What's happening everybody welcome to my channel here.
So today's show is going to be a little bit different and I'm
going to do this a lot on on this channel.
Obviously, if you follow me, this is a daily talk show and my
way to build out my platform. But what a real true passions,
and I think many of you know this, but if you don't, you will
very quickly find out that absolutely one of my true
passions is, is coaching and and playing.
So clearly I'm not playing anymore.
So now it's about coaching and and Gotti, my two children and I
come to you as a dad. I come to you as a former
Division One baseball player. And as I just mentioned, I come
to you as a coach, right? So I know where a lot of you are
because I was there at one point, even though I played,
played at a fairly high level, it was a long time ago and
obviously the youth sports culture and and backdrop has
changed tremendously. So, you know, I remember when I
was going through this in real time, I was overwhelmed with,
you know, so many different things, the differences between
club and travel and the different type of bats, you
know, whether it's a you trip, whether it's USA, what's the
right team? Where do you go the pricing of
equipment? And then obviously as I've
gotten a little bit deeper into it, my son is 10, my daughter is
9. The the very real and and
rapidly approaching dilemma of how many sports can you really
play for a long time, which is a maybe the biggest change outside
of the pricing, maybe the biggest change in the way youth
sports is now presented to people where, you know,
certainly get to the high school level.
Basically nobody's playing three sports.
And if you're a very serious athlete in one of the sports, I
think it's very hard to even play 2, Not that you can't play
2. I think if it was football and
baseball or maybe maybe even basketball and, and baseball,
but even that's blending into offseason workouts.
I'm not saying there's no way to do it, but those are
conversations that I'm going to have and devote a lot of time on
this channel to those, those specific areas today.
I just want to start with the very daunting, but also equally
amazing getting your child ready for Little League.
And when I say the little, I mean really T-ball and and wreck
ball. I'm talking about the early
stages. I'm not talking about, you know,
trying to create the next Mike Trout or Aaron Judge or somebody
like that. I'm talking about just getting
your child on the right path. Is that number one, that they
have a chance to to be good in baseball or softball?
And I think the way you do that is you avoid a couple of things
that I think are are very common mistakes for a lot of people.
Now, first of all, I'm sure that Santa brought a barrage of
baseball equipment. Some of it's probably not even
the right equipment. The gloves too big, the bat's
too heavy. Again, I'll get into that stuff
at a later date. A later time.
I'll really expand on that stuff.
To me though, I, I think the most important thing with a
young baseball player and again, young meaning team ball 6 and
then obviously that that 7:00-ish range as you start to
get to 8 even, I guess that even bleeds into 8 a little bit.
But you know, if you're a serious player that this
obviously doesn't apply to you. This is just getting out of the
house and it's really the first team activity that your son or
daughter is doing. Maybe they've done martial arts,
maybe they've done soccer. That's obviously an, an easy
introduction and easy to integrate with the schedules and
and try to figure things out. But baseball's very different
because, and this is my biggest thing, I've talked about this in
the past, but this is my main message here today.
I think when it comes to baseball, I think the biggest
mistake that that a lot of people make is that they focus
on the wrong thing. Let's face it, when we were
growing up in the street, then we were growing up playing, you
emulated, you know, your favorite hitters a lot more than
you did your favorite defensive players, right?
That's just the way it is. And I think it's a dad.
You know, when you have a child, especially if you played at A at
a decent level, didn't even have to be college, but you were, you
were a serious high school ball player.
And you know, it's, it's as a as a dad, it's your mission to make
sure that you put your son or daughter in a spot to be as good
as they can possibly be. Maybe you learn from some
mistakes that you made when when you were when you were younger.
Now there's a lot of things that we can't control.
You know, ultimately, as they progress through this, we we
can't control the inherent gifts that they've given that that
they've been given. Are they fast?
Are they slow? Are they big?
Are they afraid of the baseball early on?
Like those are things that you can control a little bit, but
even that is an obstacle that a lot of people really don't know
how to navigate. So to me, while we all want, you
know, our child to get in there and if they can run, be at the
top of the order if they're, you know, we have visions of our our
children gnashing at a very early age.
And with some of these juice bats, I mean, kids hitting balls
over the fence at a much earlier age than when I was playing.
It's nuts. I mean, there's some some
amazing talents out there as you start to expand from, you know,
rec and then maybe travel to club and then maybe do some,
some national events like what my son has done.
He's done a few of those already.
The the talent pool is insane, right?
But I think the biggest issue is that with baseball, too many
kids get bored early and they never give themselves a chance
that it's not their fault, but they really never give
themselves a chance to fall in love with the game because
there's one misstep that happens right away.
And to me as a coach, it's the easiest thing to identify.
So when, when you assemble and, and I did this with T-ball,
right, when, when you assemble right away and you got 10/11/12
kids running in a million different directions.
You know, the maturity rate is different for everybody,
physical, emotional, the competitive gene is there for
maybe one or two kids, but for the most it's really not.
So you try to try to tap into that as well.
But I think that the biggest mistake that occurs is that they
really can't, they can't catch a baseball.
And I know that that's such a basic premise like see the ball,
hit the ball, run. That's really the essence of
playing baseball. But if you're a young player
and, and you simply have no chance to make a play a slow
roller, I'm not talking about high level plays in the hole or
going back at shortstop and, you know, catching one over your
shoulder or going down the third baseline on a pop up, making a
play like that. I'm, I'm, I'm talking way, way
before that stuff. If you are not able to show a
coach that you can, at least you know you have the, the proper
mechanics and the willingness to get in front of a ball and make
a ball, make a play, stop a ball from going to the outfield and
eventually finding somebody at first base who can catch that
throw. If it's even in the right
vicinity, which is another challenge throwing.
