Got an announcement this week, so we are about to make our very first public appearance and do our first live episode.

And we are so excited about that.

It is going to be on November 8th at Swing Spot Baseball on Roush Drive in Plain City, Ohio.

Our friend Keith Vonderhaar, who we met at a local tournament and been working with him, built his website, helped him with some marketing, he is going to be opening a brand new facility and it is fantastic.

I have toured it myself and it is first class.

We've got great machines.

He's even got an iron mic, he's got hit tracks, he's got all that new stuff.

He's got the nicest turf I've ever seen.

It's a 2800 square foot facility and it's beautiful.

They're going to have lessons and training, individual rentals, team rentals, the whole shooting match.

And he's kicking it off on November 8th.

And we're going to be there live to do an episode of the Complete Game podcast.

And we're so excited about making that happen.

The event starts at 10am the podcast is at 11.

And then they're going to have food trucks there in the afternoon.

I know Schmidt Sausage is going to be there and a handful of other folks.

So it's going to be a great event.

And so we would hope that you guys will come and join us.

You're going to get to interact, ask questions, talk to the guys.

After we're done with the episode, they're going to stick around and spend some time.

It's to going, going to be fantastic.

If you've ever been involved with youth baseball and you want to know anything about youth baseball, high school baseball, college baseball, stick around and come talk to Rick.

This guy knows more about college baseball than anybody I know.

And he's going to be there talking.

George is going to be there.

If you ever wanted to meet a member of the Big Red Machine, this is your opportunity and you cannot go wrong.

I'm telling you, we've done a full season with this guy and he's just, he's just impressed me every time I turn around.

He's been a dear friend and I really enjoyed spending time with him.

I know you will too.

And you know what?

If you play your cards right, George is known to sign things.

So come by and, and check it out.

Come meet George and talk about it.

Ask your questions and, and have a good time.

Ethan's gonna have a table there from Glovehound.

If you've got a glove that needs some work or you got a glove, you got some questions about?

You want to come by and just talk about gloves and collecting?

There's all kinds of things to do there at the Glovehound table.

We also announcing that he's going to be releasing a new line of leather goods this year in cooperation with Selbridge Leather Goods.

So there'll be some new things there on the table for you to check out, maybe take home with you.

So come by, talk to us.

The address is 8435 Roush Drive, Plain City, Ohio, November 8th.

We hope to see you there.

Welcome to the Complete Game Podcast where we're all about baseball with Ethan Dungan, owner of Glovehound Baseball glove repair shop.

Rick Finley, founder of MDNI Baseball Academy and the creator of George Foster Baseball, the MVP himself, Reds hall of Famer George Foster.

I'm your host, Greg Dungan.

Now let's talk baseball.

All right, welcome back.

Episode 19.

We're going to continue our series on offensive objectives.

Today we're going to talk about becoming a hitter with options.

And what we mean by hitter with options is the ability to do any number of things when you come to the plate that the team might need.

So the idea that if the team, whatever the situation is that you're in, if the team needs a bunt, you can put one down.

If the team needs somebody to hit into a hit and run, put it in a gap, do what you need to do.

Give me a long fly ball so we can tag up, get a guy in.

You know, this is being a hitter with options today.

So we're going to talk about several different aspects of that, and we're going to start with naming five skills that enable a hitter to effectively move runners on base ahead of him.

So it's kind of a tricky thing.

This week.

We're going to, we're going to focus on moving runners this week, but not necessarily scoring runners.

That's going to be next week.

So.

So this is about moving runners into scoring position and maybe from second to third into deeper scoring position.

But we're kind of trying to break it down real tight.

So moving runners.

So things that came to mind, I'm just going to put these out there and we're going to discuss them today rather than just everybody naming things.

Oh, man.

So skills that could enable you to effectively move runners.

The most effective way to move runners is.

Is probably George's favorite way to move runners.

Yeah, move them.

All right.

All the way around, basically.

All the way around.

Being able to hit for power Hit.

It out of the ballpark, give a souvenir.

Nothing moves runners like moving them all the way around.

Okay.

But then other things.

Other aspects of hitting for power, though, George.

Being able to.

Being able to pull it deep or.

Or hit it deep to the other side.

Gap shots.

But I was going to say the one that I was very effective in.

Bunny.

I was known for my bunning.

No, I actually you looked at me like what I bought.

I was two for two.

Bunny.

Oh, man, that's a thousand wine.

Was a line drive to third base and I bought it.

And the other was actually I got a sacrifice butt and I forgot to run.

But it didn't really matter.

I was just so amazed.

I was amazed that I did it.

I did it.

Did anyone get this on video?

Oh, no video at that time.

But it was excited.

The other thing would be just to be able to hit for contact.

Just to be.

Okay, number one.

What we need is a ball in play.

Yeah.

So many guys strike out.

Yeah.

Shorten your swing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The important.

What.

What are some.

What are some thoughts on that?

Like, you know, we.

We talk about this all the time.

We get frustrated when we've got a guy on.

We need to.

Or multiple guys on.

We got to get them moved.

And people go up there and.

And strike out.

Is it.

What ca.

How do you fix that?

Is it a different approach mindset?

You got to work on it in spring training.

So to get good in any.

Become better at anything, you got to practice and practice the correct way.

You can't do it haphazardly.

Go up there and.

And try to bunt one.

A lot of guys go up there purposely mess up the bun because they didn't want.

They really don't want to bunt.

But in spring training, because teams look at Milwaukee.

I was listening to Pat Murphy last night, how that do the small things.

The small things make a big difference.

And you had Vaughn, who hits for power Bunny and a squeeze play.

Because it's a surprise.

Nobody's think is going to happen.

But I.

To become a better hitter.

I always have the kids bunt.

But then kids was like, well, I'm batting forth.

I said, you may not be batting forth as you get higher in your career.

So learn how to do it.

Not only to bump, but learn how to hit.

Because you're going to see the ball hit the bat and bunny.

And so you be able to see the ball better.

And then get into physics.

You know, the angle.

The angle of the bat is going to indicate because when bunny Had a certain angle, have that same angle when you're swinging a bat.

But a lot of guys is trying to do like a George Foster hit the ball at a ballpark.

And how many are going to do that?

But the thing is, like I said earlier, making contact.

But you got to do that in spring.

I mean, spring training and batting practice, because it's going to be important in the game.

And when we talk about making contact, are we talking about just all I want is the bat to touch the ball and just anything to happen, or is there like, I want to make contact with a specific goal in mind?

With two strikes, in a sense, you want to just put in play wherever on the ground and play on the ground.

But up to two strikes, you can control, try to control where you want to hit it.

So a man on second base, no out.

You want to hit the ball to the right side.

In a sense, you're sacrificing yourself for the good of the team.

And I saw Riley, who's with Atlanta, power hitter, he hit the ball to the right side.

So learning batting practice, how to do that.

And some say the easiest one to hit to the right side is the ball that's outside.

Yes.

For me, the easiest one that's inside because I want to keep my hands inside, same as in hitting.

And that ball, now the angle of the bat, it's going to have the ball go.

Go that way and just keep the.

The knob, you know, going towards third base.

But a lot of guys, that knob, the barrel is leading.

Yes.

But intentionally do that.

And a lot of guys felt I made it out, but it was a productive out.

Sure.

And now the coaches or captains of the team, hey, that's a good play.

Because they're thinking, oh, I didn't do the job.

You did a great job.

Yeah, well, we talked about that before.

Like, if you're going to go up there and strike out, then go out and get out some different way.

It doesn't really matter.

At least make the outcount.

You got to be a high on the list of the other team being the mvp.

Yeah.

And so when you're talking about, I'm going to go up there, and.

You.

Were talking about two strikes.

So you go up there, you got nothing on you.

Yeah.

The greatest thing would be to.

To hit one where you want to put it.

Okay.

And, and.

And, you know, really lay into one.

But as the count goes on, you got to.

Right.

You got to think about.

You gotta be more defensive then.

But still get an idea.

