Toughness Defined

Toughness Defined was published June 19, 2012 in the RD Baseball Blog - the official blog of Santa Clara Baseball

Toughness Defined

By Eddie Smith
June 19, 2012
www.RDbaseball.org


Omaha: Every June the eyes of the sports world turn to the most appropriate host of any major sporting event in America.

The toughness that emanates from every inch of architecture, people and history in this blue-collar railroad town is also at the core of every team fortunate enough to be playing in the College World Series.

While the term toughness is often tossed around in casual baseball conversation, it is rarely defined.  Initially, the word sparks images of a lumberjack-looking man gripping an oversized bat with bulging forearms and tobacco spit dripping down a grizzled beard and staining a ragged uniform as he crushes another ball into the outfield light structures.






But, in reality the toughness these championship teams have is more similar to an enduring Ironman champion meshed with the grit of the men who laid the original railroads in Omaha.

It is impossible to completely define this toughness that we hear so much about – if it were that easy, perhaps it would not be such an elusive quality for so many teams.  Yet there are several aspects of the game of baseball in which toughness can be defined.  Here are examples of this toughness that the great teams do every time:

Every day is the most important day of the year

Baseball is a marathon and to be great you have to sprint.  No sport plays as many games, has longer practices, has a longer warm up or spends more time at the field than baseball.

The college baseball season is long.  Workouts start the first day of class in August and the season ends in late June.  Add two months of summer ball and no other sport in college or professional athletics has a season that compares in length to the college baseball season.

Rather than looking at this in the big picture, which can be overwhelming to the weak, tough teams understand that you can never give a day away.  Whether it is taking ground balls during an individual workout in November or the National Championship Series in Omaha, every day must be treated with the same mentality of an opportunity to bring energy and be great.

This is a mindset and a toughness that seems unrealistic to most but the reality is that the great teams think this way.

Every pitch counts

The game of baseball is a marathon.  The average game is nearly three hours, and has over 300 pitches.  Yet after every game you can look back and know the game was decided on just a handful of pitches.  Tough teams know this and live this.  The tough teams are a cohesive unit of starters, pitchers and reserves who all understand the importance of executing their role on each pitch.

Confidence

The game of baseball is designed to create self-doubt.  It is an individual sport wrapped up in a team game so the disappointment of failure after making an error or striking out makes a player feel like the entire world is staring at him as he waits for what seems like an eternity for the next pitch to be thrown.

Great teams are full of players who are tough enough to believe in themselves even when no one else does.  This confidence radiates from these players in a manner that says I am who I am as a player and a mistake or two isn’t going to change me.  This unwavering belief and trust in their preparation is at the core of the toughest teams.

Momentum

The mythical creature of the weak... momentum!  When the game of baseball does not go your way it is easy to feel like the sky is falling.  

Every pitch the game calls for individual players to all do their job for their team:  A pitcher to make a pitch, a hitter to put a great swing on a pitch or take a ball, fielders to make a play or move to the correct place.  Yet so often when a team is experiencing negative momentum, individuals and the entire team will do things outside of their foundation because their mind is not tough enough to stay committed to doing their job the way they have prepared.  This leads to a landside of poor performance only compounding the negative momentum working against them.  

Tough teams have an incredible mindset to be able to play the game pitch by pitch.  What happened the pitch before, positive or negative, does not impact the individual and team performance on the next pitch.  This toughness in the commitment to doing the job pitch to pitch allows tough teams to persevere through adversity and watch their weaker opponents crumble when momentum does not go their way.

Hard 90 every time

There is nothing that tells you more about a player than the way he runs to first base.  Some players run hard when it means they can beat out a ball for an infield hit and pad their average and others run hard most of the time.  But the great teams have an entire line up that runs to first base the same way every time.

These teams have players who go full speed whether it is a ground ball when the player must simply run hard for 90 feet before breaking down to peak for the overthrow or a pop up to an outfielder where the runner must go hard out of the box all the way to second base in case of a rare drop by the outfielder.  While human nature is to be frustrated as a hitter after an average swing, the great teams have selfless players who go hard every time to apply pressure on the defense and ultimately force more errors and have more bases.