Then I think what happened, I know what happens because I've
seen it happen. A lot of kids who are good
athletes, they just haven't grown into their body yet.
Again, that rate is so different for everybody that when they're
playing in kindergarten and they're playing in first grade,
they might start out really loving the sport.
They might love baseball, but because they're not an asset on
defense, where are they? They're in the outfield.
And when you're in the outfield at a very, very young age, it's
boring because there's very few balls that are hit out there.
Now listen, we know if you're a coach out there, if you played
the game, you know, very quickly that changes pretty soon.
Balls are, you know, being laced in the gap and there's cut offs
and there's just a higher level of, of defensive aptitude that
is obviously required if you get to play at a high level.
But even just just pop ups to the outfield, they, they come
kind of quicker than you think. It's, it's, it's, it's an
amazing transformation where you know, T bowl again, you might
have one good player who can swing it and bang it to the
outfield and just run around the bases, probably run around 3 or
4 times before the ball's even secured because he hits it far.
You might be playing on turf, he can run a little bit and nobody
really knows what they're doing. But the biggest issue was that
when you're in the outfield to start, you're not involved in
any of the action. And when you start, especially
in the Northeast, right where I am in New Jersey, when you start
playing at 6:00 and 7:00 and you're standing in the outfield
waiting for a ball to be hit to you, or maybe you're even
nervous and you don't want it to be hit to you, which obviously
is normal. It's cold.
Like, you get out there, you start practicing in March, you
start playing games in April. It's windy.
It could be a little drizzly. It's cold, you know, and if
there's no action, you are bored out of your mind.
Whereas if you're a young player and you show the early aptitude,
even if you're not the shortstop, but if you're at
second base or you're at third base or if you're a catcher.
And when it goes to kid pitch and it goes from, you know,
coach pitch to kid pitch, even if I'm not saying he's throwing
guys out stealing or throwing behind runners or, you know,
ripping off the the gear and and fielding a bunt or a little
swivel and throwing somebody out with a dart down the first base
that, that that eventually comes.
And again, it does come quicker than you would think.
But I think what happens is a lot of kids, they just get bored
with the game. And a lot of those kids actually
have a chance to be good if they're in the middle of the
action. And and I think what happens is
the they're in the outfield 6-7, even 8 years old and there's no
action. What do they do?
They start to tell mom and dad and you know, I'm hey, 11
baseball Nats a little boring, you know, I'm not really getting
any action. And then what happens?
And and this is the unfortunate reality and you just really
trust me on this. Take my word for it.
If you're not an infielder early, you know, especially if
there's daddy ball, which is all totally different, you know,
devotion, which I will do at some point.
There's just a lot of kids who are playing shortstop because
their dad's the coach and they've got no business playing
shortstop. And that's just a harsh, sad
reality of youth baseball right now.
You get to the club level and it's about winning and you're
you're paying big money, too much money in my opinion, but
you're paying big money. And the coaches are independent.
They are real coaches. If you were with a real program,
like my son has been for a while, well, then that's
different. And you're going to either, you
know, start at a certain spot and and and stay there.
If you demonstrate the ability to stay there, or you're going
to be moved around a little bit. Or you could actually be playing
well and another kid from a different club team comes in and
it's just better. And guess what, You've got to
move to a different spot. But because you are programmed
and used to being in the infield, when you 6 and seven
moving to the outfield is, is that's a natural progression
that's easy. You know, it's always easier to
move backwards than it is forwards.
So I think there's a couple of things and it's the most basic
stuff. And I started this with my son
when he was during COVID. So let's see, he's 10 COVID,
he's probably 5 and I even started this before COVID at
this point, maybe, maybe late three, you know, not, I'm not
saying that's the first time we picked up a ball, but this is
about the first time I introduced a game that I think
is awesome. I think it's fun.
I think it creates urgency and I think it, it really teaches the
young player to go and get the ball right and, and do so with a
certain pace. And, and I'll tell you what that
means in a second, what I actually tell you what the game
is. And it if you do that and
there's some repetition, well, now when they get on the field,
the balls hit, their first instinct is is going to be to go
get it. Now you will also have certainly
AT ball. And this is amazing.
It's beautiful. It's not even really frustrating
as a coach because you have to know that this is coming.
But you'll say the first T-ball game, you're going to have the
first little squibber. And I mean, like, like ants to
ice cream on a hot sidewalk in July.
Everybody's going to run to the ball.
And it's like a rugby scrum. And it's amazing, right?
And then eventually you coach that out of the kids.
Hey, this is your side, this is your spot, this is your
responsibility. This is what you need to do.
But the game that I would play, I just came up with a name.
I, I, I don't even know if I named it this right away, but
what I started doing, I'd go in my backyard and I would take
whiffle balls and I would just bang them around the yard,
right? And I would, I would give my son
an amount, an amount of time to go and get the ball right.
And then once he showed some ability to do that, which was
pretty quick for him, a little different with my daughter.
They're, they're very different. And and that's some, that's
another challenge being a parent and, and all those wonderful
things. Every kids different, but I
would just, I'd crush it to the other side of the yard.
I'd hit some pop ups, I'd hit hit some hard grounders with a
wiffle ball and I would have him start right next to me, right?
