20 July 2006

Clinics are another slice of life in the Cape League

Andy Goff, second baseman for the Bourne Braves, hit ground balls to a group of eager 10-year-olds.

Matt Crowell, from Medfield, fielded one ball just as Goff had instructed only minutes before.

"Stay there. That was too easy," Goff called out.

The next one was hit to Crowell's left. He pivoted and took three steps and snagged it.

Then Corey Colangelo from Easton stepped up. Goff hit a grounder far to his right, and Colangelo made a diving backhand catch.

"Oh baby!! What a play."

This scene and others just like it occur every weekday as the various teams in the Cape Cod Baseball League conduct youth clinics all summer long.

Youngsters from the Cape and various cities and towns in Massachusetts have an opportunity to learn baseball skills from some of the top college baseball players and coaches in the country.

Many, ranging in age from 4 to 13 years old, participate in the clinics every year as part of their summer vacation.

Keith Rogers a 10-year-old from Norton, has been coming to the Braves camp for about five or six years.

Scott Pickler, field manager of the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox who is in charge of the Y-D clinic, calls it, "Organized chaos," as about 100 kids run from activity to activity around Red Wilson field.

But there really is nothing chaotic about it.

Brian Pugh, pitching coach of the Bourne Braves, runs the Braves clinic with four players from his team.

Eager beaver learners

On a typical day Pugh and his players will teach warm-up exercises, then break into groups to teach hitting and pitching mechanics and fielding skills.

Jordan Pacheco from the University of New Mexico and one of the players working the Y-D clinic, said the youngsters are generally very eager to learn.

"Some of the little kids want to do their own thing. But overall they're pretty receptive to doing the drills. They do them right and they're pretty good about it," Pacheco said.

Some of the kids take this opportunity to improve their skills for when they go back home and play Little League ball.

Eleven-year-old Nick Peabody, who lives in New York City and has been attending the Red Sox clinics for the last four years, said his hitting has improved since coming to the clinics.

"I have more power than before. I learned to get more rotation in my swing. I'm getting my lower body into it," he said.

Maggie Johnson, a 9-year-old from Dennis who plays shortstop for her Little League team, said she's become a better fielder, learning to point her body to throw at the target.

Six-year-old Caroline DiFiory said she has learned how to stand at the plate.

"A lot of people stand like this [facing the pitcher], but you're really supposed to stand like this [perpendicular to the mound]," she said while demonstrating.

But it is not all about drills and skills; the youngsters are there to have fun, too.

Pugh, an elementary school physical education teacher in Delaware during the off-season, said he uses many of the same strategies in his teaching at the clinic.

"Every day we try to get some kind of game in," he said. "We play games but I try to keep them non-competitive. We usually don't keep score, and everybody gets to bat. There's no such thing as batting at the bottom of the order because you're a weak hitter."

Friday is parents day at Y-D

The highlight of the Y-D clinic is Friday when the kids play a game with their parents.

Kris Shanahan's 8-year-old son Brandon has been coming from Maryland for the last three years.

Brandon, who made two excellent plays in the field and then smashed a homer over the fence, was playing against his dad this year while mom watched.

"I played last year and hit a home run and he got mad at me, so he wanted Daddy to play this year," said Mrs. Shanahan.

Mike Duffy, who has been bringing his family to the Y-D clinics every year, said "They keep it fun. It's not too stressful for the kids. And the kids get to know the players."

Red Sox pitcher Terry Doyle from Boston College said it's fun to work with the youngsters and is a good experience for him since he's studying secondary education at BC.

"The best is when you see a kid learn and get better. It's great when a kid who just wasn't getting it the first couple of days starts to do it by the end of the week," he said.

Maybe this is just another reason so many people call the Cape Cod Baseball League the best amateur league in the country.

By George Kostinas