You don't have.

Don't take a full swing or you don't have to take a cut.

Like you don't have no strikes on you.

Right.

And.

But the same as in hitting, good hitting is for right hander from left center over.

So now the thing, forget about the third baseman when you're binding or hitting, just try to hit bunny that the to the right side to the second baseman.

And like Fredo for the Reds, he had total.

Had 11 base hit bunts.

And that's leading the major league.

I said that's, that's great.

But he should have double that.

You can bunch your way to to 300 with the speed that he has.

But same in his case, he started to bunt and man on third base.

They.

They didn't get the guy at from third to home.

They didn't get him.

So put the ball in play.

You can create a lot of different options.

Well, yeah, because we talked about last week your.

The different ways to get on base.

Several of those are possible.

When you put the ball in play, you could have an error.

You can have a defensive indifference.

You can talk about creating chaos.

Yeah.

Make something happen.

We've talked before, especially in youth baseball, the team that makes the fewer mistakes usually wins the game.

Right.

So put it in play.

Give them an opportunity to mess up.

Because if you just go up there and strike out, they didn't get the opportunity to mess up and help you.

Right.

So put it in play and let them, you know, give them the chance to be on your team and help you out.

I had so many complaints in the beginning, but my, my guys and the batting practice.

There's a coach, when are we going to hit?

When we got to hit.

I said, pretty soon.

We're not going to get dessert yet.

I want you to work on Bunny.

I don't want to, but.

Okay, okay.

If you want to be a team player, learn how to.

But then that win him over.

So I, I always try and try to pick guys with great speed.

Not great speed, but good speed and put the ball.

Because you just bunt the ball and run.

They got to catch the ball, throw it and catch it.

So a lot of times those infielders are not prepared to make a good throw.

The other thing is it brings you the threat of bunt.

We've seen this before.

Can move people in or out.

It changed that defense.

Yeah.

I mean we've seen.

I've seen plenty of old games where Pete was a master at that.

Oh yeah.

He would go up there and show bunt and Move everybody in and just put it over their head.

Remind him I may bond here.

Oh, yeah.

I had Mike Schmidt.

I said, I'm gonna bun.

He said, go ahead.

I don't want to have to visit the dentist if I'm coming up on you.

Well, you got to think also when it comes to bunding.

And that's the next thing.

Here's his bunding.

When it comes to bunting, you don't ever bunt unless there's a need for it.

It's.

It's one of those things that no one goes up there and bunts for fun.

Okay?

If you're being asked to bunt, if the CO is a coach.

Sacrifice.

Yeah.

Coach puts that bunt sign on.

It's because you need one.

It's because it's a.

It's a clutch thing that needs to happen right now.

It's not like, oh, I'm gonna go up here today.

I got no strikes on me.

I'm gonna just.

I could.

I could swing away.

I could do it.

I think I'll bunt.

You know, I mean, like, it's not right.

Not the thing.

There's always a strategic reason.

Situation gonna dictate it.

But, like, once again, a Frito is that you're buying to get on.

That's the base hit.

Get on base and steal the base.

So you can create a lot of chaos on the basis another guy is a guy who's a power.

Here you lead.

Say Martin Marte is five to nothing, or so you want him.

Still swing the bat.

But it.

It doesn't call for a butt in that situation, you give it in.

In a sense, we kind of strategically built our team on how to handle the bat.

Okay?

That's from starting with bunning, hit and run.

And then, guys, I can drive the ball so you know their strengths and weaknesses.

And so from a bunning standpoint, you know, strategically, we taught kids how to sacrifice.

Okay, Moving runners over, how to drag butt.

Okay.

Bunting for a hit, then how to push button.

Okay?

Usually if you got a guy on first base, man, we might work on push button or whatever base it might be.

We work on push button.

And usually, if you're righty, we want to push it towards.

We call it a Bermuda triangle.

That's you got your first baseman, your second baseman, your pitcher, right here.

So we want to push it up through there.

So now somebody's going to have to make a decision.

If you got a.

If you got your first baseman holding, if you push it to the right side of him, Guess what?

You, you might have a chance of beating it out, but if not, then at least the runner gets the second and then he can round it and see if he can get the third.

And then we've got suicide or squeeze.

And so one of the things.

Oh, and also you can utilize these, these two things.

We utilized it.

If we're, we trying to put pressure on the, on the defense where guys are back, corners are back, then we're going to utilize that, that drag bun, push button or whatever or sacrifice.

Or.

I like to run a lot of squeeze plays in the third one is that when everybody's trying to kill the ball, especially if you got a pitcher that can't break a pane of glass, then, then that's where the buck comes in.

Everybody.

And we've done that before, everybody.

Hidden pop ups.

So guess what?

Hey, you better put that bunt down, man.

We, our team had speed and things like that.

Yeah.

So I mean the idea of having the, the skill of learning to bunt is one of those things that it's very important, very important because if a coach, if you're in a situation where the coach says, all right, in order to win this game, what we need right here is a squeeze.

But you're up to plate.

And he looks and he goes, I have no faith that that kid can bunt.

Right.

Then he can't use that, that tool in the toolbox.

So by run out options, you're.

Yeah, by having the, the options and being able to do the different things, he'll be like, okay.

Or you may find yourself pinch hit for.

Because he knows you can't do it.

Yes.

And he's going to put somebody in there that he has faith can get the job.

That's what's good about the younger kids.

You have that reentry so you can bond for the guy.

Did he come back later?

Sure.

But it's, that's the same thing.

You have the challenge.

You don't have one challenge in major league ball.

You gotta make sure that one challenge count.

If a play happens early in the game, don't use it then.

But being able to use it at the right time, like say bring your arm, brush off the bench to bunt for what they say in your youth baseball causes reentry.

You can get the guy back into the game.

But there's certain other things that I like bunning for.

So bunny for a base hit.

I asked the kid, I said, what dictate which player you're going to bunt to first or third and in the beginning, like, I don't know, I said, well, whoever's back.

Yes, whatever player's back, you're going to try to bunt to that person because he's farther away.

And then in squeeze play, I said, you want to bun in number one on the ground, but where do you bunt on squeeze?

A lot of them try to be too particular.

I'm going to bun into third or button the first so you don't have another chance.

I said, bunt the ball back to the pitcher on the ground, because now if it doesn't go back to the pitcher, it's still going to be fair.

Marginal error.

Marginal error.

Exactly.

I like that.

Because you only get a shot to show that bunt so many times.

Right.

Next time, they're going to be ready for it.

So.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Makes sense.

That makes sense.

What would you consider the keys to what.

What are the secrets to getting a drag versus a push and making that happen?

As for his footwork.

Yes.

And I see guys do it.

I mean, Rye Crew was the best at it.

Say a guy who's right handed, a lot of times they're taking too many steps in the batter's box.

It's just drops, drop, drop, step, drop it, back angle and.

And get a pitch that it's a strike, not just butt at anything.

Right.

So don't be concerned about rushing it.

So.

But as that pitcher foot lands, get ready.

Yeah.

And for a lefty, it's that the left foot has to come on the inside part of the banner's box.

So now you have a chance to push it or drag it or drag it.

Yeah.

And people say, how do you know about batting?

No, but I'm talking to Rod Carew and Ken Griffey Senior, those guys, and watching those guys, and they, they do it in batting practice and they get a machine and just feed them, feed them, feed them so they can.

They can get that feel.

One of the things on a lefty, drag bunt.

So I wish I could show you how to drag, man, right here.

But I want to.

I want to lean into my back leg so I can stay inside the ball.

And also I want to bun it down to the ground because I don't want to pop it up.

Oh, man.

On a drag.

But it's more of a crossover down the first.

Yeah.

On a drag.

It's more of a cross from a left side.

On the left side.

Okay.

On the.

On the left side again, I'm going to stay in my backside.

Boom.

Get it down to Third base if I can.

What?

Dick's.

Especially if I got a man on second base and third baseman, I want to bun it down to third.

Because guess what?

