I don't know.

I have mixed emotions about it.

But so.

So far I'm not bothered by it.

About what?

About abs.

Just because, like I.

Like I said, it does make for an interesting moment.

I thought it would be clunky, but it's so fast.

Yeah.

That it gives a little moment of tension and then it kind of.

It moves pretty quick.

Unless.

Unless you are CB Buckner and you have to keep challenging.

And then I guess it does add up after time.

Over time.

But like, George and I were talking.

So eventually, what is the.

What is the consequence for the bad umpire.

Robot umpires.

Eventually, I guess.

Well.

Or like you get an umpire that's constantly proven wrong.

Yeah.

So then what?

You know, if you don't do something about it.

Now he's wrong.

Everybody knows he's wrong.

And it's just getting worse.

The immediate one, I just.

Seeing that that guy is loose.

Responsibility of being behind the plate.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So they gotta be on the bases.

Yeah.

You gotta have a designated guy behind the plate.

But I mean, sometimes.

Sometimes when the kids aren't sleeping, I put on old games from the 80s or 90s, whatever.

And if you go back and look at, like, Was it Kerry Woods 20 strikeout?

I mean, some of those calls are pretty.

I don't know that he has that same game with abs is all I'm trying to say.

So, you know who it would really be interesting to hear from is Salvador Perez, because he came in that time in that traditional catching.

Two knees up goes to the one knee down in the scooting in that kind of fluid framing.

And he's going through ab.

I mean, because he's.

He's one of the older players in the league, so that would be really interesting to hear from him.

So big league catchers, if you want to weigh in.

Yeah.

Get in touch.

That'd be great.

Hey.

Welcome back to Season two, Episode one.

We're excited to have you.

We made it through a whole first season and it went well and we're excited to be back for a second season.

You may notice that we're three guys now instead of four.

That's because our friend Rick has moved on to some other opportunities and we wish him the very best.

We're.

We're praying for him and we're looking at his promotion.

It's a promotion.

We wish him the very best and we hope that all's well and he may be back to join us from time to time.

And we'll always be glad to have him.

So we're going to Soldier on and kind of go forward here.

We've got a plan for the second season that we think that you might enjoy and we're going to start out with a series on the mental game of baseball and so with some new segments this time around.

So we're going to start each segment or each show with a segment called George's player Picks.

And and old Uncle George is going to bring us somebody that we can talk about that exemplifies the theme of this episode.

So this episode is called you only fail if you don't learn.

And so we're going to talk about several aspects that have to do with that.

But George, introduce us to your player pick for this week.

Well, this guy, I feel that it's, it's a travesty, it's a criminal that he's not in the hall of Fame.

And this guy is Dale Murphy.

This guy ended up with 398 home runs, two time MVP, led the league in home runs twice, RBIs twice, and had a career battling after 265.

He was very impactful player and I don't know why he's not in the hall of Fame.

I just, somebody should just sit down and think about it.

I agree.

This guy is very impactful in the game and if you want to have a guy like him, you want to have a guy like him on your team.

So Dale Murphy is my pick.

Well, here's the guy started as a catcher and moved to first base, then moved to the outfield.

So he made that transition because they wanted his bat into the lineup.

So he made that adjustment going from one position to the other, but he didn't let that bother him at the plate.

So you take a guy who, you know, it's one thing, it's enough of a herculean effort to just make the big leagues play in one position.

I mean, we went through that last last season when we talked about what the stats were, you know, but a guy who's going to adjust from, you know, you made it as a catcher, that was your bed, bread and butter.

And now you're going to, oh, I'll have to be an infielder.

No, I'm actually going to go be an outfielder.

Right.

And the whole different mindset that you got to go through to do all of that and you keep your back going through all of it.

You know, you got to think if you're going through a major change and a major adjustment, it's going to affect your batting.

Maybe, maybe you go through a slump Maybe he kept producing the whole time he was learning a new position.

He didn't let it bother him.

That had to be so hard.

But they always talk about being strong up the middle.

So going from catcher then playing center field so you're, you're in the middle of it and so.

But he had good speed, good arm, good instinct.

So he was away.

I didn't mention the fact that he was a seven time all star.

So it's not only just his bat, but he was also good on defense.

Cool.

Well, Dale Murphy is our guy for this week.

Well, let's talk a little bit about making those adjustments.

So as somebody who's played in all levels of baseball, George, do great players ever stop learning?

That's what make them great.

They don't stop learning.

The guys who stop learning, they start to stagnate and they thinking that what they've done before is going to be enough.

You take a player who say rookie of the year, had a good year his first year.

They talk about having a sophomore jinx.

It's just the fact that they don't work it make the adjustment again because now the pitchers are adjusting to him.

So the guy likes pitch low and away and so they're going to start throwing men's side.

And now the guy is confused like what, what do I do?

So you look, you keep doing what you were doing before, but being prepared for them to make a change.

But, but you gotta make the adjustment.

Always want, I always say better your best.

That means you gotta keep working at it.

And you see a guy like a Pujols.

I'm just amazed.

With a guy like a Pujols.

10 Years straight.

300 Home.

300 Batting over.

300 Batting average, over 30 home runs and over 100 RBI.

That is consistency.

Well, you take a Rod Carew and a To Gwynn.

Two guys, eight, eight batting titles with Tony Gwynn, seven with, with Rod Carew.

That is consistency.

They, they have to make an adjustment day in and day out.

You know when you were talking about making an adjustment because the pitchers have seen you, it brings to mind young players like Reese Hines.

You know Rhys Hines comes up.

Yes.

And he's, he's just killing the ball.

I mean he's knocking it all over the place in his first few games and then after that that they were like ah, no, we figured you out.

And then he struggles.

Right.

He didn't make the adjustment.

And it's just that I tell kids that try not to change your.

They're different swing three different Swings, but don't let your.

The location of the ball influence your swing.

So being able to build a swing, that's going to be.

Being able to adjust to where the ball's being thrown.

But I just.

I would love to.

I'm telling the Reds, I would love to work with this guy.

This guy.