“I will execute for my team”

The game of baseball requires execution.  Bunting, hitting and running and a simple ground ball hit to a middle infielder playing back with a runner on third base and less than two outs are all examples of this execution.  There are players who look at these situations as punishment but the tough players are eager to have these opportunities.

Quite simply, tough players come up in these situations with the maturity to understand that this is what wins baseball games and take on a mindset of “I will execute for my team.”  This thought alone is the foundation of a great executing team and the teams who execute will be the ones who win baseball games.

Take every free 90 feet

In the highest levels of baseball, the game becomes played one base at a time.  At the high school level, free bases are given up all over the field while in college they become much more scattered.  In watching Major League Baseball, free 90s are few and far between as the game is at its highest level.
Tough teams understand the value of every 90 feet and work to advance 90 feet on every pitch.  These 90 feets come in many different ways and the great teams understand this.

Tough teams have players who recognize a third basemen getting lazy and playing two steps deeper than he has the entire game on a 2-1 count in the third at bat of a hitter who is fifth in the order and the hitter drops down a bunt to take the free 90 feet given to him.

Tough teams have players who take pitches below the knees on 3-1 counts every time because they understand the value of the walk they just drew.

Tough teams steal bases the first or second pitch that the pitcher turns his focus from holding the running game to trying to get out the hitter.  While many players may take 3 or 4 pitches to take this free base as the pitcher moves from 1.3 to 1.5 seconds to the plate, a tough player takes it the first pitch and is in scoring position earlier in the count giving the batter a better opportunity to drive him in.

Tough teams look to advance 90 feet on the bases every pitch and are never surprised by a ball that kicks away from the catcher.  Next time you look at a team’s statistics, check the ratio of wild pitches and passed balls their pitching staff has compared to their opponents.  The great teams force a drastic difference in wild pitches and passed balls out of their opponents because they are anticipating this free 90 feet on every pitch.

The examples of 90 feets that are taken are endless but the constant is that great teams have the toughness to anticipate these 90 feets every pitch and take advantage of them when the opportunity presents itself.

Outs after Es

As a pitching staff it is a recipe for disaster when another team is given an extra out because of an error.  Rather than being frustrated or pointing fingers, toughness is getting back on the mound and finding a way to get the next hitter out.  Errors are a part of the game and are going to happen.  It is how you respond to them that counts.

Manage the running game

Every pitcher has pickoff moves but every once in a while you will see a pitching staff who really does a great job of managing the running game.  Staffs who manage the running game well have the toughness to understand the importance of limiting basestealers while still being able to focus on getting the batter out.

The tough pitchers are so good at this that stealing a base becomes nearly impossible as they deliver pitches at 1.1 or 1.2 seconds every pitch and they also collect an extra out or two a game with a deceiving pick move to first base or understanding when the runner may be stealing at second base and fooling him with an inside move that looks like he is going to the plate to the runner.  Suffocating the running game forces an offense to beat you by simply standing there and swinging the bat which is a tall task in the world of BBCOR bats.

Never strike out looking

Strikeouts are going to happen.  But tough players and tough teams do not allow themselves to strike out looking on offense.  A backwards K on a team that oozes toughness may be looked at as a “sky is falling” kind of event – it just does not happen.  There are great pitchers everywhere with good stuff but tough players simply have a mindset where they refuse to go down looking.

Every at bat is a masterpiece

In the course of anyone’s career there are only a limited number of at bats you will get as a hitter.  The toughest players know this and approach every at bat as if it may be their last.  Tough teams are marked by players who take the same approach every at bat and will not give one away.

These players walk into the batters box knowing they are going to get a hit every time and simply refuse to make soft contact or swing at a pitcher’s pitch.  These players also are never satisfied and understand the importance of a great at bat in the 7^th inning whether your team is ahead 8-3 or down 8-3 in a game that seems to be well in hand.