He ain't going to turn around and try to get the guy out at third.

He's got to.

You want him to throw over the first base.

Okay.

On a drag bunt.

Um, I always tell our guys, if you can look middle in, because that's the easier one.

And you keep your.

Your barrel out front and your knob closer to your.

Your hip when you do it.

Okay.

I think what you just mentioned and what you had touched on a second ago is pitch selection.

And I think that gets overlooked on a bunt a lot because you just think it's easy.

You just pick one.

I think what Georgia said, you have to practice it.

You got to.

You got to have a philosophy and get kids to buy into it.

Sure.

So they understand that it is.

It's work.

But when you talk about a.

When you talk about a suicide, you.

You gotta talk, you gotta get.

It's basically okay when you squeeze, when you hit and run, it's not, oh, I didn't like that pitch.

Oh, no, no.

You gotta swing the bat.

You have to jump.

You have to touch that ball.

It's not optional.

If the catcher can catch it.

Yes.

Gotta butt it.

Yes.

But.

But when we're talking about strategic dragon push, especially, you know, maybe if you're.

If you are.

If you're leading off an ending and you're going to bunt for a bait sitting.

I kind of.

Be selective with your.

Don't especially.

Well, and when.

If you're bunting, you really shouldn't have two strikes.

So.

So be selective.

Don't.

Don't settle.

But that comes back to having a.

Having a plan, an approach, and attacking with a goal in mind, rather than just bunting and reacting to wherever it goes.

Yes, exactly.

Let me ask you this.

I always.

I thought this was an interesting part of the strategy.

Thoughts on exactly the exact moment to show.

But how.

So you don't show it so early that the pitcher can do anything about it.

And you don't show it so late that you can't get ready for it.

But sometimes you're doing it.

You want to show it early enough.

So you'll bring that in.

Yeah, let's talk about that.

Yes, exactly.

I agree with you.

I watch Frito every inning.

Really?

Every time he's up, he's taking the first pitch.

I said, if you're going to take your first pitch, do something to Change the defense.

So, so you now you're, you're faking that you're going to bunt just to see if they're aware of that.

Exactly.

And so now even though it's a strike, it's productive.

So now you get a chance to see what they're going to do.

So they're going to change.

Okay, we got, we got to change the defense.

But once he, once he learns how to hit the ball to the left side, he's going to be a.300 hitter.

He has the ability to win a batting title, but being able to hit the ball through that, that left side line drive.

Not many third baseman want to come in.

No, no.

Yeah.

Pete was unique in that regard.

Oh, yeah.

He would go in there and eat.

But the thing go Back to the 76 World Series, though, with Mickey Rivers.

He peached halfway to home.

And I'm saying, Pete, if the ball gets past you, I gotta chase it.

But that put pressure on Mickey Rivers.

He, he said, I gotta make it.

I gotta really be fine tuned where I bunt the ball because he's right on top of me.

And then the balls that Rivers hit down on him.

Pizza guy, he's like a gladiator.

He's, he's a hockey player.

He's blocking the ball.

Yeah.

So one time, I think it was against Philadelphia, Larry Bow or someone who may not hit the ball like Mike Schmidt hit the ball.

I think it hit off Pete's belt buckle, it cam to second base and we ended up getting the double play.

So, Pete, you're okay?

Yeah.

While we're getting technical with bunting, so I was always taught keep the bat head up and move up and down with your legs.

What are your thoughts on that?

Everybody has a different approach.

Yours might be different from mine.

Two things that are, have to be constant.

Keep the barrel higher than a knob.

Okay.

Keep your hands letter high.

Anything above that, you know, it's gonna, what, you want to bunch strikes.

So I asked a kid, I said, what is better, sacrifice or a walk?

Sacrifice.

No, but if a walk, you didn't give up an out.

But keep your hands letter high, Keep your.

And make sure like you're saying the ball's up or down.

I mean down you want to go with your knees, like, like in basketball, but you don't want to drop your hands.

Okay.

But another foundation that's very important, I would say a third is constant, is knowing where to bunt the ball, knowing the situation.

If a guy's at first base, you're going to bunt the ball to the first baseman.

Then I say, okay, man, in a second, where you bunt, Is it first base?

No, I said, what is the third base?

Third baseman, you want to bunt the third.

So you got to know.

Know the situations because you can make a good bunt at the wrong time in the wrong place.

So you.

So a man on second, you bunt the ball the first.

Now the first face is charging.

He can throw the guy.

He can throw a third.

Yes, exactly.

So those, those are my three constants.

Okay, One of mine.

Wait, a bunt.

We started off like that and we noticed this.

A lot of kids drop their barrel, right.

And do this.

So guess what?

They hit a pop up.

So now we get here.

I keep it horizontal.

Now I can catch it here and can go that way.

So that's a.

Another way that, you know, I teach bunning on that end because now I don't see a lot of this.

Now guess what?

Now we can use our eyes.

And then my eyes are closer to the barrel.

And then put a knob here.

Go down third.

Right here.

Go down first.

But notice his eyes are behind the back.

Behind the back.

Not above, behind the back.

Behind the barrel.

Yeah, I like, and I like.

I really liked what you had to say.

I think maybe last week or week before, but.

But bunting, when you're in a slump to.

To help you see the ball better.

Oh, yes, but especially to the opposite field.

Right hander to left.

I mean right and left hand.

But you can see the.

Letting the ball travel, get deep.

Yeah.

Into the zone.

And then at what point do you start to pay attention?

Do you start to think about how hard to bunt the ball?

You know, sometimes I've heard, I've had some coaches say that you're trying to catch it and drop it right in front of the plate with drag or push.

You want a little more movement on it.

What do you have any thoughts on that?

You want to.

So in a push button, you're going to push it.

That's what it sounds, that's what it is supposed to be.

Push.

Okay, but like George was saying, really, you just want to catch it.

Okay.

Okay.

Remember it used to be.

And I sometimes I go back to old stuff where that if you bun it, you catch it.

If I remember we used to have a.

Put a glove on the back, right?

Okay.

Yeah.

Catch it that way.

That's an old school way, but still it was effective.

Right.

Because then kids don't do it.

You catch it and keeps their eyes.

Yeah.

Because you drop it, drop it out of the glove.

Okay.

Yes.

Yeah, I like that.

Yeah, that's a good, good way to do it.

It's.

Yes, but there's so.

Yeah.

Many different ways, man.

And we're, we're talking about a lot of different things because you can.

In, in hitting, I think we try to make it so much of a microcosm.

It, what works for that, for that player.

Yeah.

You're talking about different kind of mental triggers and that kind of thing.

Yes.

They try to make it absolute that this is the way.

Exactly.

But I find I watch these guys, so in batting practice, I want them same thing in bonding.

You want to see, have your eyes behind the bat, but as you swing.

Pete Rose is a good example.

As he swings, he's watching the bat hit the ball.

So his eyes are back here.

And being a right hander, your chin's gonna be on your right shoulder.

Yes, sir.

But a lot of times the chin's on the left shoulder and they're looking where they want to hit it, but they're not looking at the object to hit.

And as a, as a batter, batter, hitter, after you make contact, look straight over second base.

If you don't want to go left or right because you're going to pull off or you're not going to really get through.

If you're looking to right field, unless you're going, you know, striving to hit the ball that way, but look over second base, you get full rotation in your swing.

Here's, Here's a question I've always wondered.

So let's say you're not faking the butt.

You fully intend to, but.

And yet he, at what point in time you, you realize, wait a minute, this is not going to be, this is not going to be a pitch that I want to bunt.

I don't want to waste the strike.

I'm going to, I'm going to pull back.

Why and when do you make that decision?

Well, it's really when the ball's on.

It's almost, that's what I'm saying.

So.

But you're watching if the guy's a sinker ball pitcher or if he's throwing the ball up.

So you got have focus.

Where do you want the ball to be?

If it's not there, let it go.

But the, as a, when you, when you sacrifice, you want, when the pitcher's hands up, right throwing hand is up in the air, that's when you sacrifice.