And I eventually called it the seven second game.
So I'd hit it boom, like, you know, like a fungo.
And I would literally countdown 1234 and he had to get the ball
before 7 seconds elapsed. And what I would do early if I
didn't like, if I hit one in a spot that was a little trickier
to get to, which would require more time, I would because he
was 3 or 3 1/2 or 4. I would, I wouldn't just zoom to
seven. I would go, you know, 55 and a
half, 66 and A7. Like you make sure that they get
it early on. Now, I'm also not a believer.
And those of you who know me know this.
I'm not a believer in just making it seem like everything
that your kid does is right because that's certainly no, but
that's not the real world. But as as a little bit of a hook
to get them to want to show the initiative to get them to want
to go in the backyard and do it. I mean, if they're failing every
time, Nope, didn't get it in seven seconds.
Nope, didn't do it. Nope, didn't do it.
I mean, who the hell would want to play that game when you're 6
or 7 or you know, 3-4, five years old?
Nobody would want to play that game.
Nobody. So eventually as, as he got
better and better and better at it, then I would hit it.
And you know, I wouldn't always perfectly hit it this way
because I'm not a, I'm not a Major League coach and it's not
a fungo and I'm just, you know, it is what it is.
I would try to wrap it around the portion of my house that
would then go to like the, the other part of the grass that you
couldn't see from where we're standing now.
I'd make it maybe 10 seconds and you, you increase that and it's
just creating again, the urgency I think is so important, right?
And if you're able to couple that with the with hand eye
coordination, I'm a firm believer in this.
I've got videos of, of, of me doing this with my son when he
was 2. And you know, I would throw
little, little spongy balls at him, right?
And I'd start, you know, I'd start.
So I'd throw him in the air so he can track him and he'd catch
some, he drops some, but he was, he was tracking him, but he was
trying, right? I think your kids are a lot more
capable of doing things than you even think.
And it's, it's imperative. You don't want to cross the line
of becoming drill Sergeant right away.
You really don't ever want to be that.
Let another coach, a real coach be that.
And, and, and I've learned some lessons along the way.
I'm going to be very transparent with this, right.
And, and I think that when you do that, when you do that, I
think what you see is a, a like a spark that goes off and it,
and it's a beautiful thing that it truly is.
And if you can get that urgency chasing after the ball.
And by the way, he would have his glove on when he was doing
it and he would start with me and as I just described the
drill. And then, but even before that,
now there's a little hand eye involvement.
And I'd start with the little, you know, little pop ups.
Then you incorporate a short hop, you know, again with a
sponge ball. So even if he misses it, it's
not taking teeth out. There's no stitches, no run to
the ER, you know, nothing there. It's all safe and it's harmless,
but you're really actually incorporating some real baseball
skill and, and softball skill. And then eventually you move to,
you know, 2 hops. So that, then that that's, that
looked a little different. What daddy's doing here.
Oh, that's one. Oh, that's a long hop.
Oh, that's a short hop. Oh, that kind of got me in
between. That's an in between hop.
And you do it and you just build it out.
You build the database of being able to react to what's coming
at you. And then when you get on the
field and it's T-ball and you know you've got the pants that
are too big and the eye black, that's sideways.
And you know, some kids, most kids go out there with with a
plastic glove that's $9. I get it.
It is what it is. There is at at least.
So about your child, if you do these things, they are going to
be in the middle of the action right away.
And even if you're not coaching and the coach doesn't see that
right away, eventually, I mean, unless the coach is just awful,
which unfortunately does happen, although they're devoting time.
So I'm not, I'm not crushing them.
I'm, I'm not knocking them, But you know, there are people who
know what they're doing and there's people who don't.
Hopefully you get somebody that that knows what they're doing.
And even if they're not in the infield early, you know,
eventually in practice, they'll they'll show some aptitude,
they'll flesh some, some skill and then they will be hopefully
in a position where they're now in the middle of the action.
So now as you start to try out for teams and it's, it's, you
know, it's not just, hey, wreck ball.
Everybody's on the team. And, and I'm not even talking
yet high, high level club. I mean, a local travel team
where maybe a couple of kids get cut and just be just a numbers
game, not even a talent thing necessarily because there's been
mistakes with that. I've seen kids who who got cut,
who should have been cut and then, you know, you have to make
up for it in the next year. And, and that that could be a
little tricky as well. But if if your child's out,
think about this, if they're six years old and they've already
known, it's already ingrained in their muscle memory to chase
after a ball because daddy hit it across the yard and he's
counting out. Well, when there's a ball and
there's somebody running their internal clock like a
quarterback knowing when to get rid of the ball because he's
going to get sacked or flush the pocket, otherwise he's going to
get sacked. Those are things that are there
forever. And see, the problem is you
could do those things a little bit later in their progression.
Sure. Like if you get a late start and
and they have some special talent, Yeah, absolutely.
You can. You can kind of make up for Lois
Brown. And by no means is this an
assurance that if you do this, you know, your son's going to be
playing shortstop for a big time high school in however many
years. And he's going to be a stud and
they're going to be knocking on his door and he's going to be
playing across the country in perfect game.
And he's got his choice of the Division One scholarships.
That's just not the way it goes. I mean, there's an attrition, it
goes like that for some. And for some, the trajectory
truly is the best player on the field and that just never stops.
For others, they might start as the best player on the field and
then they don't really grow as much.