These are just a few of the details that makeup the toughness that is the foundation of every great baseball team.  So, as you tune into ESPN this week awestruck by the excitement and youthfulness of the players on the teams who have earned a trip to Omaha, take a second to watch the game a little closer.  You will quickly recognize this toughness that oozes from these teams and is the very reason they got to Omaha in the first place.



— COACH SMITH

A New Perspective

A New Perspective was posted April 2, 2012 in the RD Baseball Blog - the official blog of Santa Clara Baseball

A New Perspective

By Eddie Smith
April 2, 2012
www.RDbaseball.org

Baseball is a game that is made to be played every day.  In the Major Leagues, teams set out on six month journeys and take about ten total days off throughout the entire season and even the 56 game college season is a marathon of triumphs, challenges and memories.

The greatest thing about baseball is that even with the bulk of games that are on a schedule, each day at the ballpark has a different way of reminding me why I love this game so much and giving new perspective on the sport.

Wednesday morning I had a unique way of being reminded of how this great game has so many beautiful intricacies when a group of 20 MBA students from Deggendorf, Germany arrived at Schott Stadium for a chance to learn “America’s Game.”


The foreign exchange group is one of many that Santa Clara’s Leavey School of Business hosts each year for a week-long exchange in hopes of educating MBA students on American business.  My task was to teach this group the basics of the game of baseball and how the game is so entrenched in American culture with the hopes that by understanding baseball, these students would better understand America.

The German group’s only experience with baseball came the night before as they watched a few innings of our game against Brown so the teaching of the game was truly from the ground up.

From the very beginning the group was very intrigued by baseball and how it was such a part of our American culture.  They were a very friendly group with a lot of spirit and really enjoyed trying to figure the game out.

As my presentation started, we talked about the pitch and how a pitcher tries to throw the ball to a catcher while a hitter stands trying to hit the ball.   It was fascinating to see how a group of mature and highly successful business people had to work so hard to grasp so many simple concepts of the pitch!

During the presentation we used a power point full of pictures, words and descriptions to try to teach what a pitch meant.  As the presentation went on, trying to explain the difference between a strike and a foul ball that counted for a strike was mesmerizing for the group.  They had the hardest time understanding why a foul ball would be a strike all the time except when a hitter had 2 strikes.  No matter how many times we tried to explain it, it didn’t make sense!

Later, the topic of force outs and tag outs came up.  Explaining why a runner would sometimes need to be tagged out and other times only need to be forced out, but could still be tagged out on a force out just perplexed this group of bright and intelligent foreign business leaders.

The day concluded with a mini workout for the students as they had a chance to play catch, hit and run the bases.  For many of them, figuring out that a right handed glove actually goes on the left hand was the most success they had in any physical activity.

At the end of the day, we took a group picture, shook hands and thanked each other for a great day.  It was truly a memory that was a great teacher of the beauty of baseball.  Despite the brilliant minds of these business leaders, their inexperience with baseball was a great reminder that some of the details of baseball that we take for granted are so beautiful.

Could you imagine how the game would be different if a runner didn’t have to tag up on a fly ball or if all outs required a tag?  For a day these questions raced through my mind as I was given another perspective on baseball as the very basic principles of the game were examined and challenged and I was given another perspective on the sport.

And all the while they thought I was supposed to be teaching them something about America’s game!

— COACH SMITH

A Trip to Baseball's Heartland

A Trip to Baseball's Heartland was published January 17, 2012 in the RD Baseball Blog - the official blog of Santa Clara Baseball

A Trip to Baseball's Heartland

By Eddie Smith
January 17, 2012
www.RDbaseball.org
While the rest of the world recovered from Christmas festivities, I made my way to Sea-Tac Airport early on the morning of December 26^th to begin the trip of a lifetime.  I was about to embark on a ten day journey to the Dominican Republic – the best hotbed for baseball talent in the world.

It had been a little more than two years since my first trip to coach a camp in this Caribbean land and time had its way of gently erasing the memories of the way that baseball is so entrenched in the lives of every Dominican.  A few minutes after landing at the Santo Domingo Airport, however, and everywhere you look is a blaring reminder of the love and passion for baseball that is the very foundation of this country.