I just.

The unfortunate thing, this guy, he may end up having a mediocre career unless he gets somebody who's going to get him on the right track, teach him what he needs to do.

This guy's a power hitter, one of the few guys who had potential to be a star.

And the Reds, they keep him in the minor leagues, but how's it going to help?

They have the same guys working with it, so they gotta bring in a fresh mind, fresh idea.

But this guy, he could do it if they give him an opportunity or give me opportunity to work with him.

Another thing that comes to mind when you ask the question, do great players ever stop learning to be a great player?

I think implies longevity.

And we were just talking about how much is the game going to change over the course of one person's career?

I mean, the approach that you had when you're coming up in the late 60s is going to be a lot different than the approach you're going to have in the early 80s.

So if you don't adjust, not only do you not get better, but the game changes.

Not only are you not getting better personally, but you're not adjusting to the game changing around you, right?

But the.

I remember the.

Oh, yeah, When I hit 52 home runs in 77, and then I hit 40 the next year, they said, you know, what's the difference?

You know, I said, well, I'm good.

I'm good at math.

The difference is 12.

But they didn't.

They didn't pitch to me as much, so I had to be more patient and disciplined up there.

They'd rather walk me than to give me an opportunity to win the ball game.

And that's when it was very important to have somebody, if it's a bench or Perez behind you did to give you more opportunity to get balls in the hitting zone.

So I made that adjustment, mentally understanding that I.

They're gonna.

There may be one pitch I'll get, but be prepared for it.

But not going up there and being surprised.

So it's always being prepared is part of.

Part of making that adjustment.

And that's the fun part of it.

Knowing, okay, I know this guy's throwing me inside, but he's trying.

Trying to get me out of the way.

So it's just playing games up there, up to the plate, but you gotta think it through.

And, and that mental aspect when, when Ethan will talk about longevity, I mean being healthy is important, but that mental.

What are you going to do mentally to adjust to the situation?

When you think about in, when you get to say the minors or well, even, even college now with the portal and people moving around.

But you get to the minors and then you get to the professional levels, the big leagues where you're looking at, you know, you could be playing for more than one team, you could be moving around and then you're going to have to address that way leagues and then you got, you talk about guys with longevity.

You take, you know, take somebody like Ricky Anderson who played for a bunch of different people or right.

Or that's a big.

Nolan Ryan who played for a bunch of different people and you're like, okay, yeah, so that's a, that's a, you know, an issue that you have to learn to adjust to each different venue.

And I know you've mentioned before, George, the difference between the minor league levels and the different pitchers that you're likely to see at different levels and that kind of thing.

So yeah, definitely adjusting to the environment.

Well then minor leagues now you, there's a difference.

Big difference is they have throwers in that minor league, but the best, best pitchers are.

Or in the major league they come, they come up early.

So you're not facing the best when you're down in the minor league.

When we play, we're facing guys who are going on their way to the major league because they didn't jump, you know, two or three levels.

It's one level of time and, and usually the double A was the top level, but now they're looking at college guys coming from college.

I mean guys like Skeens, you know, he's an exceptional.

But you have guys coming from college into to pro ball and, but it's a learning process for these.

When you, that's what minor leagues was for, to be able to learn to make the adjustment and then fine tune your skills.

So you finished the season last year exhausted from all the travel and the tournaments and, and you tossed your gear in a bag where it's been sitting all winter.

Now you're ready for another year.

But your favorite glove that fits just right is an error waiting to happen.

The leather is dry, the laces are brittle, and this year you're on a new team with new colors and it sure would be cool if it matched well, wouldn't it be great if you had a glove guy who could help you out with that?

You do.

His name is Ethan and he owns Glovehound baseball glove repair shop in Fairfield, Ohio.

Just contact him@glovehound.com and upload pictures of your glove.

He'll give you a call back to talk it over and then you can send it in for a repair.

Relays, recondition, whatever you need.

If you're in the area, you can even just stop by the shop.

That way you don't have to bother with shipping.

And a lot of times he can even fix it while you wait.

Rawlings, Wilson, Mizuno, All Star, Nakona, he's seen them all.

And he's helped players at all levels, from beginners to pros.

Last year he worked on a glove that Jose Trevino used in the World Series.

And he can help you too.

You can find Glovehound on Google, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and on the web@glovehound.com.

You're only going to get busier.

So reach out today and give your glove the love it deserves at Glovehound.

So let's talk about the role of coaches and private instructors, parents, teammates, people like that.

So let's, let's take coaches first of all.

So practical ways that coaches can, can help you make the adjustment.

I mean, this is something I've learned from.

Well, I mean, I'm sure this will come up in probably every episode.

I might as well introduce that I'm coaching a rec team here in Fairfield.

They're 13, 14, not W R E C K. Well, it depends on the day.

No, but I've got a couple of 12 year olds, couple 13 year olds and maybe one 14 year old or something like that.

So it's been fun to implement season one concepts into my team now.

But one thing that George really stressed was just that positive reinforcement.

And that's been so huge because some of these guys, I ended up with a team of guys who hadn't really played in that league before.

They come in from other places and some of them are like, coach, you don't yell at me.

I'm like, why?

I don't have any reason to.

If you make me mad, maybe I would.

But like, if you did something wrong, I just want you to fix it.

I don't really care if you make a mistake in practice.

That's what we're here for.

So really, I think positive reinforcement, helping them identify the errors and helping them find ways to fix it is kind of what I take away from that.

What do you think that is?

That is great because there's a process into whatever you do in life, and it's letting them know what the process is.

And, yeah, these coaches are yelling and screaming.

It's not making it any better.

Now the guy end up maybe not playing the game because it's like.

It's like getting psychedelic.

Pst.

Oh, ptsd.

Ptsd.

I got it.

The letters.

So every time a ball's hit to them, they're thinking, if I miss this ball, I'm gonna get yelled at.

Well, and I can offer a personal antidote to that, because I caught most of my youth career up until high school, and then I started pitching more, and we just had an abundance of catchers in my high school team, which usually doesn't happen, but it did.