And then other kids who are bigger and stronger, you know,
they hit balls over the fence and they're better and then they
kind of stagnate a little bit. And then, you know, what happens
is the, the, the maturation physically and emotionally and
developmentally that comes a little bit later.
So there, there's really like the one thing that you can't do,
I should probably, I probably should have preface this, the
beginning. The one thing that you can't do
is think that you are going to create a test tube star.
It's just, it's not going to happen.
There's too many variables #1 they have to love the sport #2
they've got to have enough God-given gifts to be able to
support that, that affection, that passion for the sport.
And again, some it, it works out serendipitously.
For some it it really does. But for those who aren't in the
middle of the action, and I've seen it, good athletes lead the
game of baseball. Not because more baseball's
boring. Yes, it's a slower pace than
basketball and lacrosse and soccer.
All great, viable sports, and my children have played most of
those except lacrosse because it interferes with baseball and
softball. But soccer, absolutely.
Basketball, Oh yeah, we're a basketball family as well.
But those kids who are kind of languishing in the outfield for
a little bit and they're just not really feeling the flow of
the game as the true players who were dedicated.
As they begin to get better and better and better now, even if
your child does progress at say 8 or 9, unfortunately those
preconceived notions are already kind of set by a lot of coaches
and the ability to get back into the infield is pretty much gone.
You know, there's just a little window to be that kind of
player. I, I don't think that you have
to pitch right away. I don't, I mean throwing
strikes, my God, when, when it goes from coach pitch to kid
pitch, it's an adventure. It, it really is.
I don't think you need to, to pitch that often early on.
I think building arm strength and, you know, being versatile
and, and doing all the, and, you know, learning to run the bases
with intelligence, even if you're not fast, just knowing
how to run, knowing how to play, knowing the game.
And the other thing that I think you really need to do, and it's
funny because I, I look at my two children, my 9 year old
daughter and my 10 year old son. And, and I always did this with
my son because, and obviously we still do it because he wanted to
do it. He loved it.
He would ask questions, he would be into it.
And I'm talking about explaining things during the game as you
Yankees, Mets, whatever team you root for, watching the game and
explaining what's happening. And I even found myself when he
was about 8:00 or so. I'm not saying it translated
immediately on the field for him.
A lot of things did some didn't. But where I would say, all
right, hey, look, what's the count there?
All right, 1-2. I just threw this last pitch
high fastball. What do you think he's going to
throw now? What would you because he's a
pitcher as well. What would you, what would you
throw here? And the answer wasn't
immediately. Well, I just went upstairs and
he took it. Let me change the I plane and
now let me throw something soft and away.
Dad. No, no, no kids going to spit
that back at the age of 7. But pretty shortly thereafter,
his instincts were pretty much on par with what I was thinking,
you know what, what, what seems to be the best route to attack
that hitter at that spot. So that that's all part of the,
the intelligence of the game and knowing what to do with, which
is an incredible asset for, for a young player.
But I, I, I really look at it as as one chance, unfortunately,
one chance to really get them to love the game.
And if you missed that win, though, it's not impossible, but
it's just trickier and trickier and trickier to make up that
lost ground. Now, I'll also say this.
The, the mistakes that are made in the batter's box.
I, I, I do think there's too much emphasis on hitting like
you're hitting even Aaron Judges is, is tinkering every
offseason. There's always a little tiny
mechanical adjustment that the best hitters in the world will
make. Otani makes them.
That's just what you do wit makes them with Kansas City.
You you go into lab and you find out all right, hey, I wasn't my
production was not on par with this type of pitch or this this
type of count or a pitcher with these splits and and you know
they go to school on a on a deeper, deeper level.
But I think the hitting, you know, as long as they've got a
fundamentally sound stands to an extent and they're not like
casting the bat, which is something else I'll get into
earlier at another at another time.
Casting the bat or stepping out of the bucket or being afraid of
the ball or not being aggressive early in the count.
You know, when you're when you're 7-8 years old and a kid
throws a pitch over the middle, you got to swing.
You got to swing because the umpires, and rightfully so, I
mean, they got to stretch the zone out.
Otherwise, we'll be there all day.
Walk, walk, walk. And that's another way that kids
will stop loving babies. Baseball, if it's a merry go
round of walks, nobody wants to sit there for that.
As a hitter, as a pitcher, as a coach, as a parent, as a
defender, that is not fun. So I I would think that if you
show up and you can do all these things, guys, you can do all
these things. I don't care if you have a
mansion. I don't care if you live in an
apartment. I don't care if you live in the
northeast, down South, easier down South to find a field in
the winter. I get that.
But as you get ready to hit that Little League field for the
first time, trust me when I tell you there's only so much you can
control you. Not everybody's going to be
63210 that runs A6646660. Pardon me, Not everybody's going
to get down the line in 3839. You know, not everybody's going
to throw at this point now, mid 90s, not even low 90s, mid 90s
when they are in high school and college, that there's just
certain physical limitations that you can't control.
What you can control is how ready they are.
Because if they're ready, they will enjoy the game more.
And if they enjoy the game more, they will play the game longer.
And if they play the game longer, there's a much better
chance that whatever physical skills, God-given skills they
were given will ultimately rise to the surface.
And then what you do is you obviously enhance that with
private lessons. And you know, as they get a
little bit older, push ups and squats and planks, that's a good
way for kids to start building up their bodies, running hills,
hitting off the tee, just things like that.
And I really think that you can do that.
I, I, I, I know that it's, it's, it's God.