On the side of nearly every street you see kids – most of whom finish any formal education by the time they are seven years old – playing baseball with anything they can find.  Sticks serve as bats, balls range from rocks to bottle caps, and gloves are a rare luxury in these street games.  On the rock laced field, there is not a moment of daylight wasted as teams shuffle from one game to the next practice.  For little league practices, they even divide the field into four small fields allowing four teams to practice at the same time.  The game of baseball is truly a way of life for the Dominican people.


Our camp was based in the small beach town of Boca Chica – about 30 miles east of Santo Domingo.  Boca Chica is home of Baseball Heaven, the site of seven Major League organization’s Dominican baseball academies that are essentially an all-inclusive resort for Dominican players who have signed professional contracts to train for 11 months of the year.  The academies began about 20 years ago and their success can be seen by the 88 current Major Leaguers from the Dominican Republic.  This makes up about 15% of Major League rosters from a country with the population the size of Michigan.

Because of this success, every Major League team now has an academy on the island in hopes of developing the next Jose Reyes or Johan Santana.  The academies are a deep contrast to their surroundings as there are pristine living quarters, dining halls, weight rooms and playing fields to help these 16 to 18 year olds potentially realize their Big League dreams.

While Boca Chica is home to so many of these great facilities, our Dominican Baseball Camp was anything but luxurious.  Instead it was an opportunity for the campers to develop as baseball players while spending the week immersed in the rich Dominican culture.

This was highlighted by several workouts on the worn out Dominican fields with worn down infrastructure that is overlooked only because of the passion by which the Dominican players play the game inside.  These fields are used so often that batters boxes and sliding areas resemble craters while the “all-dirt” infields are littered with rocks making bad hops the expectation.  Lighting in the hotel worked about half the time and in one of the more heroic efforts of the trip, our group leader replaced a dead battery on the team “bus” with the battery in his Nissan Sentra rental so the bus could take campers to the airport at 4:30 a.m. to catch their outbound flight!

Despite a lack of many modern luxuries and a lifestyle where most people are uncertain where their next meal may come from, the Dominican Republic was recently rated the world’s 2^nd happiest country.  Blessed with a perfect climate and a lifestyle that has very little urgency, smiling is not just a way to express happiness, it is a way of life.

This was infectious as our players embraced the culture.  Each day local Dominican players ate and played with our group and even with a language barrier, the players quickly bonded through the game of baseball.


In the most memorable day of the trip, we woke up early on New Year’s Day to drive a few hours to the campo, Spanish for country.  After driving for what seemed like days on a dirt road filled with potholes, our bus pulled up to a clearing in the sugar cane fields and arrived at a Dominican version of the Field of Dreams.  Tucked away in a small village that did not have electricity or indoor plumbing, this ball field has quickly become one of my favorites as it is the perfect picture of how the great game of baseball can be played with enthusiasm and love by people who barely have anything else.

After the players put their cleats on, their regular organized team stretch was replaced with helping the locals remove the fresh cut hay from left and center field.  It took about a half hour to remove the cut hay, but once it was gone, the 4” tall greenish grass might as well have been the outfield of Fenway Park and it was time to play ball!  We enjoyed a traditional Dominican day of playing baseball which meant a morning game followed by about a two hour comedor, the Dominican term for a lunch break between doubleheaders.  In a traditional Dominican game day, the home village prepares a lunch for the traveling team between games of a double header.  Being the guests, we were treated to a wonderful meal of chicken and rice after a big win in the first game.

Throughout the day, the crowd was enthusiastic, as was the case in every game and workout we had.  The Dominican people love the game so much that they are eager to get out and watch any game they could.  In one game there was at least 300 people in attendance watching.  While this particular day was a smaller crowd, it did have character as some of the “guests” included a group of chickens that ran all over the outfield and a pig that didn’t seem too concerned about the threat of being struck by a foul ball as he continued to walk right next to home plate before being shooed away by the umpire only to return again a few batters later.  At one point the game was stopped as a herd of bulls decided to make their way into right field.  At the end of the day, it was an unforgettable experience.