And so my opportunity was to play third base.

Problem was, I didn't take very many reps at third base growing up.

And my freshman year, I pitched and hit, so I wasn't fielding.

And I really struggled my sophomore year.

I had a good arm, but I had mediocre hands and terrible feet.

And that sophomore year was the first time I learned about picking your hop, trying to pick your short hop, pick your long hop, and trying to avoid the in between.

And I had a really hard time with that.

And all we did was just take more ground balls.

And so no one was really able to break it down into its little bitty steps and then put it together when fielding the ground ball.

And so I had a hard time with that.

So that's something that I've tried to do with my guys.

That brings me to my.

That brings me to something that I realized was of this list of people that I have in this question here, private instructors, parents, coaches, teammates.

There are some of these guys who have.

Some of these people have a privilege that others do not, and responsibilities.

Well, yeah, and coaches are at the top of this in that coaches have access to the moment.

Yes.

Like my dad.

He could help me out, but we weren't going to talk about it until we got in a truck after the game.

The coach has me in the moment, has me while I'm batting, can help me reset in between pitches, can help me reset myself after an error in the field.

The coach has access to the moment.

So when you talk about helping somebody make the adjustment and say, all right, look, it's only a failure if we don't learn.

Make an adjustment, move forward, the coach has an unbelievable opportunity there that other people don't.

Your private Instructor has that within the, within a lesson.

Right, but your private instructor doesn't have that during a game.

Your parent doesn't have that during a game.

Well, I mean we all try, but maybe you shouldn't.

Much to the, much to the coach's chagrin.

And a lot of times we're trying because the coach didn't take advantage of it and it's frustrating us.

But so what your, what are your thoughts on the idea that, that coaches have an opportunity the other people don't?

Well, the thing I would, I was thinking of is the saying less is more.

So you don't have to go out there and it's just finding one word or once.

It's to tell the kid you don't want them to think about too much up there.

That's what I.

And so less is more, but especially with the parents is less is more.

Because I have these parents bringing kids to me to work with them and they're in the background talking to the kids and then the parents say to me, well, I don't know much saying that they don't know much about baseball.

I said, I found out about that.

But why are you telling the kid?

Why are you talking to him?

Let this last parent, I don't know if he's listening or not, but I said don't take the fun out of the game for the kid.

Yeah, I, I try not to get too critical that, you know, you brought him here for me.

You just step back.

But don't take the fun out of the game.

Let them play.

They're only 10 or 11 years old.

You want to be a star right now.

But I had parents saying, you think at 10, 11, you think he's going to be in the major league.

And like, let me see, Fanduel said no.

Well, and that's a good, that's an excellent point.

Point in going back to what you said earlier when I first brought this up is that yes, a coach has access to, they have a privilege in the, access to that moment, but they also have a great responsibility because your reaction in that moment, you're not talking to a kid who is chilled out and level headed and kind of thinking a little bit.

You're talking to a kid whose adrenaline is pumping, his brain is working.

He, he's, you know, he's all about it.

And so what you say is hyper important in that moment.

Yeah, it's amplified in that moment.

So you know, to take that as a coach, you know, you know that what you're saying is going to Have a greater impact one way or the other.

That demeanor.

How are you going to talk to the kid?

I was going to say that.

I think that's the answer.

Because what you say, because of the, the intensity of the moment, what you say may not register, but how you say it is going to really feed.

It's kind of the energy that you communicate with is going to make probably more of an impact than the actual thing that you say.

Yeah, but they put up that defense when it's noise, that yelling become noise, like, oh, now he's up there, he's flustered that now he doesn't really know how to react or being relaxed up there.

So it gets into a different mindset for that kid.

But it's how you deliver it.

And so let's talk a little bit about private instructors.

So you've had a private instructor, you've been a private instructor, you've done some private instructing here and there with clinics and whatever.

So how is that different than being the coach in your ability to help them make the adjustment?

For me, it's.

You're fine tuning their skills.

And I, at times I, you know, working with them on the hitting part, it's.

It's good.

But I like to work with on all the aspects of the game because he may have more confidence, been able to get the confidence he has in fielding and take it over to.

To hitting because they think that it's something all different.

So.

But I find that you got to break it down and not the worst thing you could do is say, well, using bad examples.

Can't you.

Aren't you seeing the ball?

Or my grandmother can hit the ball.

You swing like a rusty gate or something to that aspect.

And then when a kid misses the ball, I, I don't say what.

Why can you.

Then you see it.

I said, good swing, good swing.

So now what is the adjustment?

It's the timing.

So they're understanding that.

Oh, it's not.

They all saying throwing a baby out with the dirty water.

It's just there's some aspect that you're.

That are solid.

And now work on the timing.

Because when you, no matter how many.

How good your mechanics are, it's if the timing's not there.

So back to that word process.

You have to stick to the process.

Yeah, for me, it was just.

It was an isolated.

It was isolated from the game because.

And Rick was my private instructor, did a fantastic job, but he has dozens and dozens of students, and so it's not like he was at every game so another privilege that the coach has is the context of the situation.

So it's the instructor's job to fine tune the mechanics like George said.

But he can't necessarily understand.

You know, he asked, oh, how'd you do in your game?

Oh, I went one for three.

And this, he doesn't know the count, he doesn't know who was throwing, he doesn't know how many runners on base.

So there's a lot of factors that you can't inspect your, you can't expect your instructor to know.

So yeah, they're, they're, they're just different, one's isolated from the other.

Well, and I think that's a good point because then the advantage, if the coach has the advantage of having access to the moment, then the private instructor has the advantage of not having to deal with the pressure of the moment.

And at that point in time, you can break everything down in the most minute steps possible and find a way to make it make sense to the kid.

Because if you're at a lesson with Rick, and if I was the same age as you, knowing the way that our brains work, he would have to explain something very differently to me than he would to you because we just think differently and that's fine.

Right.

So you have the ability to do that and take an individual approach.

Which is one of the reasons why I've always been a big proponent of if your child seriously wants to be a competitive baseball player.