Everybody know you're going to sacrifice.

So it's not a big surprise.

Right.

But when you squeeze or bunt for a base hit, wait till the pitchers, wait till his foot lands.

I watch his foot land.

And then now he can't change exactly.

Say, for instance, the guy at third base, and it's a squeeze play.

So now the guy goes when his hand's up there.

So as a pitcher, what am I going to do?

I'm going to hit the guy at the plate.

So now the guy has to go back.

I know he hit by a pitch, but they didn't get that run.

But once he lands, it's tough to change direction.

Right.

Because this is anything that's a drag bunt or a push butt is supposed to be a surprise.

Right.

So you don't want to sell it.

You don't want to show it too early.

Right.

Well, there, I would imagine it's kind of extra suicide.

It's kind of extra embarrassing to have your bat there like you're going to bunt and then to miss it and get a strike.

It's the same as in, I use analogy in tennis, the ones who know about the drop shot.

So in tennis itself, it's survival the fittest.

So you make a drop shot and your opponent make the point, and they're like, wow, that wasn't a good job.

The drop shot wasn't good enough, wasn't effective.

But your objective is to make your opponent run.

Yeah.

So if you get the point, that's great.

So, but even if you miss it, your objective, instill in their mind or remind them that I, I will, but I would try to bunt.

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Let's talk about the hit and run.

So situations where you might use a hit and run and what a, what a hitter needs to be able to do in order to successfully pull off a hit and run.

Well, number one is being able to hit the ball on the ground.

You want to be able to hit the runner ball on ground and, and preferably to the right side, but don't really be as specific.

But hit the ball on the ground because the runner's in motion and now that infielder's out of, out of position.

So a lot of times they have the second baseman covering second and you hit the ball to the right side.

Other teams try to get tricky, but then again you got to evaluate that the batter because he may, he may not know how or haven't worked on hitting the ball or right side.

So I said, okay, just hit it back at towards a shortstop because sometimes that shortstop may try to cover but just, but put the ball in play, on the ground.

Yeah.

Rick, can you explain to us from a coach's perspective, when, when in the game situation, would you consider using a hit and run and how would you set your players up to be able to do that successfully and.

Well, there's a lot of different things with this, especially in practice.

So teaching kids how to shorten up, they swing and hit backside.

What do you mean, what do you mean by that specifically shorten up.

They swing.

That means a lot of kids try to get long and they swing, stay short, drive your knob, let it get deep.

You mean keep the bat close to.

Your hands and stay inside the ball or choke up?

Yeah, choke up.

Yeah.

I do have, I have another technical question about hit and run.

So hit and run is the runner pretty much always.

You would never delay a run.

Sorry.

You would.

You're always going to run immediate.

You're always going to run immediately as if you're stealing.

You're never going to delay in a hit and Run, would you?

Right, exactly.

So I want you to delay.

See, the ball's on its way.

It's actually almost that the ball is make guys making contact.

You're moving.

Okay, so you do wait a little bit, right?

You wait not as when you're stealing.

You have it.

You're stealing.

So now that you steal, if he doesn't hit the ball on the ground, there's a chance, you have a chance of getting back knowing that where the ball is.

So your delay, that's why you doing the hitting range.

It's the delay for the runner because you don't want him to get thrown out and making sure that the ball, the guy makes contact.

Okay.

So that, that is different because sometimes I hit and run can be taken as guy is stealing.

So he's going to go on the pitcher's move.

But you're saying you need to, you need to read the ball down.

Well, it's like a stealing but at the end.

But it's that order.

It's that order.

Hit and run.

Run.

Okay, I like that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's another way to steal and hit.

So, so now my, my technical question is about the count as a coach because you're going to put, you're going to be the one that puts that on.

Especially because you have to coordinate two different people's jobs.

Are there certain counts that you do and don't hit and run in?

I guess.

Well, I was gonna start that.

The number one.

I hit and run a lot of times because the guy, the guy at the plate is too passive.

They're taking too many pitches.

So I wanted to make sure that he's swinging the bat.

And I said no matter where the ball swing the bat because you got to protect, protect the runner.

But a good, good running counts.

You have three and one, you have two and one.

You have two and oh, you have oh and.

Oh.

Well, that was my thought is that you're going to put on a hit and run when the pitcher has to bring a strike.

Yes.

You're not going to hit and run when you're.

Oh, two, one, two.

When he's going to waste a pitch and then it's going to make it.

You, you're asking the batter to hit a pitch that's likely to be less competitive.

Yeah, okay.

That was, that was my question.

So let's talk about times when it's necessary to be able to hit to the opposite field, especially if that's not your, your normal workplace where you would, where you would put it just by your Normal mechanics.

If you're not.

If that's not the place where you hit it all the time or pulling it if that's not the place where you hit all the time.

Like how do you.

What are the mechanical things that you need to keep in mind and say well okay, let me, let me go back.

First of all, what are the situations where you're at the plate and you're like okay, I got to put it over there and I'm right handed.

I got to put it in right center.

What do I need to think about in order to make that happen?

Well, number one is knowing what starts in practice.

Yeah.

Can't wait for a game and try to do something that you haven't done before.

Yeah.

And the, the main thing is try to hit the ball up the middle and let your bat speed and the location of the pitch gonna indicate where the ball's going to go.

There you go.

But some say hit the ball where it's pitch.

I don't totally agree because a pitcher throw you inside, you don't want the reason he tried to want.

Want you to pull it to hit a ground ball cause you gotta roll over it.

So it's keeping your.

They talk about keeping your hands inside, but I want the bat inside so that now you have better control of being able to hit.

Use the middle of the field.

So use the middle of the field, you're going to be more successful.

And if you want to hit it to right field becomes an angle.

Now you're going to hit it deeper in the hitting zone and not out.

So a lot of guys, the ball is outside, they hit it, try to hit it out in front.

They got to roll, roll over.

So the ball is.

You want to get a ball that's, that's getting deep into the hitting zone and just swing the bat.

Don't try to guided, just going to bet it will go that way.

Something that you got to get used to doing, right?

Sure.

On a T, go high, middle, low, low.

What two scenes.

Change up curveballs man.

And work on trying to drive those to.

To right center or center or whatever.

But that's what a T is there for.

Front toss, live BP work on those things.

I just had a kid the other day, I was out on the field.

So I've been out on the field a while and we worked on his two strike approach and I told him is that I think I throw in five and he hit two to right center.

The other three fouled off.

I said man that's awesome man.

I Said, that's awesome.

You fouled him off.

I said, you know why?

He said, why?

Because you kept your bat alive, right?

Yeah.

You made the pitcher throw one more pitch, man.

So now he knows that you can hit that outside pitch.

Now hunt the pitch that he gonna throw you.

Trust me, he might come middleware for you if you hunt in that pitch.

You know, so.

But still make sure that you don't let the location change to change your swing pattern.

Yeah.

So now the ball is inside, you still strike the ball in the left center or right field.

A lot of guys, they see a pitch inside and they're going to turn on it.

They either pop it up, miss it or hit the ball foul.

Yes.

This is something that I think is a, an advanced understanding that a lot of young players don't get until later in their career.

Which is it's not just inside versus outside, it's also upfront versus deep right and go.

The thing that, that really you just connected for me earlier in this episode, George was, was getting around to be able to hit an inside pitch backside.

That was something that never connected in my head.

I know Rick, you call it inside out.

Exactly.

You had.

Well, I don't.

Well, I'm sorry, I don't call it inside out because it sounds defensive.

It does sound defensive.

To drive that.

Ok.

Yes.

But you, you, you had always taught the three ball with the hitting zones and that, that was revolutionary for me.

The, the, the middle, middle pitch is right in front of the plate.

Inside pitch a little higher or a little up front.

A little up front.

And then that let that late pitch travel deeper and fight it off backside.

That makes a lot of sense because the natural swing, it works with the angle of your bat.

Okay.

It creates a triangle from the inside to the outside part of the plate.

And so I had always want.

