues together.

Kevin is a great guy, I am delighted he is coming out and hope you will welcome him and soak up any knowledge he has to share.

Headline From the Past

I had dinner with my brother on Sunday for his birthday. My brother is the one in the family that steals all the photos and mementos and than make a big deal about showing them to you and if he is in a good mood actually presenting them to you. It is really nice when he gives me something that he stole from me many years ago as I am not one to keep things.

Anyway, my brother just happened to have the Seattle Time write up of the game that was talked about in a previous article on Quality At Bats.

Note how deep SU was in pitching based on use of arms in a double header, and yes Coach Bishop pitched the day before and did indeed relieve in both games described, something we promise never to do to you guys.

"IF", by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run

- Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!


This was one of my late Father's favoite poems. One he read to me. I urge you to read it. I urge you to read it and reflect on each IF. You are young, maybe some you haven't felt or lived some of them. But I urge you to relect, reflect on any example of when these IF's may have applied to you. I urge you to read this poem and try your best to hold this wisdom to heart should any of these IF's come your way. Life is a long and sometimes hard journey. Put this poem in your pocket and comfort yourself with it and perhaps use it to prepare for both the joys and pitfalls of life to come, because indeed sometimes you're the bat and sometimes you're the ball - and one needs guidance with both success and failure to handle them both in stride.

Visualization

It is still too early to play. Try as I might I do not think I can get anyone to play us right now, nor could I find a field to play on. We are still stuck in the preparation phase of the upcoming season.

One of the tools we can use now is visualization. Start thinking about the season. Start thinking about what you will be doing. And go one step further.....start thinking about how and why you will be doing these tasks. As you visualize yourself making plays, making pitches and pounding the ball into the gap....think about how that is going to happen.

This just might inspire you to resume that exercise program, go for that run, do those sit-ups, those push-ups etc. It might inspire you to call that buddy to play catch, or find that brick wall to throw a ball against. It might inspire you to get in front of that mirror, or that reflective sliding glass door and look at your swing. It might inspire you to do the weight shift drills (they can be done without striking a ball). Pitchers - Now is a good time to work on your wind-up and your stretch. Use a small towel to simulate throwing a ball. Work on your slide step, work on your moves to first and second. Baserunners - Working on your jumps is something that can be done with vision and hard work. See the pitcher in his stretch... look for your jump and practice your starts.

For my favorite baseball "movie" of all time click below


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vheY65Y8Kmc

Now a word about Bugs Bunny and the whole Loony Tune bunch. Forget about the current day lame cartoons. Go to U-Tube and check these old timers out. They blew each other up, poked out eyes and chased each other around with knives, shotguns and dropped anvils on each other...you know, good clean fun.

And they were educational, too. I have told my lovely wife many times that all I know about Opera, Shakespeare and old time culture I owe to Loony Tunes and comic books. And she can tell you what a cultured man of the world I am.

Tractor News!!!!!!!

The Tractor has been loaded up and taken into Machinists Inc for a much needed overhaul. Many thanks to all that helped load this monster into the back of my pick-up. The Tractor was in such bad shape that it wouldn't rock or roll and monster muscle was needed to manually lift and set it into the waiting pickup truck. It was hard work, but we had a BLAST doing it.

We need this Tractor to keep our field in great shape. Warm thanks go out to all who helped.

My apologies extend to all who misunderstood my original message about things happening with the Tractor this weekend and got the date and time wrong.....and you know who you are ...and I'm glad you had fun.

Why I Read; Ain't This an Amazing Passage?

Every now and then I read something that just knocks me over. I am currently reading David Copperfield. It is an amazing book. This Dickens guy sure seems to be able to capture just what old time England was like, almost like he was living back then. It is a wonderful book.

I came across this passage yesterday and just thought, wow. Here it is:

"The man who reviews his own life, as I do mine, in going on here from page to page, had need to have been a good man indeed, if he would be spared the sharp consciousness of many talents neglected, many opportunities wasted, many erratic and perverted feelings constantly at war within his breast, and defeating him. I do not hold one natural gift, I dare say, that I have not abused. My meaning simply is, that whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do well; that whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself to completely; that in great aims and in small, I have always been thoroughly in earnest. I have never believed it possible that any natural or improved ability can claim immunity from the companionship of the steady, plain, hard-working qualities,and hope to gain its end. There is no such thing as such fulfilment on this earth. Some happy talent, and some fortunate opportunity, may form the two sides of the ladder on which some men mount, but the rounds of the ladder must be made of stuff to stand wear and tear; and there is no substitute for thorough-going, ardent, and sincere earnestness. Never to put one hand to anything on which I could not throw my whole self; and never to affect depreciation of our work, whatever it was; I find, now, to have been my golden rules."


Doesn't that just scream to you? Doesn't that just make you want to work harder to achieve your goals? Doesn't it make you want to read this book?

I tell you, nobody does plot like Dickens, Nobody grips you like Dickens. Nothing would impress your English teacher more than volunteering to read Dickens and do a book report on say Great Expectations, Or Tale of Two Cities or David Copperfield.

My Heroes

When I was your age you couldn't get any better than Mickey Mantle, Johnny Unitas and Bobby Orr. These guys were wonderful heros. The best and the best at their respective games in my opinion. If you want to waste any time (in a positive manner) go to You Tube and type these names in. There is some great old footage on these guys and I would especially recommend the Bobby Orr video set to the music "Nobody Does it Better". It almost made me cry.

This Sunday is our last chance to get better this year. We go Sunday at RIPS from 4:30 to 6:00 and then we shut down for the holidays. Hope to see you there.