I think private instruction is absolutely essential because that allows your child access to both a coach in the moment and an instructor outside that.

But here's your thing.

So I think coach, if, if, if you're a coach and you know your kids are going to private instruction, as long as it's quality, you can relieve that pressure from yourself.

As far as the, that super fine tuned individual stuff, you shouldn't be making me intense mechanical adjustments in game.

That's what, that's what the practice is for.

And so, but at the same time, so maybe a coach who doesn't have the same.

Oh, what's it called when you have the credentials, I don't know, maybe credentials, let's say he didn't play as much and that kind of stuff, don't worry so much about trying to fix everyone's mechanics.

You have access to the context and can help identify what went wrong, then you can let the instructor do that job.

But the biggest factor here is who's the person that's in both places.

That's not the player, it's the parent and That's.

Yeah, that's what I want to talk about.

Your parent is the bridge there.

Yeah.

Before you get to that.

Sorry.

It's twofold.

Is that talk on, teach what you know or focus on what you know.

And you take a pitching coach trying to talk, hitting.

They don't know.

So the kid knows that he doesn't know what he's talking about.

That doesn't work.

And the other factor, what I enjoy and I know I'm not saying I'm the only one that does it, but I get a lot of insight, a lot of information, being able to go to the kid's game and watch and see if he's implementing what we worked on in practice.

Because I had gone to a game and I said, he's not doing what I asked him to do.

So I immediately asked his parents.

I said, what time available will you have to work with that kid?

But I know the kid was frustrated and.

And then here's the parent.

You know, you got to do this, got to do that, even if they're trying to repeat what I said.

Right.

Lose it in the translation.

Sure.

That's.

So I have fun going to.

Watching them in the game and seeing how they're going to have that transition.

Sure.

And then when you're talking about parents.

So this is.

This is something I have a lot of lived experience in here as far as.

The.

The parent perspective.

The.

The way I see this is you have access to both the moment and the private instruction, but you're not the expert in either situation.

What you think you are, unless you're.

Unless you're George, watching your kids play.

Other than that, you know.

You know you're not the expert in.

The situation, but they're telling me, okay,.

So how do you.

What is the most helpful thing you can do?

I have a few suggestions.

So, number one, keep the stats.

Yes, keep the stats.

Okay.

First of all, it gives you something to do so you're not fussing at the kid and fussing at the coach and fussing at the umpire.

Do something productive.

Yeah, keep.

Keep the stats.

Even if you're just keeping it just for your kid.

Keep the stats so that you have something to talk about later and so that you have something to take to.

Your private lesson, something concrete.

This is subjective analysis.

So you can think if a kid shows up to work with you and they're like, okay, well, here's.

Here's what.

Here's what happened in my last game.

Here's my stats.

Right.

You'd be like, whoa, okay, Let me see this.

And it would take you 30 seconds to digest nine innings of stats.

And you're like, okay, so then according to what I'm seeing here, and you would start asking questions and you would start figuring out where you need to go from there.

Great thing for the parent to do, keep the stats.

The other thing I would encourage the parent to do is simply, simply be the support before and after the game.

You got this?

Go out there, give it your best, whatever encouragement.

Yeah.

They come off the field.

Some things went well, some things didn't.

That's okay.

Give them a hug.

Give them a hug.

They need to know you're behind them in their corner no matter what.

There's no scout watching them.

10 And 11 years old, there's no scout.

Yeah.

So be the support, keep the stats, and then be the communication that connects the coach with the, with the instructor.

So, you know, we mentioned the coach has access to the moment, the instructor has access outside.

How do you, how do you get the two of them?

They could talk to each other.

And a lot of times you do.

I mean, you know, a lot of different coaches and sometimes you guys will communicate with each other, but, you know, by and large, a coach isn't going to be able to have the time to then call up all the different private instructors and talk to them and all this stuff.

So, you know, if, as the parent, go talk to the private instructor and say, what could I bring to this thing that would help you?

Can I take photos?

Can I take video of it?

Can I bring the stats?

Can I, you know, be the person who gathers the information that the private instructor needs to, to do the thing?

And that would be probably the most, that would be way more helpful being the messenger than, Than being loud during a ball game.

Right.

But some of these, these parents are, of course, they, they feel, they feel great when the kid does well and they feel embarrassed if the kid doesn't do well.

But like I said, it's.

Look at the aspect, having fun, enjoying it.

And if they don't, don't care what, how good you are, if you don't enjoy it, you gotta.

They talk about burnout.

It's usually the emotional burnout.

Yeah.

And it's not the physical, it's the emotional burnout.

But if you, you don't do well on the field, you know, you gotta.

This one kid said, I'm glad I got a hit today because that'll be the long ride home with dad, because he's going to be on me.

Why did you do this, why did you do that?

And there are times at the ballpark I wanted to say something to the parent.

I said, well, this guy look big, I don't want to confront him unless I have Ethan with me.

But the dad was yelling at the, at the daughter and what are you doing?

You shouldn't do this.

Then after the eating over, he would punish her by, go do some push ups, sit ups, go do running in place.

I just so wanted, so badly wanted to say something to the kid to, I mean to the dad to relieve the kid.

The guy said, where's the wife?

He said, she doesn't come because, yeah, she's, he doesn't want to hear all that.

But the parent has had to be there to encourage, to support.

So.

Yeah.

So if we look at, if we, if we continue our, the way we're looking at this, the coach has access to the moment, the instructor has access to, to the, to the private lesson.

The parent has access to everything else.

Right?

So think about this as if your coach says, I need to take this very seriously because what I say is going to carry a lot of weight, positive or negative, okay.

And I need to be careful about how I'm saying it and that kind of thing.

It's private instructors going the same way.

Private surgeon saying, okay, what I say could crush this kid's spirit or, or you know, encourage them, whatever.

Private instructors thinking that way, parent needs to think that way.

Right.

Parent needs to say, look, I'm paid to get him on a team or paid the fees, he made the team, I paid the fees and all that.

I'm paying for the private instruction you're doing that you've provided the experts take the pressure off yourself.