I, for whatever reason, it was just one of those things that floated around in my head is what, how do you hit that inside pitch backside and you just, you just get around on it.

You, it's.

It's like hitting an inside pitch but leaving your bat in the zone, getting, keeping your hands in and flicking it the other way.

That makes so much more sense.

And I think you're leading with the knob.

You go in there and then, then you, you get to the point that now the barrel.

And so, so for a, for a power hitter who has such a pull mindset that they're going to try to pull everything, in a way you are pulling the outside pitch, but by leaving your bat in the zone you're pulling your hands and keeping them inside, but you're going to flick backside and that does a lot of damage.

George said something that was.

I want to circle back around.

Yeah.

Which is.

We need to highlight one.

And I don't think he understood what he said, but he said keeping your shoulder on your front on.

Well, when your front, your shoulder here.

But when you finish your swing, your shoulder is gonna, your chin is gonna be on your back shoulder.

Okay.

So guess what?

Your head's going to be behind the, the barrel.

I mean behind the ball in a barrel.

And then when you finish, you can actually do a drill where you can actually look down the, the bat and see extension.

Okay.

Now that's going to help you keep your head still and finish your swing.

Keep your eyes.

Yes.

Yeah.

I love that because as somebody who struggled pulling his head from the moment he picked up a bat to the moment he was done, man, that, that could have, I think that could have really provided some help was, was keeping it on that.

Now it.

Yeah.

Keeping it on that back shoulder.

As you.

Yeah, George said too.

Which I, I break.

It's a mindset, man.

The more you do things, the more consistent you become.

It becomes a habit.

It becomes muscle memory and, and, and then you go up to the plate with confidence.

You, you, you've got an approach.

It is not you.

I gotta hit it.

Yes.

Yeah.

Because you have that fear.

If you have fear in striking out, you're going to strike or you're gonna hit the ball very weakly.

But I was a better hitter with two strikes because now I'm really fine tuning sometime when I have like three or one or so that, you know, I'm trying to swing out of my shoes and think I'm playing at Yellowstone to hit it out.

But, but when I, when I hit those 52 home runs, the.

Not bragging.

The 10, 10 of those 52, I hit the right center.

Oh, that was because I know I let the ball get deep and drove it to right center.

But if I hit a ball down the left field line, home run.

But it's hooking.

I know I'm too quick.

I'll tell you when I learned about out front, in, in front of me and behind me early in and deep in the zone because I, I didn't have any of this fancy like private teacher stuff and whatever.

I was just.

Did you have a T?

No, I never owned it.

No.

I was just a redneck kid in Ohio, man.

Yeah, that was.

We were playing, we were playing down by the river.

We had, there was no teas.

The only tea you had was in a pitcher in the fridge.

But we had, but we had, we had a David Bailey's.

And I will never forget.

Shout out to David if he ever happens to listen to this.

But David Bailey's was, he was a, a year ahead of me in school, but he was young for his grades.

So sometimes we would play in the same, in the same year in the same league.

And Dave was, Dave was big tall kid for, you know, we were 12, but he was, he was tall as an adult, but I mean he could.

And he was the hardest throwing kid we had, but he was left handed and he threw hard and every kid was scared of it.

And so I went up there and I just remember being, and I'm like, I got to figure out how to do this.

And I learned that when, if I started my swing when he was at the top of his delivery, before he ever let go of the ball release point, I had a chance because my swing was a lot slower than his, than what he was throwing.

And I did it, I hit it.

I made connection.

Because the other thing about him was he was incredibly consistent.

The kid threw strikes all the time.

He was the best strike throwing pitcher I ever saw in my life.

He wouldn't, he had no fear that he was going to hit you.

No fear because he was just going to put it right down to play it every time and he was just going to groove it.

And most kids just couldn't hit it because he was throwing hard.

So I learned if I started way early, I had a shot and I hit him a couple of times.

And there were a couple of times when I thought I started early enough, but I didn't.

But I still hit him.

But it went over here for some reason.

Okay.

And then I'm like, wait a minute, maybe it's, it's about when you start your swing.

And so in, in the, my low, my low tech understanding of baseball, it was how quickly or you know, later I started my swing based on whether I wanted it to go to left or right field.

It was a cursory understanding of what you guys can, can describe in much more detail.

But for young players out there who've never really thought about it, sometimes it's just as simple as I got to meet the ball out in front of me or meet the ball a little deeper, closer to the catcher.

And when I do, that's going to determine largely where it goes.

But from what I'm hearing, that that prop, that, that concept Falls a little bit short to try to pull an outside pitch.

Do we ever want to pull an outside pitch?

I know you had mentioned you end up rolling it over.

You got to find that you're, you're going to have enough bad speed to pull it, but not on pulling.

Is the left center.

One of the being a right hand left center, not down the line.

Right.

A lot of guys try to pull it down, hit it down the line is going to go foul, but to left center.

And that way that you're not.

Your lower body is not pulling off.

Right.

So to fine tune a little bit more.

So now your lower body, when your lower body, when you go back to get set to load, your lower body is turning, rotating, Right.

But your upper body stays linear.

A lot of guys, they're rotating their upper body so they lose sight of the ball.

Okay.

So now, now their swing is lowering because your hands are back there.

And by the time they get back into the hitting zone, the ball's on top of them.

They say, wow, that guy's throwing hard, but he's not going hard.

You're getting ready late.

Yes.

So now going forward, you see a lot of guys rotating their lower body.

You got to keep the lower body linear and rotate the upper body.

I see this.

I hear I, I.

A lot of Georgia spot on, man.

But they, so they go, they go rotational with your lower body going forward and they stay linear with the upper body.

So they're running into the ball.

Yes.

So that they getting jam.

But you got to rotate your upper body as going forward.

But, but again, you, that's being connected, right?

Yeah.

Well, working in synchronization.

Yes, but again, get the rhythm.

Yeah, but you ran right over something.

Pull.

Pulling the ball.

You said to left center.

Yes.

Not down the line.

I think that's got the gap.

Yeah, I think, I think people miss that.

I think a lot of times pulling, pulling means left field, anywhere down the line.

But when you talk about margin of error, if you, if you're aiming somewhere in the middle, then down the line, it becomes your, your, you kind of.

Stay on it longer.

Yeah, exactly.

I love that terminology.

I would say about 10 years ago, I don't know, I always talk to everybody.

George or whatever.

Talk to people.

Yeah.

So don't come back.

Pull the foul lines in.

Yeah.

Over, over the shortstop, over the second basement's head.

Now you, you, now you have to use gap.

The gap terminology.

Yes, yes.

Ethan is more than my podcast partner.

He's my son.

And like every baseball parent, my first Priority was his development as a player.

Every year, we'd start out with a new coach and a new team, making new promises, only to end up playing the same old tournaments with little to no practice in between.

You know what I'm talking about.

That's why I'm so thankful that we found MD and I a cat.

I first met Coach Rick over a decade ago when Ethan was just a kid.

And I'll never forget the relief I felt watching his first lesson.

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Rick has trained baseball and softball players at the select, travel, and even college levels.

So I knew that Ethan could continue his excellence through training approach.

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You need to check out MD and I Academy today, go to MDAIAcademy.com and contact Coach Rick to learn how you can get all the baseball instruction you need from someone who cares about your favorite player as much as you do at MDNI Academy.

So let's, let's jump forward here.

I want to.

I want to discuss WOBA and EX WILBA here real quick.

Okay?

Okay, so there's a stat that's up and coming.

It's here, man.

Well, I mean, yeah, but I mean, like, you won't find it on Baseball Reference.

You got to go to, like, Baseball Savant or one of these other more advanced stat platforms to find it.

But it's called WOBA or.

And there's also one called X woba.

Ethan, you want to run us down?

Explain the two and what the difference means.

Yeah, so WOBA is weighted on base average.

And so basically it weighted as W.

E, I G, H, T, not W.

A, I, T e. Yes, no, exactly.

And so the.

The complaint is that in.