Another highlight of the trip was a night in Santo Domingo to watch a game in the Dominican Winter League.  This league is made up of six teams and is over 100 years old.  While the average Dominican can name every Dominican player in the Major Leagues and the team they play for, when it comes to cheering for a team, the Dominicans are diehard fans for the Dominican League teams they grew up rooting for.

The game we attended was part of the four team round robin playoffs for this season and featured a matchup between Licey and the Aguilas.  For Dominican Winter League Baseball this was the Yankees- Red Sox matchup.  In typical Dominican fashion, the stadium was only about half full for first pitch.  By the 4^th inning there was barely an empty seat in the house which created an atmosphere that was truly unique.

The only way to describe the stadium would be Bourbon Street, Texas High School Football and a World Cup Game all mixed into a baseball game.  Every pitch was cheered for by one fan base or the other with a chorus of screams and cheers drowned out by the constant sound of blow horns that nearly every person brought with them for the game.

Led by Miguel Tejada, the Aguilas emerged as the winners that night but the game itself was only part of the entertainment.  Nearly every pitch the teams had mascots out in front of the dugout jumping around and reacting to that pitch.  Between one of the innings in a break from the cheerleaders who were always on top of the dugouts dancing, Robinson Cano was welcomed by the public address announcer.

The fans went crazy as they showed Cano on the video board smiling from his seat in a luxury suite.  The people in the top rows of the stadium below Cano’s suite were so excited to hear that he was at the game that many of them turned around and started pounding on the window of his suite in praise.  In a land where baseball is king, players who have made it to the Major Leagues are like Greek Gods that every Dominican kid dreams of becoming.

On the last day of the trip, all of the campers had already gone home.  Since this was my second trip to Boca Chica and a week into the trip, it had quickly become a very familiar place for me and many of the locals had gone out of their way to welcome me.  This reached a new level when they invited me to play in their game at the local field.

Not having played in an organized game of baseball for six years I really did not know what to expect.  I arrived at 9:00 a.m. for our “10:00 a.m.” game knowing that starting the game by 10:30 a.m. would be a miracle!  After warming up and throwing, the game slowly started to take shape.  I was assigned to the “old team” – a collection of players from all sorts of backgrounds.

One was now a local church pastor in Boca Chica after having spent a few years with the Orioles organization and another now lived in Arizona as a professional player and was back visiting family for Christmas and New Year.  In the other dugout was a group of younger players ranging from 15-20 years old.

At one point, for no particular reason, a few people strolled out to the infield from the other team.  A few minutes later a guy started playing catch on the pitchers mound.  That is when I got the news that I would be leading off and playing centerfield.  Apparently this was the way to say the game was starting.

Ten minutes later I stepped into the batters box for the first time in six years.  Trying to think of all the skills we teach our Santa Clara players, I was quickly reminded how challenging baseball can be!  After getting out in the first at bat, my second at bat was a great reminder that squaring the ball up and getting a hit is one of the greatest feelings in the world.

We ended up beating the “young team” 10-0 that day.  As a final good bye, I was welcomed to a Dominican friend’s house for a mid afternoon lunch.  The concrete flooring and cramped 6 x 12 area that served as the kitchen, dining room and living room in this house made for an even greater appreciation of the great meal of fish, salad and rice his wife prepared.

While there are so many luxuries that the Dominican people never dream of having, the passion they have for playing baseball and serving others is something we all should strive for.  The everyday necessities of cell phones, internet and personal vehicles are very nice, but can also take over our lives and become the focal point of our existence if we let them.  The time spent in the Dominican was a great reminder that these necessities are in fact luxuries.

At the end of the day, the Dominican people seemed to have all of life’s necessities covered as they shared passion for baseball and each other that was the center of their society.  I am hoping to make this camp a staple of my annual calendar as I can’t wait to return to this magical place on one of the world’s poorest islands.  In the meantime, I will work to take the lessons learned from this rich culture and live the “Dominican Way” in my daily life.

— COACH SMITH