You don't have to be the expert.

What you have to be is the absolute rock solid support, but the understanding.

That they're paying for an opportunity for the kid to play.

Right.

And it's not that, okay, I'm paying for you.

I'm investing this money and into, in you.

You got to go out there and produce.

Yeah.

So that, that becomes pressure.

Sure.

But I always look at situation as being a challenge.

Even as a coach, you have to be in, like you say, into the moment.

But being able to know that kid, know what he can't, not able to do at the time, if he's a good bonner.

Because when I draft kids, you know, try them out, I look for that running speed and look for the bat speed, the arm speed.

What can that kid do?

And so I build from there his confidence.

So you have a great arm.

Let's try you on the mound.

You have great speed.

Let's work on Bunny.

So things as such to help him become a better player.

And then he started trusting.

That's key.

Trusting what?

You say that you're in it to help him and not as concerned about winning or losing.

Winning is the fact that they're getting better, developing well.

And that's where.

So in the game of parenting.

Okay, I like that.

In the game of parenting.

Yes.

You understand this.

Ethan is growing to understand this.

In the game of parenting, you have situations where your child needs to learn a lesson.

And you can either be the person who decides, I'm gonna.

I'm gonna be the punishment here, or you can be like, okay, life is gonna tell this kid no sooner or later.

I don't have to be the one to do that.

I can just be the support.

For instance, let's say your child loves to play baseball.

Your child is not the next Pete Rose.

Okay?

You Lord knows what's going to happen.

He's 1012 right now.

He could grow up and be anything.

Okay?

But right now, where he is right now, today, okay, He.

He may not have a career in the major leagues.

Okay.

Life is going to tell him that.

Life is going to tell him.

He.

He can or he can't.

That opportunity is there or it's not.

He doesn't need me to do that.

What he needs to know is I love him no matter what.

Right.

When you know is I have his.

I have his unconditional support in his back if he goes that way or.

If he doesn't and give him that guidance.

Yeah.

Let life tell them no.

You just be the support and then take them wherever, Wherever the opportunity is and go with them.

You're trying to control it.

Yeah.

And that's that.

I think the most magical thing, the most important thing that a parent can do is let forces outside tell them yes or no.

When it comes time to look at opportunities like that, you just be the greatest support you can possibly be.

Be the person who connects the coach with the private lessons.

Be the person who takes the stats and celebrates the wins and does the things that let that kid know that he can go out there or she can go out there game after game and somebody's in their corner pulling for them.

And that's probably the best thing.

Yeah.

And my mom was like that all the time, and she's always encouraging, I do well or not do well.

Is that okay?

Just keep your head up.

There's another day Keep going.

And you don't have to be.

That's the other thing is when you take the pressure off of yourself to just be the support.

You don't have to be a baseball expert, you have to be a football expert, you don't have to be a basketball expert or whatever it is that your child does.

You need to be a your kid expert.

Exactly.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

So that's parents level swing, Let it travel, wait for your pitch.

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Let's, let's touch on teammates real quick here before we go.

So as teammates, what are some of the ways that you can help your teammates make the adjustment?

Man, that, that one can be kind of touchy just because you got to kind of know your role.

And I think a lot of times.

Well, first of all, as a player you need to be open to that criticism.

Constructive.

Yeah.

Or make it constructive.

Well, you need to be open to receiving it as someone who's about to give it.

You need to make sure that you're, it's the right time and the place and that you have the right relationship to do that.

And that was hard for.

That was tricky with me growing up because we played on a different team every single year.

And so you hardly had time to get to know your teammates and get to that level of them providing input.

So that kind of.

It seems like that's built through camaraderie and that kind of thing.

That chemistry builds over time.

I would assume that's a little easier in the majors, maybe a little more solid class.

The majors get very competitive because that you're saying something to a teammate and they may try to compete against you and what you're doing.

But I found that I learned from Bobby Bonds, Willie Mays, the guy, top notch guys.

And there's not.

You don't have to go out there and preach a sermon to them.

All they said to me was, but it's very impactful.

You're better than that right there.

I said, okay, they know me.

They've been watching me.

And it's an encouragement that you're better than that.

You, you go out, you make an error, you make a bad mistake on the minimum mistake on the basis, or you had a 3, 1 pitch, you popped it up, or you didn't run it out.

All that is taken in focus when they say you're better than that.

But most importantly, when did they do that?

When did they give you that correction?

It's right after the incident happened.

But one on one, right?

Yeah.

It's not everybody.

Exactly.

So as you're running out on the field, you're right next just to hearing distance, those two.

You're better than that.

Yeah.

Here's some other.

Here's some other ideas that I thought about when I was thinking about this is that sometimes you can help your teammates make an adjustment by not necessarily talking about your teammate.

So, like if Ethan is my teammate and he's going out there, he's had a rough.

He's had a rough at bat, but I noticed something that the pitcher is doing that maybe he's got to tell that I've.

That I've seen happen over and over and over again.

Or maybe he's.

He's.

When he turns, when he turns back to the mound, he's neglecting a base where you could get a jump and get a steal, or he's got some sort of habit that's going on.

You know, I can.

Ethan comes back, he's frustrated with himself and whatever.

And I said, hey, you know, I noticed every time he does this, that happens.

You might think about that when you go back out, he'd be like, oh, all right, thanks.

I haven't criticized Ethan, but I've given him some information that he can use to make an adjustment and go up there differently next time or I may notice that the umpire is just really calling this and not this.

He's giving me this zone and not that.

He's giving me the outside.

He's not giving me the inside.

He's wanting everything low.

He's want everything high.

And because maybe it's not.

Maybe I'm a PO and it's not my day to pitch, or maybe I'm,.

You know, you can always learn.

And I'm sitting there watching this, you know, and I can be focused on what's happening on the field and notice, you know, these kinds of things.

And so I can give my teammates that information that might help them make that adjustment.

Yeah.

But I would say the big thing is from the guy receiving, you need to have the humility to receive it.

And just because somebody gives you a piece of criticism doesn't mean you have to take it.