In batting average that a hit, that a base hit is the same value as a home run because they're both hits that there's.

In batting average.

There's no discrepancy there.

And so the idea is let's.

If each hit produces a different percentage chance to gain a run, let's reflect that in a stat.

And so it gives a different weight to each, to singles, doubles, triples, and that kind of thing, and then divides that over opportunities.

So it's, it's.

It can get kind of confusing.

And the really confusing part is that it's going to be different every year.

The weighted, the weight that's attributed to that stat is going to be different.

And so it's not something.

It's kind of one of those MLB exclusive stats.

There is some for college, but it's not one that directly translates to the youth level.

And then ex WILBA is expected.

So you're, this is where you've got all of the stat cast stuff, measuring somebody's swing and then taking those characteristics, launch angle, X of velocity, where it's hit, all that kind of stuff and saying, well, based on the swing, this should be the outcome.

Okay.

Or could be the outcome.

Well, or could be.

But what that doesn't take into account because it can't is fielder positioning, wind, all that kind of stuff that then affects the ball after it's been hit.

And so what, what that can cause is players who are lucky or players who are unlucky and the difference in what they're expected to do versus what actually happens.

And so the utility of that becomes.

Well, let's look at players who are making really good contact, but maybe getting unlucky or hitting it right to somebody, expecting that eventually enough hard hits will make them.

Their, their production will start to catch up to that quality of contact.

And then why measure the difference?

Well, it's like, like I just said.

So, for example, you've got a guy like, like Salvador Perez or Ben Rice this year who are making a lot of solid contact.

Indeed.

So like a guy like Ben rice, his ex Woba is.407 and his Woba is.354.

Whoa.

Meaning.

Which is a difference of 0.053, which means he's hitting the ball really well.

It expected he should be producing a lot of runs, but he's not.

Which means he must be hitting it two people or getting, getting unlucky.

Okay.

Salvador Perez is another guy.

The opposite of that is a guy like Harrison Bader or Jacob Wilson.

Guys who are hitting or who are getting luckier.

So they're.

Maybe they're making weaker contact.

And it says, well, maybe they shouldn't be producing very well, but they are.

And I think with a guy like Jacob Wilson, if you know anything about him, he just, he just makes a lot of contact.

He does.

And sometimes that's weak contact.

And so this is a stat that doesn't.

Yeah.

If he's hitting bloops that are singles, he's on base.

Right.

But this stat kind of counts against him in that way.

So you, you just.

There should be a grain of salt with every stat that you read.

Understand it, it doesn't tell a full story.

Right.

I think that exit velocity, it, it brings into play if the ball is hit hard.

Not hit hard, but someone talked about launch angle, said, yeah, everybody has a launch angle.

So.

But find out what that guy's launch angle is so that when he's not hitting.

Well, because you already measured it.

So it's like you're trying on a pair of shoes.

You don't know what size, so you have it in a certain.

You have that launch angle.

So you go back and fit it again.

So see how far you're off.

But back to hitting the ball at somebody or it's changing the angles.

Get into physics now.

Change the angle of your bat going through the zone because sometimes that the barrel is too far out.

And just keep it back a little bit more now that instead of hooking it a little bit, you're going to hit it more on a straight line.

One thing I noticed about looking at these stats, when I start sorting current players by these stats using.

And I'm on.

I'm on baseball savant right now sorting them, it tends to be kinder to the power hitters than things like average and things like that.

Well, it will be because they're making harder contact.

You know, in order to hit the ball far, you got to hit it hard.

So.

And launch angle.

So it really does cater and it's saying it's expecting those to be.

It's taking that hard hit and that launch angle and saying, well, this should be a good hit.

Well, different ballparks are different sizes.

And so if you're hitting the ball.

Yeah.

Hard and far to a deep part of the ballpark, you're not going to do much.

Sacramento what about errors?

Does it take into account errors?

Yeah, I assume it doesn't in some regard.

But.

But you're right.

It.

When we talk about causing chaos, you know, there can be value to that.

And I think that would be a.

Yeah, it's hard to measure chaos.

Yeah.

So that would be a part where you're getting lucky.

Mayhem.

You know what I mean?

Sometimes when you take these current stats, though, and you go back and you apply them to older careers, what do you find?

Yeah, so this was interesting.

So.

Vintage, older, classic, classic.

Yeah.

With how.

With how kind of tailored these stats are getting.

Not every stat hub even agrees on it.

So you have B, war, F, war, that kind of stuff.

And then when it comes to expected stats, you can't have that Statcast era started in 2015 where that technology was outfitted to every ballpark.

So we don't really have that data going backwards.

But what I found interesting, Baseball Reference has their version of woba and it's called roba.

And it's so.

It's rather.

So there's measures a player's total offensive contribution based on the batting component of WAR scaled to obp.

Now, I don't really know what scaled to OBP means, but it's basically baseball references version of Woba.

Now what was interesting.

So in 1977 when George won MVP, he pretty much just hit everything.

Yes, far, far.

So he led the league in Roba at.441.

But did you also know that you led the league in Roba in 1979?

Obviously you didn't know that because it didn't exist.

I didn't even have it then.

But, but.

And that was a year that you had finished 12th in the MVP race.

But according to that calculation, you were a very productive hitter in 79.

So I would be curious, is there.

Does anything stick out about your 79 season that that screams production, that maybe your home runs or your RBIs or your batting average doesn't tell that story?

Well, I look at the ratio of home runs to rbi.

I think my ratio was.

I always want.

If you have one to three or better, that's, that's hitting and clutch situation.

Okay, So I think I had 30.

30 home runs.

30 home runs and 98 RBI.

So now that's pretty good.

So.

But then in 77 I had it.

It was a little bit.

I would like seven RBIs under that 1/3.

So 52 and 149.

Right.

So that, that I look at that ratio because I look at everybody's ratio.

I said, oh, you got.

This guy has 30 home runs.

You should have at least 90 RBIs or more.

And that tells me that he's hitting home runs and with men on base, not just solo.

Did we just invent Goba?

Go by George, George on base average goba.

I like that.

I like that rule, that 1/3 rule you have.

Because then in 79 you were 30 RBIs or.

Yeah, 79 you were 30 RBIs to 90.

Sorry, 30 home runs to 98 RBIs.

How many doubles did you have?

I don't count.

18.

18.

Oh, okay, I stopped that second drive me in.

And then in 1980 you were 25 home runs to 93 RBIs.

So you're way over your 1/3 there.

Yeah.

And then in 81.

In 81, you had another very good season.

You were 22 home runs to 90 RBI.

That's man with pretty good 23, three doubles.

Wow.

That'll get faster or what?

I don't think so.

I don't.

He was on the treadmill.

Yeah, well, wait a minute.

You did have.

You did have four stolen bases, which you had.

You had none in 79 and one in 80.

So.

Yes, you did.

No, but go back to some year when I had 17, I had 17 stolen base and I didn't have to slide.

I stole those bases standing up.

Remember what you said about no foot, no footage.

You know, know what happened.

But what happened was they were trying to get Joe at third, decide to walk in the second.

That's funny.

That's funny.

Anyway, I thought that was an interesting way to try to retrofit some of.

Those stats and go, I didn't know that well.

And it's also interesting because like Rick has said many times, the game is still played the way the game has been played.

We're.

We're measuring it differently.

And even though we would measure this with, with all these decimal points and different things like this now, just like George was saying a minute ago, they had a way to measure this stuff when he was playing.

It just was different.

It was okay.

I'm looking at this as a ratio.

Of rbi, batting average, runs batted in, runs scored.

And now they're getting really more technical.

But I think they should start putting more emphasis on what you measure.

And I say getting the guy over from second base or situational hitting.

Well, Milwaukee talks about that.

There was a. I just seen it.

Yeah, but there was another team talk about situational hitting and, but indicative why they were in first place, why they're winning and being able to match a win.

Or was it the Blue Jays, maybe?

The Blue Jays, yeah, it's one of those.

Oh, those guys remember seeing.