It's like a crazy I, I, I've talked about this before, but
I'll, I'll insert this year, right.
For me, when I was done with college, I was done with
baseball. I was emotionally done with
baseball because I now looking back, this was not the right
thing to feel. But when I was 22 years old, I
couldn't feel that. I couldn't I couldn't navigate
that as well because now I'm an adult with kids and I obviously
see it very differently a couple of decades ago, but the sport
that I loved. So I mean, I was the kind of kid
that was in the street every summer morning at 7:00 AM, my
buddy Tommy playing with, I would put eye black on to go
play wiffle ball. I would put my uniform on to go
in the street in the scorching, you know, July and August
temperatures on the concrete in Brooklyn in full uniform for a
game that I may have had that night.
That's how much I love the game. You know, Home Run Derby,
jumping over fences like you, buddy, throwing your little pop
up and you running back and trying to jump over the fence
like Ricky Henderson or whatever, whoever.
Dave Winfield guys, we were watching.
We were younger and and I loved it.
I tried to emulate Donnie. You can see Don Matty at least
jersey behind me and George Brett and Wade Boggs.
Like I really, really love the game.
I love it with every fiber of my existence, which is why I'm so
passionate about youth sports. And and as as I got through
college, I mean, I've said this many times, I wasn't good enough
to make it. But when you're in the moment,
you you don't you don't think that way because that's a loser
mentality. Nobody's going to say, well, I'm
not good enough. Why would I keep playing?
You know, I had good size. I almost 63, about 2:10, nice
lefty swing, really good arm, knew the game, good hands at
first base, couldn't run at all, could not run a lick and could
not hit a good curveball. And once that gets around the
league, which it did well, guess who didn't see any fastballs?
That will be me. And then I had a ton of
injuries. I had Tommy John, you know, my
freshman year. I, I actually, I basically
ruptured my quadriceps first game playing against NC State as
a freshman trying to score from first on a double.
And it was a very slight. It wasn't So it was, it was more
of a slight. It was a tear because a rupture
would have rolled up like a lampshade.
It was a, it was a bad tear and I played my entire freshman year
and I couldn't run it all anyway, but it even hurt me
swinging. I just, I just fought through it
like I, I, I was a baseball rat. I was a always hitting off the
tee, always getting ground balls, always putting work,
always long toss and always throwing, always lifting.
So baseball's ingrained in me. And as I, but this was in, you
know, the mid 90s and then I started my broadcasting career
and I, I obviously always loved watching baseball and I played
softball for a year and I'm like, man, my body doesn't feel
right. I, if I can't play the way I
want to play, I, I, I can't play.
It's just, I can't do that to myself.
Just doesn't feel right. So I stopped playing.
I started playing golf, and I almost put my love for the game
on pause. Like, I, even if it was
unintentional, I put my love for the game on pause.
And then as I've married late, I was 38, you know, much more
mature, and I started to see the game so differently when I
started to do these activities with them.
Like, everything came back like a flood of emotion.
Like, yeah, This is why you love the game.
You know, from the first Bam bam bat that for $1.99 that had a
barrel this fat and the 1st $9 glove from Dick's Sporting Goods
to, you know, I'm looking at it now.
A 430 super, a $430 super bat that he's getting ready for his
club team with that we just got for, for, for Christmas, you
know, to the expensive gloves and the cleats and traveling
around the country a little bit and, and, and being neck deep,
you know, neck deep in it. And it's it's it, it re sparked
and it reconnected me to the game.
And yeah, I made some mistakes, which again, I'll, I'll get into
it on a different time. But the only thing that you can
do is present it to them. That's all you can do.
Like you, you can't make them out to be Aaron Judge.
There's just too many variables, as I said.
So what you can control is making sure that they are ready
to possibly fall in love with it if that's going to be in them
either and mainly or given to them from you.
And then he just build off a bit with that.
But I can promise you if you go to club ball, if you go to
T-ball, pardon me, and your son or daughter is in the outfield
and it's freezing and there's not a ball hit to them.
I could promise you that their interest will wane fast and they
will look to do something that maybe is a little bit more
rewarding physically, like a soccer, like a lacrosse,
whatever it might be. And the other thing that I would
say too, and this all, there's a variable that I, I can't speak
to for you because I, I don't know what you have in terms of
commitments to work. And do you have the free time?
Do you know the game enough to, to, to be able to, to coach a
young group of kids? You have the patience, which is
amazing. I, I generally don't have a ton
of patience, but coaching I do. And maybe except with him, I'm
harder on him. And I think anybody that's
coached their child knows that you are harder on your child.
I don't give him anything like he plays a lot of shortstop
because he he deserves to be a shortstop.
And the day that he's not well, then that's the day that he's
not playing shortstop. He's been at the top of the
order really from day one. And the day that he doesn't
belong there is the day that I stopped putting them there, you
know, and I don't even coach all those teams.
And I think it's important to not coach all their teams
because now if you feel the need to step in because there's just
nobody that there's no order and kids standing around and it's
boring and nobody's engaged, Well, if you've got the patience
and the time and, and the aptitude of the game, just to
get out there and give, give some time to just get these kids
running around and moving, well, God bless you.
That's a beautiful thing. Do it.
But I also do think it's important to hear a different
voice. I, I really do, you know, and
when you get to the field, you know it's your daddy, but you
also have to be coach. And you know, it didn't work
right away. But I, I tell my kids when
we're, when we're on the field, call me coach.
You know, you can't call me daddy.