But you don't need to blow up at them either.

Right.

But the other thing is the person.

Giving it, most of them are trying to help.

Yeah.

You can't give advice that you wouldn't take yourself.

So if you're dogging it on the basis you can't go chew out your teammate for also not giving effort, so you gotta run it out, you gotta be able to back it up.

You know, if you're getting criticism from Willie Mays or Bobby Bonds, that's one thing.

But if you're getting criticism from a guy who was in the minors below you, it's like, come on, guy, who are you?

Yeah, so there is a little bit.

I was playing the Senior League.

It.

It resonates because this guy wasn't hustling on the field.

And then we're in a meeting and they're saying, you know, any suggestions here for it to improve the play of the.

Of the team?

Said, well, I would love to see George Foster play better.

Like.

Like I want to say, who are you to tell me.

I guess there needs to be some humility on the criticizing.

I took a deep breath, I said, okay, okay.

But the one that.

It was an encouragement.

Cause here's Tom Seaver.

He just had come over from the Mets, and it's a close ball game.

And Rogers, I forget, his first played for the Montreal Expos.

He's one of the top pitchers in the game.

So he had that sinker slider.

And Tom said, come on, you can get it.

Come on, you can.

You're better than he is.

And I said, wow, he's a pitcher, but he.

He knows.

He knows hitting, so.

Because he's a good pitcher himself.

So I ended up getting a base hit to win the game.

But sometimes you don't think that people notice, but they're watching.

But at the same time, he's not giving you mechanical hitting advice either.

He's giving you a little advice from where he's an expert.

Well, and that's the thing.

So, like as the catcher, Steve.

Roger, sorry, Steve Rogers.

I would go out and, and I'm, I'm out there for, you know, our half of the inning, and I've already, I, I met the umpire.

I've seen the umpire go, we've been out there two, three innings now.

I got a really good idea what this guy's going to call, when he's going to call it, how he's going to call it.

So I'm going back to the, to the bench when it's.

When we're up to bat, and I'm going, okay, this is what I've seen so far.

If this is helpful to you guys, guys, this is, you know, this is what he's doing and this is what, you know, I haven't been able to get anything, even if I'm framing and whatever, you know, this kind of thing.

So, you know, I would imagine also a really great perspective on that is if you're playing third base, you're playing shortstop, you're playing second base, you're watching the call, you're watching the pitch come in, you're seeing what's going on.

You know, you have a good perspective on that to be able to offer your teammates some information.

The other thing I would say is if you find yourself on a team where you cannot have these conversations between teammates, you might want to reconsider what team you're on.

And it could be that either the people on the team or just you just didn't get a good draw of folks on your team.

Or maybe the coach didn't build a team where that's.

Where that's possible.

Maybe the coach is really trying to build a team where that's possible and it's just not working.

It's become a misnomer team.

It's just individuals that are put together.

Yeah, but you still gotta go.

Then you really had to focus on what you can do.

Right?

So let's, let's talk about feedback here.

Let's talk about helpful versus hurtful feedback.

Yeah.

Something that I've already learned very quickly, just, oh, I don't know, we've had, I think, five practices so far, is that that criticism needs to be.

Generally, from what I found so Far that needs to be void of emotion, or at least not intense emotion.

It can't be.

Can't be caught up in the moment and that kind of thing.

And it needs to be specific.

And then lastly, it needs to be honest.

So, for example, I have one kid who put down.

I had everybody fill out the positions that they play and the positions that they want to play.

And he had played some outfield, a little bit of second base.

And he said he was interested in playing third base.

And so I was talking to him, I said, well, what.

How much do you want to play third base?

And he was like, well, I got a taste of the infield, and I really just don't want to be stuck in the outfit.

I said, that's.

I said, that's awesome.

I said, we can absolutely work to that.

I said, right now, though, you're not ready to play third base.

And what.

Something you had communicated a lot was putting kids in a position where they can be successful.

And so I told him, I said, absolutely, we can play third base by the end of the year, but you're not there yet.

Your arm's just not ready.

You can put.

The best place I could put you in the infield is second base.

I think you can do fine.

You're just not ready for third, but we can get there.

I said, is that fair?

He said, yes, absolutely.

I said, okay, I can be.

I can be good with that.

But I wasn't upset, and I also wasn't gonna lie to him either.

Like that.

That was important for him, and he really respected that.

And then later in the practice, he had asked, towards the very end, he wanted to go play first base just for fun.

I said, well, I thought.

Listen, I thought we were playing some third base here.

Like, we gotta have one goal at a time here, man.

Make your mind up.

And so another similar thing is I have a couple kids who want to pitch, but we're not ready to pitch because they're not finished.

They're not finished working on their throwing, and we got to get the throwing down before we're ready to pitch.

Yeah.

And so.

But I'm not.

I'm not upset about any of this.

It's just true.

And some of the.

Some of the kids, we've had some hiccups with, with fielding and.

And they're getting frustrated.

I'm like, I'm not mad at you.

Like, I really.

If you boot 10 in a row, I don't care, as long as you can identify why it's happening and work on Fixing it, that's the big thing is like, if we're failing, that's fine.

I'm not necessarily, I'm not upset with the failure, but if we're not analyzing it and trying to get better, that is going to start to bother me over time.

And so two practices ago, we were, we were taking fly balls and we were, we were standing in center field with the assistant coach on the third base side hitting out to us.

And the wind, I noticed, was blowing from our right to left.

None of the other kids noticed that.

And so every kid over pursued to the right side and then missed it, glove side.

And it happened over and over and over again.

And I'm sitting here behind them watching each one of this do it, and it's driving me nuts.

And I'm like, how do you.

So then I finally bring them together.

I'm like, do you not understand that the wind is blowing?

And I had to, I had to take a deep breath because when I.

See the wind, you don't see it.

When I was 13, I was not paying attention to what the wind was doing in a fly ball.

But that was an instance where we needed to analyze why, what we were struggling with in order to be able to overcome.

So here's a, Here's a couple of things that, that brings to mind for me is that, number one, you're doing something very important in that you are focusing on the behavior, not the person.