Yeah, but the biggest thing, the thing that we've, we've talked about from day one is situational, situational play overall.

But to look back at these stats, you know, from, from so long ago, it.

We're looking at what you did, not what the situation called for in each at bat.

So you're, you don't have the same goal every time you walk up to the plate because it's a different situation.

Well, in my case, I had different skills, tools to be able to drive the ball of the Ballpark or drive.

But I knew, I knew to use the middle of the field.

So the things that I was doing it add up to that situational hitting and I knowing that, okay, I got two strikes, I got to cut down my swing, really drive the ball up the middle.

And it would go to right field.

Yes.

Or out of the ballpark.

But it's about trying to do different things at different times.

And when you, when you focus on, when you focus too much on that, on that X part of the X WOBA and you, I think when you focus too much on the, on the exit velocity and the launch angle, I think those are great tools to measure what you're doing.

It's controversial.

It is, it is.

But when it comes to being a hitter with options, when you try to take that player who can hit the ball hard with a certain angle, but only a certain percentage of the time and put them in that clutch situation, the performance is, it's going to vary a little bit.

Whereas when you have the tools to do more specific tasks like you talk about, you can then utilize that, utilize those different tools in your overall strategy to win games.

Right.

The other one is that I would say batters, because they get too particular up there.

They want everything.

Room service, so to speak.

So I teach kids to teach to widen their strike zone.

So now what balls can you hit in your hitting zone, become a hitting zone.

So it doesn't have to be down the middle or on the corners.

You're able to make contact, work on that.

I saw a guy who swing at a pitch that's above his, above his chest.

He hits it, he can hit it.

So some coaches say, come on, swing at strikes.

I said, no, hit.

Get the ball in your hitting zone.

So in batting practice, I said, you can hit that?

Yeah.

Oh, no more.

So I said, can you hit that?

He said, I don't know.

I said, you can't hit unless you try.

So being able to drive it by though on purpose with a right hander, that line, the batter spot line and towards them, I throw the ball there and see it.

If you're able to hit that, it's going to be easier to ball that's on the plate.

It is because the umpire sometimes will call that pitch.

So prepare yourself for it.

Well, and one of the things that I want to kind of bring this to kind of show young players through this discussion is that, you know, as you go and you study privately, you go to these different facilities and some of them will have things like hit tracks.

Right.

Some of these really advanced stat measuring things.

Those are great tools to use.

Use those tools.

That's good.

In the end, having all that knowledge only helps you if you have the skills and the ability to do the things that need to be done when you get up there.

If you are a hitter with options, if you're not a hitter with options, you're a hitter with a lot of bad news is what you are.

You got a lot of.

You got a lot of stats running through your head, but they're not telling you what you want to know.

Because what you want to know is that in a situation you can be counted on to get the job done and move the runner level swing, let it travel, wait for your pitch, be aggressive out there.

It's no wonder young players get confused at the plate.

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Apply@georgefoster baseball.com Transitioning to more of a skills and drills kind of situation.

We've done this kind of throughout.

You guys have been very helpful with the, with the, the specifics.

What I want to look at here is have we left anything on the table?

Is there anything that we say?

Man, kids, here's a drill, here's something you can do.

Here's a way to practice this.

Here's a way to get this in your head so that you can learn these skills of bunting, hitting it to one side or the other, being able to be effective in a In a hit and run, be effective in a squeeze.

These kinds of things.

I have two, if you don't mind.

Number one, we've.

We've already mentioned before is hitting fungo, because that is something.

That is something that.

Yes, I'm not good at, and there's no excuse for that.

And had I practiced that more through.

Grow.

Getting through growing up, I would have been.

It would have then been easier to take that skill and have that translate to being at the plate.

It would have given me a lot of confidence.

I do that a lot.

The second one is pepper.

Yes, that was pepper.

Where's the salt?

Is it a condiment?

Let me, I want to hear.

Let me.

Let me hear what you have to say about pepper, because that was not a thing when I was growing up.

What.

And people don't give an explanation really anymore.

Not at all.

Where that you feel.

Throw it back to the guy.

The guy shorten up.

Exactly.

Put it on the ground.

You feel it.

If you, if you watch any major leaguer from, oh, I don't know, the 60s to probably the 90s talk about youth baseball, they always say pepper.

And I, I.

It took.

I had to look up the rules because I didn't know what it.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, it was huge when I was a kid.

So, yeah, all it is, is, it's.

It's a.

It's a couple fielders stand in the.

Line and they lob it.

They lob it to a guy with a bat who makes soft contact back to the player to then field it.

Yeah.

It's so simple.

He doesn't catch it.

He puts it back out.

Exactly.

He catches it with the bat.

It's so simple for everybody involved.

And that was not a thing when I was growing up.

I'll never forget the episode of the Baseball Bunch.

He had Mike Schmidt on the basis.

Johnny had Mike Schmidt on the baseball.

That's the video I'm talking about.

Yeah.

And Mike Schmidt was like, here's how you play Peppers.

And.

And we watched him and he.

And he talks about how they still played at the major league level every day.

And so that was just.

That was something that just wasn't.

Was not a part of my childhood that could have helped a lot.

So those two right there.

And those two things are focusing on back control and directional hit with the.

Pepper not only helps with the offense, but defense too.

So you got to be feeling the ball.

But yeah, pepper's great.

Cause you.

You say you have three guys there.

You want to be able to hit one to each Guy.

Not to the same guy all the time.

So you have.

With your back.

Control.

I think.

What.

What's happening.

We're getting so far.

And I listen to what Ethan says a lot to all you guys, but everything.

We get so far away.

We make baseball where that it's supposed to be.

Try to reinvent the wheel.

Yes, exactly.

Try to polish it so much.

Simple.

Yeah.

Because I think dads today, they feel as though that, oh, man, we got this technology, we've got these bats.

We have to do all of this other stuff like, man, just keep it simple, man, you know?

Yes, we do have hit tracks.

We.

You do have better pitching machines now, but you still have to throw a baseball.

You still have to hit.

You still have to do the.

The things that make baseball.

Baseball, man.

Yeah.

Like pepper, you look at.

Or fungo, you know, what's the purpose?

Where are you getting out of that?

Yes.

And I just.

When.

When Ethan had said that.

Yeah, because like in working with the kids, soft toss.

I have them the self soft toss so that now they can start self.

Feeling the same thing.

Right.

Being able to judge it.

Because in the beginning, like, they'll swing up here, way down here, throw it way over there.

But the ones who.

Yeah, once we talk about.

I talked about earlier about analogous.

So tennis is with the tennis served, so you tossing the ball up.

So there are a lot of analogies that are there.

But I have kids who play baseball to play tennis or play golf.

And yeah, they said the golf swing messed up the baseball swing.

I said, no, because a lot of guys who are happy feet, you know, in golf, you don't move your feet.

You got being able to use that rotation when you're hitting the ball.

Sure do.

Yeah.

I mean, I.

When I was a kid, it was called amusing yourself.

So.

Mom was like, I don't know what you're gonna do today, but you're not gonna sit under my feet.

Get out and go do something.

And we found a stick and went.

Rocks in the country.

Yeah, you get these nice rocks and make your own bat.

We used to get.

Just get a broomstick or a broomstick, whatever, and hit rocks.

But duct tape, we didn't.

We didn't know the name of it, but we got a lot of this yellow tape we would make.

We walled them up and make a little ball.

We had.

We got in trouble one time, we found a broomstick and we.

We had heard about my kids next door.

We had heard about people playing snick broom.

Right?

And we're like, stickball.

What and we just thought that meant that you were using a broomstick instead of a bat.

We didn't know any different.

So we thought, okay, we'll just take this, this broomstick.

But it didn't have any grip on it.

And the neighbor kid, his dad.

Both of our dads worked in factories.

My dad was an electrician.

His dad was.

Worked at Delco and.

But in his garage, he had a whole bunch of these rolls of electrical tape.

And they were all different colors.

Oh, we got creative.

Yes.