And you know, my, my daughter gets younger, totally different
personality. She's finally getting it.
My son got that a while ago. He actually first started doing
it in basketball like a year or two ago.
I coached one of his teams and he started to do it.
It was very rewarding to hear that because it it told me that
what I was trying to get him to do was finally being done.
And they're a lot more resilient than than you would think.
And as you get out there, as I told you about the seven second
drill, which brings urgency and you know, chasing the flight of
a ball, especially if you now if we're able to ricochet it off a
fence or a house. Well, now they're starting to
see it hit and then redirect and the trajectories changing.
Those are even if it seems so benign, but those little things
add up because maybe the first time there's actually a pop up
and there's a little wind and it shifts 1/2 a foot suddenly,
well, it's not foreign to them because they've, they've seen it
in, in different areas, you know, So I would take that 7
second drill and I still do it with my, with my, not with, not
with the boys. I still do it with the girls.
And because my daughter's younger and I will every
practice, we start the same way. All right, let's go everybody on
the on the line 2 at a time. And I will actually now take a
softball, right? Because now they're not 3 or 4
like when I started this in the backyard.
Now they're they were seven and eight and now she's 9 and her
teammates are 9. I will take a little girl
softball bat and a softball and we have to have a really nice
turf facility where where I live and I will smash it.
Now I'll try to get kids of of equal speed and I know all the
girls by now. So I can pretty much line that
up, try to get the quick ones going against each other, the
slower ones against each other so that it's competitive and
nobody feels overmatch, which is obviously important as well.
And I will hit this thing now. Sometimes I'll miss hit it and
it'll be a you know, a hard like 1/2 a liner, but then a little
bit of a grounder that goes I'm talking past the foot hundred
more than 100 yards, right. Ideally, I won't start off that
far, but I had them doing the same thing.
And as they're doing this, so now it's not just everybody
standing around, you know, taking batting practice, which
is incredibly boring. They're engaged and they're
moving around and it's the urgency that they're chasing the
ball after and they're competing.
They're competing against the person that they're running
against. And that's a good thing.
That's the way it should be because that's the way of the
world right now. If you ever denigrate somebody
for finishing last, then you just shouldn't be coaching.
That's something you shouldn't be doing.
So I, I, I think that that's really, really important.
And I think that as they get a little bit older, you know, you,
you then transfer that to different drills and with, with
different challenges and, and different levels of achievement.
But that's a very Broadway to start the baseball year.
All right, it or softball. It's 2026.
I know Santa brought the bats and the gloves and the uniforms
and the helmets. Half of the stuff that doesn't
fit, I know. Do not wrap yourself because it
is overwhelming as you get into this for the first time.
It's so different from what I was growing up.
That's why I told you about, you know, when I was playing and how
I fell out of love with it and that I needed to really
understand the new world of youth sports.
I want to help you guys. I want that journey to be
awesome. And it doesn't have to be a
journey that ends with your son being called as a first round
pick or Division One commit. No, we could just have a really
good high school career or just be on the team and enjoy that
and compete and then take those. Although this is listen, all
this is about instilling discipline and respect and
accountability and learning how to persevere through through,
right? Especially in baseball and
softball, like when when you fail in one of those sports,
everybody's watching you. Like when you strike out, it's a
lonely walk back to the bench. If you're a pitcher on the mouth
and you can't throw a strike, all eyes are on you, at least if
you make a mistake. Even if you miss a layup in
basketball, there's nine other kids around you.
Even if you whiff on a kick. In soccer, I don't even know how
many kids are on the soccer team.
It's not my main sport, but it's it's a massive little humanity
all in the general area. Like it.
Your mistakes aren't illuminated in even in football, you miss a
tackle, all right, If you're if you film the games and you watch
the games as a team and you coach points it out, all right,
Yeah, all right. You didn't do your job.
You missed your assignment. But to the average parent,
especially the 8910, you're not. That's not going to show up.
The kids not going to feel overwhelmed.
They are going to feel overwhelmed in baseball and
softball. The failures are heightened in
the sport. It's the toughest sport.
It really is. So I think if you can just get
them ready and not worry about what bat do I get, what size
bat, the size of the bat matters.
But I'm saying for the for the sake of this conversation, you
know, do I need a $300 glove the first day?
You know, do I have to go to the rollings website and, you know,
have the coolest colors? No, you don't have a functional
MIT break it in. You know, don't go out there.
Don't be the kid with a glove that you can tell that they just
bought and you know, it can't even remotely close.
They have no chance to catch the ball if they even knew how,
which most of those kids don't. That's just the reality of it.
You know, don't worry about what's the best club team.
Oh, where do I get the lessons right away.
That's going to come. That's going to come.
And, and I think that if you take these steps like the dudes
like do teach them how to catch a ground ball early, do teach
them the proper mechanics to at least throw the ball.
Get an airborne in the vicinity of first base.
Teach them to run through the base, not to pull up when they
get to first base, run through the bag because you know what,
eventually there's going to be a bang, bang play.
And the quicker that kid is used to going 910 feet through the
bag, better chance they have to hit Max speed, whatever their
Max speed might be to actually be safe.
And then eventually, pretty shortly thereafter, teach them
to cut a corner so that instead of a single, it's two.
Teach them how to slide. These are all things that you're
going to do and all things they're going to be caught
taught. But I promise you, if they're
out there and they're bored and they're scared and they don't at
least have a chance, a chance to make a play and be in the right
position, a fun position early, they are going to really, really
fall out of love with the game. Actually, I'm not going to say
fall out of love with the game because that implies that they
fell in love with the game. They're just never going to have
a chance to fall in love with the game.