So you're saying you're not ready for third base.

You didn't say you're not a third baseman, right?

Yes.

Okay.

You're not talking, you're saying, I'm not seeing a lot of hustle out here.

You're not saying you guys don't care, right?

Okay.

So when you're, you're not criticizing the person, the value, the character of the human being, you're saying this is a behavior, right, that needs to change.

And you and I both know behavior is always downstream from belief.

Belief brings behavior.

So what you do is a direct reflection of what you believe to be true.

It's the way human beings are wired.

So if I am, if I am behaving in a certain way, I can look at somebody can look at that and say, oh, well, you must believe this.

But you're not going to correct that by attacking the belief.

You're going to correct that by saying, look at this behavior.

This behavior is concerning me because it's telling me that there might be a problem somewhere else.

Can we look at this behavior?

And so then you start Working on that behavior and all of a sudden you hit this sort of dissonance between I want to behave differently, but I believe this to be true.

And so then eventually they have to challenge what they believe about themselves, about the game, about their teammates, about their parents, about the coach, whatever it is.

But you bring that about by focusing on the behavior because the behavior is empirical, it doesn't change.

You can say, all right, what I'm seeing is a lot of strikeouts.

Let's look at your last game.

What we see here is we're watching a lot of third strikes go by.

Okay, you didn't say you're no good in a clutch situation because you can't hit.

Okay, you're saying I'm seeing a lot of watch third strikes.

So what does that tell me has to change?

Well, that means that we have to learn to be a two strike hitter.

We have to learn to intensify as the at bat goes on.

We have to learn how to shift and reset ourselves in between pitches so that we're not so intimidated by strike three that we don't swing at it.

That's good.

That makes a lot of sense.

I like the behavior and you're.

When I talked earlier about Dela Cruz is the behavior I see he's not a guy that has confidence or belief that he can drive it.

Knowing how to drive in runs and you take a freedle, this guy use the word kamikaze, you know, put me up there, I don't care.

Men are on base, but he's focused on hitting the ball and not driving.

The byproduct is driving in the run.

But I feel with Dela Cruz, he's thinking so much about I'm batting third, I got to drive in this run, but how do I do that?

So there's a lot of confusion by that time he make a, make a decision is strike three.

Yeah, I mean I watched it, I watched an interview one time, Sandy Koufax and they were talking about what.

When you're talking about, I mean it wasn't Sandy Koufax.

Who was it?

It was.

Might have been Jim Palmer, I don't know.

It was one of those, one of those hall of Famer, one of those guys from the, from the era.

And they were talking about hitters that they, that they feared to face.

And he said the, the toughest ones are guys who are just going to go up there and they're going to get on base one way or the other.

He said Pete Rose is one of the toughest guys to to face.

Because Pete was going to do whatever it took to get on base.

If he had to completely change his approach, change what he was doing, step in, step out, step up, step back, do whatever, he was going to make the adjustment because the goal was to be on base, it wasn't his average.

It wasn't, can I hit it out of the park?

It wasn't, whatever, can I be the hero?

It was, I'm gonna be on first base and do whatever it takes to get there.

And so that, you know, when you.

Because that's what he believed was important.

And one more.

One more thing on that subject, especially when you're dealing with youth players, is the concept of identity.

Because they're young kids still trying to figure out who they are.

And you really have to be careful what you tell them because they haven't had a lot of lived experience to try to form that.

And so they're going to take that to heart.

And you tell a kid, oh, well, you're not this or you're not that.

They're going to start believing it because somebody told them, especially if it's a person of authority, especially if it's a parent or if it's a coach or that kind of thing.

And so that.

That's why I took that approach of like, I think we can do this, but we're.

We're just not there yet.

And that's a great approach.

I had.

I've had a couple kids say, oh, I'm just not good at fielding ground balls.

And I'm like, well, not with that attitude, you're not.

Which is kind of like a joke.

I say sometimes.

But it's also true.

It's like, yeah, if you think you're not good at it, then you're not going to be good at it.

So if you can say, well, I'm struggling with this part of it, we can work on that.

But to assume your.

To wrap your identity around that, I mean, you're going to make errors.

Nobody in the major leagues doesn't make errors.

Okay, you're going to strike out.

So it's going to happen.

Just being aware that it's inevitable and that your identity is beyond any one specific instance.

I guess I went up there and I struck out.

Okay, what that tells me what not to do.

Why it's just one more chance you learned what not to do, but it's.

Looking at why you struck out.

Sure.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

And you take the first pitch, down middle, next pitch, bounce.

You're swinging, it's.

You're doing it by Braille.

So let's talk about a couple of ways that you can, as a player that you can learn to make the adjustment for yourself.

So one of the things I thought about was post game reflection.

If I had to go back and do it all over again, knowing what I know now, as, as an old man looking back at being a very young boy playing baseball, I would have said, man, keep a journal.

Yeah, keep a journal.

There is nothing girly about keeping a journal.

Keep a journal because it's.

If you go, even if you're, if it can be no cards, it can be.

It doesn't have to be some big, you know, intimidating book or whatever, but go home right after the game and write down, write down what went well, what didn't go well, where you.

That's what I did.

Yeah.

Where you make the adjustment where you need to.

What, what you liked about this and that and the other.

Yeah.

Talk about that, George.

Yeah.

After each game, I look forward, I guess, going back to the, after the game, write down what I did and then, and then looking at the count.

What was the count in that situation?

Even if I didn't get a hit, what, where did I hit the ball and what was my thinking at that time?

What do I need to correct?

So now I'm fully ready for that the next day, being able to make the adjustment, okay, I got a, I got a base hit or even running the bases.

It's like, oh, could I stretch that into a double?

Was I just complacent just to get a single?

So I'll write all that down.

So now you helping you to go over the game and being prepared for the next game.

And that's how you get better.

And not just to.

I, I talked to tennis players.

I would ask, what's, what was your strength today?

I don't know.

I said, was your forehand, backhand, was your serve?

I don't know.

So you don't know.