We had that handle, had every color on it all the way down.

We used up.

Oh, he was so hopping mad.

We used all of his electrical tape to decorate our stickball bat.

But that's the purpose.

The thing about hitting rocks, and I will say this, so many people are cringing right now.

I talk about hitting rocks.

The, the reason not rock bottom, hitting rocks was if you're out in the middle of a field, it doesn't matter.

And rocks are not white.

They're gray.

They're hard to see.

And they're smaller.

They're smaller.

They're a little bitty thing.

And so you gotta really concentrate on where that rock is.

And see that, See that stick hit that rock.

I mean, we spent a lot of time doing.

Another good one just for backyard is bottle caps.

My buddy and I, we.

Well, we would do.

We would do ping pong baseball in the house.

Okay.

With a ping pong paddle.

Yeah.

But depending on how you flick the ping pong ball, you can make it spin a lot because it's, it's very light.

So that air.

Or playing ping pong.

Yes, or playing ping pong.

Yeah.

But Gatorade caps are excellent for, for bottle cap baseball.

So you can get them to slide and move in different ways.

And in, in Latin countries, they have one called Vitia.

I'm probably butchering that.

But they actually have.

There's a.

Now there's a dedicated plastic simulated cap to simulate the ones that they use.

But from what I remember, it was based on a laundry soap container that was very common.

And that one made the best Vitia ball or Vitia cap, I guess, but very common down there.

And in Japan even, they have a variation of a bottle cap type game where just because you're able.

It's similar to Wiffle ball, you're able to simulate such dramatic movements.

But yeah, everybody jinx.

Gatorade, man.

Gatorade Powerade.

Now because.

Yeah, I'm gotta get the top.

You know, I have this, this PVC pipe is about 30 inches long.

And I Have these little golf balls.

Yeah.

So every now and then, I'll throw the kids.

So I've got this one kid.

He.

He gets.

I was like, we're gonna switch it up today, man.

My bag of golf balls.

I throw it to him, man, he'll swing.

I said, have you ever did this before?

It's like, nope.

But we want to make sure it's not a real golf ball, right?

No.

Okay.

The little plastic.

Plastic.

Because I don't want these kids using real golf balls.

Whoa.

Setting distance records like, hey, George, I seen you on the golf course, man.

But.

Yeah.

I mean, any.

Any type of thing.

Small.

Yeah.

Also some of the things.

Let's just kind of.

Kind of recap some of the things we've talked about.

Some of the things you talked about with the T work.

Doing it high, doing it low, doing it in the middle, doing it out.

Doing it in the middle, doing it up close to yourself.

Get that.

Get a feel for the three dimensions of the zone and where you might want to be looking for those balls to put them.

Where you want them to go.

Dimensions.

You know, think of it as a cube or a box.

Box.

Rather than just inside or outside.

You know, it's.

There's also up.

There's also a corner out here and a corner in here.

There's also, you know.

So how does all that play?

In rectangle meets a triangle.

Do you have a.

And giving a thought to angles as well.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Now, one thing that I've heard that George, you said several times.

Several.

On the ground.

Oh, hitting the ball on the ground.

Now, what's the difference between an effective hit on the ground and.

Oh, crud.

I hit it, and it's a dribbler, and they're just gonna throw me out.

Well, effective when you're able to get it through the infield.

But.

Well, I guess the defective one.

The guy can advance, right?

The runner can advance.

So.

So what are the mechanical considerations of.

I want to hit this ball on the ground.

What do I have to do to make that happen?

Effectively, it.

It changes the part of the ball that you hit.

So I. I Dictator, recommend hitting the back of the ball when you're driving it.

So hit the top of the ball when you want to hit the ball on the ground.

So you.

In a sense, you're getting top spin, but you hit it.

You're guaranteed.

Just like in bunny.

Right.

You want to bunch the top of the ball so your ball's going on the ground.

Exactly.

So.

But a lot of guys, you know, if they okay, you get a ball that you know can hit it solidly, but it may be a line drive right to somebody.

But being able to hit the ball on the ground, you can being able to move that runner over, especially a guy at third base.

And I don't care if the infield in or not, you gotta.

Well, it's a different perspective too.

When you're at third base and they want you to go on the ground ball look right in front of home plate, you can tell if that ball is going to be in the air on the ground from the time it's hit.

From there, you take off, you're going to be safe.

A lot of guys wait until the ball is almost past the pitcher and go, it's too late.

But like I said, the effective way is being able to hit the ball on the ground and advance that runner.

What pitch are you looking or.

Or pitches are you looking for in order to be able to do that effectively?

Well, it's now it's getting into you not be as I would get closer to the plate.

You know that you want to make sure that you can cover the outside effectively and not say stand away.

Now they throw a strike outside so you don't.

Don't be particular but you want to be able to be in control.

And I would like Rick had said, shorten your swing or choke up on the bat and making sure you focus on hitting the top of the ball and that now ball that's over your head, you know, it's not hittable unless of course you.

But back to one guy with hit and run with a guy at Jim Fry with the Cubs would hit the hit and run with a guy at third base.

It was effective at times because the guy's in motion.

But like say hitting them all on the ground, choke up doing certain things.

But the number one thing is get on top of the play again.

Awesome.

Well, hopefully you guys have had a good time listening to this conversation.

I know I have.

I've learned a ton of stuff that was dense.

Me too.

Erudite today.

So hopefully you all have enjoyed that and through the magic of editing, we'll put all this in the right order to make it.

Oh simulate so you can emulate.

So thanks for joining us again today for another discussion on the on the podcast.

We're talking about again offensive objectives Today we're talking about moving runners, talked about what it takes to move them from one place to another, how to be a hitter with options, how to be able to do things effectively like bunt and hit, hit and run.

How to be able to decide if I want to hit it to the left side or the right side, or how to capitalize on whether the fielders are playing in or the fielders are playing out, or maybe how to show bunt to get them to move in or move out or what you're doing.

So lots of different ideas there.

The idea of moving beyond, I'm going to go up there and swing and hope that something good happens.

We start out that way when we're, when we're young players, but at some point in time we have to graduate to the, to the more mature understanding of, I'm going to go up there and make something specific happen.

And that, that's about maturing as a player.

And those are always, you know, those are always things that take a lot of practice and a lot of work.

These guys have said over and over and over again, don't try and do it in the game if you haven't done it a gazillion times in practice.

That's very important.

Coaches, you know, running practices, we've talked about moving runners.

It's always easier to practice moving runners if there are runners on.

Again, we encourage you, if you're doing batting practice, put runners on base and make them run.

Make the fielders have to make decisions and then let your batters hit into those situations where they're bunting, trying to move somebody or hit and run, trying to move somebody, that kind of thing, so that the, the players are making those decisions and batters can see, hitters can see what it means to create that chaos and what it means to create that opportunity and give the other team an opportunity to join you and help you out with an error.

You know, those kinds of things.

So we encourage you to test out those kinds of ideas.

Also, you know, there are going to be more stats and they're going to be more things that we're learning going forward.

Baseball is getting more scientific, but the bottom line is still being able to pull that off and utilize those skills to help the team and to do what it is that the team needs.

A lot of times, even if that means you're working against maybe your own statistical success, you're working toward the success of the team.

You need to get a sacrifice, you need to give yourself up in order to get somebody to move.

That's okay if it's what the team needs in order for the team to succeed.

So.

So just some different ideas that we've brought up today.

Hope you've enjoyed it.

We we encourage you to join us again next week when we tackle part three of the Situation where we're going to talk about scoring, running, how to get them in, you're going from second and third, how to get them across that plate and make those, make those runs happen.

So join us again next week.

We appreciate it.

In the meantime, go check out all the different places that you can find the podcast.

You can find it on MDA, aiacademy.com georgefosterbaseball.com glovehound.com completegame, podcast.com and anywhere else that you listen to podcasts.

Until then, have a great week everybody, and we'll see you.

We hope you've enjoyed the Complete Game Podcast, the show that's all about baseball.

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