And to me, it's the best game ever created.
It's a beautiful thing. The subtleties of baseball, you
know, the more you play, the more you appreciate and and and
all those things will come. If it's meant to be, give them a
chance to get on the field and do their thing early, you know,
and run the bases at practice. If you're coaching, you know,
have fun, do the Duke, the seven second drill in the backyard.
Give them the give them the backdrop to to make it happen.
That's it. I think I hit everything I
wanted to hit today. This was really just about me
introducing this aspect of what I'm going to do on YouTube here.
This I've got a lot of other things like the specialization
of sport, as I said at the top, I think that that's nonsense,
but I'll expand on that at another time.
I I don't think being on the see there's there's a lot of parents
who think being on the best team is going to automatically make
their play that their son or daughter better.
No, your son or daughter is going to get better through
repetition, away from the games and away from the team practices
and by actually playing in the games.
And if you're on a team, all right, and you got cool unis and
you're winning rings and you know, the IG posts are cool and
all that stuff, but they're batting 10th and they're maybe
getting one at bat or and they're never in the infield and
they're very rarely on base because you're playing at a very
high level and they probably shouldn't be there yet.
They don't know how to run the bases and and that's going to
catch up with them. So just find the level that you
think that and you can tell. You can kind of tell, especially
if you play. That's the one.
That's the listen. Just because I played in college
doesn't mean that my children are going to be stars.
It just doesn't Maybe it gives me it gives them a chance to be
better early because I maybe I know a little bit more because
I've been through it and I also know what I what I didn't know
and what I don't know, which can help me change some things,
which can help them. But yeah, listen there, there.
There's a lot to go through here, but just being on the best
team, to be on the best team is the wrong way to think.
Yeah, it's cool getting that ring.
It's cool getting that T-shirt. It's cool getting that ribbon or
the the metal when you hoist up the trophy and the team puts it
on Instagram. But if they didn't play and they
sat there in April and they had three at bats over the course of
a four or five game tournament, are they really getting better?
Are you really doing a service to them to build their affection
for the game? You already know my answer.
So there's so many different things.
Playing multiple sports, all those things should kids throw
year round. I'm going to bring this to you
and I, I do this. Obviously it's my goal to get a
lot of people to watch this and to share this.
And I'm going to have guests from Perfect Game and from USABL
and high school coaches I know and respect and some college
coaches I know and respect. There will be a lot of different
aspects to this. But really, in all sincerity,
it's dad to dad the words dad to uncle, or it's dad to Big
Brother, or it's dad to mom. If there is no dad, it is just I
want the kids to love it and I want them to have a chance to
love it. And I don't want to see them get
swabbled up early by all the nonsense and the money grabs and
the early pressures. And there's so much early
pressure that is so unnecessary. I'll leave you with this.
So when I was growing up, I played, let's see, I never even
played T-ball. We didn't have it.
T-ball was me. I never even had AT and you
couldn't even really get one back then.
So 1st and 2nd grade was was dad pitch underhand, right?
And and then in 3rd grade and 4th grade, this is, this is my
school team. All right, which, and back then
in Brooklyn, it was pretty good that even the school like the
school leagues, right? Grammar school and 3rd and 4th
grade was was kid pitch. And then this was interesting
and in hindsight it was. Now not to sound like a jerk,
but I I was able to handle this. But man, in hindsight, just
knowing how kids mature and and when kids hit puberty versus
not, it went from first and 2nd grade dad pitch on their hand.
3rd and 4th kid pitch. 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade played
together. I mean that's wild. 5th graders
played and that's what we did. And then obviously if if you
loved it and you could play a little bit, then you play travel
and, and I did not like it is now.
I mean, it's, it's crazy. I mean driving everywhere and
and playing these amazing tournaments against some amazing
teams and great, I mean great young players.
But I did not know who the best player in Staten Island was when
I was growing up in Brooklyn at that age.
I had no idea. I don't even think I knew who
like where. Like think about if you know
Kings Plaza right in Brooklyn, that's that's the benchmark or
the, the place that I'll use as point of identification.
I didn't even know who the best baseball players were in Bay
Ridge, which is maybe I don't know, 5-6 exits up on the Belt
Parkway. I didn't know who was good in
Rockaway. I didn't know who was good in
Queens. And I absolutely, then I had no
idea who can play in Long Island or New Jersey now at the age of
9 and 10, at the highest level, you know, who the best players
are in the country, which I don't think is a great thing,
but it is what it is. So you either adapt or, you
know, you get eaten up. And I, I don't think that that's
good for the psyche of the kids because I think it's stunts
their natural development. And, and that's, again, that's a
bigger, deeper discussion. But to even think about getting
to that point when you walk on that T-ball field, be able to
catch a ground ball, you don't have to be rich.
You don't need an expect expensive glove.
You can do it on a floor. You can do it on a little piece
of carpet. I don't care if it's snowing
outside. You could do it.
And if you don't have enough room to throw, like we would
throw a heavy ball in my Bay, I can't throw a baseball in the
basement, but we would throw a heavy ball when he was.
I can't even do it now. It's my vision's not as good.
I'll take my head off or break something.