So maybe you won that match, but you didn't know how you did it.

So wedding was great, but can you back it up?

Sure.

And when you write this stuff down, it will generate a few things for you.

It will give you information to take to your private lessons.

It will cause you to think up questions that you can ask your private instructor, that you can ask your coach.

I wonder what, so why did that.

I don't know.

I need to ask the coach about that, you know.

And so you will generate.

Because you sat and wrote it all down.

It will make you start thinking of questions that you need to ask people who have expertise in the situation.

You know, it might, it might, might generate a question where you go like, okay, I got to talk to dad about not being in my ear while I'm.

It could be anything.

No, but I would have the.

I would talk to the payers at.

What?

No, my saying is that too many voices, too many choices.

Yeah.

So I mean, journaling after the game, keeping that, writing that down, or, you know, if writing it down is not your thing.

Everybody carries a phone.

Sit there and talk into it.

Make a voice recording and walk it through and make a recording for yourself that you can play back to yourself and learn if you're an audible person.

I'm an audible person, so I, you know, sometimes I will record something for myself to listen back to because it's easier for me to recall than if I wrote it down.

Whatever your style is for being able to recall information, take the time to do that after each game so that you can build on that and make that adjustment.

Otherwise you're just guessing the next time and you're starting it.

You're starting at scratch where continue it.

Yeah.

A player who is doing that is starting a little further down the track every time.

Yeah, I want to throw something in there, though, especially.

Especially for young guys.

Before you're able to do that, you have to realize that once the game is over, you can't change that.

And it's very easy.

And it happened to me constantly and it happens to everyone ongoing.

But you have to realize that once something happens, you can't undo it.

You can only control the present and plan for the future, I guess.

But you cannot change if you made an error, you cannot unmake the error.

And that's so much easier said than done.

But you have.

You have to realize that what's happened has happened and let's move forward.

Then you get in the mindset to be able to analyze it and then apply forward.

I think I feel that it resonates to me.

It resonates more when you're writing it down.

So now not only you're seeing it, but you're at.

You're writing it.

So that process that you're doing it helps to.

That muscle memory, I guess it gets.

It out of your head.

Right.

And release it.

Yeah.

And then.

But you're knowing that, okay, I've.

I've gone over this.

I'm written or I've written it down.

And then it's no fun riding 0 for 4 down.

But at the same time, let's say you, you went, you got your first dinger, man, you crushed one and you got it out of there.

Great.

Celebrate it then put it in the book because you can't live on it forever.

So, but still you hit the home run.

But it's, it's, where did you, for me, it's, where did I hit it?

Right?

So I hit a home run down the left field line.

It was hooking.

I said, nope.

I got, I don't, I don't want the hook.

I don't want more of a fade on it.

So in my mind and then, then from my mind to my body, my body movement is okay.

I want to be able to hit the ball more to left, left, center, to right, center.

So I'm improving on that.

I'm not just satisfied what I got to hit or hit the ball there, but, but how did I hit it?

What was the count?

So a lot go into my thinking.

The second thing I want to mention here is the between pitch reset.

And this is something that as a player you can ask your private instructor and ask your coach to help you with.

How do you reset yourself in the middle of a challenging at bat?

I know, George, you were kind of known for.

I'm going to step out of the box, I'm going to kind of reset my brain and I'm going to make you wait on me a little bit to kind of change them over.

That was the main reason.

Make them wait.

Yeah, I made them change.

Yeah, I made them change what they're going to throw because I know that the guy, good fastball, pitcher, he, I step in and he wants to throw me a change up or curveball in that certain situation.

But now I get him upset because he said, okay, he tried to make me look bad.

I'm going to throw my best fastball.

But I knowing that if he tried, the harder he tried to throw, the more speed he's going to lose.

Velocity going to lose.

So it's playing a game with him and it's not more so getting myself reset is making him change what he wants to do out there.

But a lot of guys can't do that.

So I don't, I don't recommend it to everybody, but that was my game plan.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I mean I remember going back and watching old games and there were times in one at bat you'd step out of the box four or five times.

Can't do that anymore.

Like, like the pitcher was just coming on.

But I could but he think I'm looking down and on the ground, but I'm looking at his feet, seeing this movement there.

So now I said, oh, oh, no.

He's.

He's really upset now.

He's going to try to give me the best fastball.

Yeah.

If you're.

If you're listening to this podcast and you've never done that, go back to YouTube and watch some.

Some George from the.

From the late 70s, early 80s.

But, yes, when I watch myself, I say, get in the batter spot.

The other thing about resetting in between pitches is, you know, maybe that's just a deep inhale and exhale.

Maybe that's a deep breath.

Never underestimate the power of a deep breath to reset your brain.

It just in through your nose.

Why do you breathe in?

I ask kids, why do you breathe in?

To get air.

I said, no, get oxygen in, fresh oxygen in, and then you breathe out.

That's one of the reasons why your body yawns, because your brain needs oxygen.

So it makes you take in a large amount through.

Through a reflexive behavior, and, you know, you can't really control it, so you yawn.

And that's your brain saying, I need a. I need a blast of oxygen.

So, you know, it's a deep breath in through the nose, out through the mouth.

Blow out twice as long as it takes you to take it in.

If you inhale for, you know, a count of three, then blow it out for a count of six in your head and just then go back at it again.

And that can.

That can be powerful in being able to reset what you're doing, step out of the box as long as you're allowed and do that, and then don't be driving everybody crazy.

But, yeah, you know, that can help, too.

But.

But making sure you.

You're.

You're kind of playing back any information your teammates have given you, your coach has given you your whatever, and then take a deep breath, quiet it out, and go at it again.

That can be huge in a tough at bat.

Well, I hope that you've enjoyed this.

This start of season two.

I hope that you've enjoyed our discussion about making the adjustments.

Remember, you only fail if you don't learn.

If you can learn, then a failure is just one more way of finding out what doesn't work.

So on behalf of the guys, we hope that you'll tune in next week and keep going with us through the mental game of baseball, and we look forward to seeing you real soon.