But when my son was like 7 and 8, we were able to throw a heavy
ball. Let's see a Major League balls 5
1/4 ounces, you know, 8 oz like those pliable heavy ones that
you can hit off the T soft toss, whatever, But we would throw
those just to kind of keep get his arm in shape for the I'm
talking about in January after basketball, like these are all
things you could do Watch games with them.
I know there's no games tonight. Find something on YouTube, you
know, find your favorite player and show them highlights of your
favorite player and explain why he was your favorite player.
You know, just do that. Open up their world to to your
world. I, I, I know it's hard.
I'm happy to have a unique job talk in sports.
I'm, I'm not 9 to 5, you know, I'm not a lawyer.
I'm not, you know, I'm not, I'm not at an office 10/11/12 hours
a day, but nothing now there's different pressures that come
with what I do and, and different times of engagement.
I'm never really off. I'm always thinking about the
show to an extent. But I'm, I'm home a lot more,
more than others. A lot of my buddies in town, I'm
home a little bit more now. I'm really home more than
everybody because I'm doing my show for my Home Office.
But you know, when I was going every day in every day to WFAN,
I'd still get home by three. I'd get them, I'd beat them home
before they got home from school and I was always, when I was
leaving, they were always up and they were eating and getting
ready for school. And that meant by me getting
home. With three, I can make every
T-ball practice. I could coach all the teams I
want to coach. I could take him to travel
basketball if I wasn't coaching and watch or drop them off or
take them for a lesson. But not everybody has that
schedule. You don't need it.
Carve out a little time, guys. I don't mean every day.
Don't overburden them. Keep it fun twice a week, just,
you know, the repetition start to train that get the hands
connected to the eyes, or I should say, get the hands
connected to the eyes and then eventually get the eyes and the
hands connected to the feet like that overall dexterity.
And there's so many ways to accomplish that.
You got to want to do it and they've got to show a little bit
of a willingness to do it. Like I will say, if you're, you
know, they're now a lot of parents do make the mistake of,
well, you know, little Joey doesn't want to do it.
I'm I'm not going to play. No, no, I I think that that's
nonsense. I think when they're, you know,
3456, you make them do it now. Not, not everybody agrees with
that philosophy. When I say make them do it, I
don't mean you're running hills, you know, with heavy weights, A
weighted vest attached to them. I don't mean that stuff, but no,
you're going to put the iPad down.
And I didn't have to do this. He wanted to do what I do have
to do this a little bit more with my daughter.
I noticed they are different, as I said.
So I've got to engage her differently and and entice her
differently to, to get into that that competitive world of, of of
athletics. And she's a good athlete, but
she's just wired very differently.
And I think that if you, you know, if you invite them to go
get a little, hey, come on, let's go, let's go in the
basement practice with dad, right?
If they say no early and they're just staring at their iPad, you
got to take the iPad and you got to put it away and you got to go
at least give a chance to fall in love with it.
Like that's got to be the laboratory.
I also do think that there's a point where like if they don't
want to do it and they're just not good.
I hate to be so blunt. And I don't mean it's 6, I mean
beyond that, but you've got to give them a chance to get off
the tarmac. You've got to give a chance to
fall in love with it, do their thing and eventually gravitate
to whatever sport, whatever position it's going to be.
But this is obviously about baseball.
So get those salt. They're on Amazon, they're
cheap. All right, get them, have them
in the basement, you know, a little pliable soft ones, comps
them in the head, not going to hurt them, no concussions, no
teeth will get knocked out and do those little things.
And I promise you if you do that along with demanding that, that
sounds strong, but demanding when they're young to run on the
field, to run off the field, to encourage their teammates to be
a good teammate, to say yes, coach, to take one knee when the
coach, I'm, I'm, I'm talking about at age 6 now, I'm talking
T-ball when the coach is talking, don't let them stare
into space. Get that knee down and and be
attentive and absorb the messaging.
These are all the little things that you can do.
And I think that you should do and I think that you have to do
for your child. And if you do that and it
doesn't work, you know that you gave your best shot and maybe
they're going to be great at something else.
I'm sure they will be. But specific to sports and
really with baseball, the amount of kids who check out with this
sport, it pains me because you wind up seeing so many kids, you
know, who can run, who have those, those baseball bodies,
whether it's center field or middle of the diamond.
Oregon, they have good arms and they could have built themselves
into a great third baseman, you know, not afraid of the ball,
good hands, a good stick, you know, but they go to lacrosse
because early on their baseball experience was, was less than
there was overwhelming. It wasn't fun and it just didn't
seem like a game. So I, I, I tell you that I'm not
preaching, I'm sharing that to let you guys know about some of
the mistakes that I made, some of the good things that I've
stumbled upon as well and, and apply them.
And I promise you, if you do that, you're going to see an
uptick in engagement and eventually engagement leads to
success, although that's all relative to the child and
whatever expectation you might have, which obviously is
something that you've got to adjust and not think, you know,
you're going to be playing for the Yankees, you know, So I'm
going to be doing this a lot. I appreciate you guys tuning in.
This will be, I'd say, at least once a week, I'll be dropping
some of this type of content different from the Yanks and the
Mets and The Jets and the Giants and the Knicks and the Johnnies
and all that stuff that I do everyday.
BT Unleashed here, This is really dad to dad.
All right, So share it. I hope you enjoy it.
I'm not preaching. This is not the pulpit.
This is just coming from somebody who played the game at
a decent level is a dad does coach and and I just want to see
these kids have an awesome early childhood.
So I'll catch you soon and thank you for watching guys and I will
talk to you very, very soon. Bye bye.