THE IB WAY TO PLAY BASEBALL

BACKGROUND

In the spring of 1969 at Tampa, Florida I was the fourth string catcher for the Cincinnati Reds. On the sleeve of each Red uniform was a patch commemorating the 100th year of organized baseball or pro ball. The first team was the Cincinnati Redstockings. As a history guy as well as a ballplayer to be on a baseball team, even in spring training, that was 100 years old still gives me a charge.

But the game today began with Hall of Famer John McGraw, the father of the modern baseball. You can say he wrote the book on how to win playing small ball as mastered by Ty Cobb. A baseball generation later, the Babe put McGraw's small ball on its head. Today some baseball people believe it's guru Bill James. Who knows? Frankly I believe there are several paths to the top of the mountain, not just one or two.

Schopenhaur memorably said "the more things change the more they stay the same." This defines baseball. Sure the ballparks, uniforms, and players change, but on the field it is the same true grit. Batting practice, taking outfield, then infield are carbon copies, plus tribute to how it was done in the time of McGraw, Cobb, and Ruth. How do I know? Because the greatest fungo hitter of all time and the last living ballplayer to room with Babe Ruth told me so when I was with the Angels in I967. His name was Jimmy Reese. He was the team's fungo hitter with 3 years in the Majors, mostly with the Yanks. He said, "You know, kid, the game really never changes, just the players' names. We were doing exactly the same batting practice, infield, and outfield in the 1920s and 1930s as you do today." Now that is what you call tradition, and with each new generation is just gets deeper and more profound. But no matter how it is sliced and diced, it all comes down to pitching, hitting, running, throwing, and catching.

At night, with the 1969 Reds' spring training, GM Chief Bender would show film of the great players doing what they did best, with piercing analysis. One night he asked us "What's the bible of baseball?” No hands went up. I thought I knew but in a room full of Reds, with my status, I'm the last guy to talk. When no one else seemed able to answer, I said haltingly, “There is no baseball bible." To my huge relief the Chief said "that's right, but there is the Reds way to play, and that's how we are going to teach you to play."
 

Major League baseball is played only to win, and only winning concepts survive the jungle of pro sports, or amateur for that matter. In baseball these winning concepts have been passed by word of mouth from McGraw to Mack, to Rickey, to Lasorda, to LaRussa and then on to the next baseball generation, about how you win when you pitch, hit, run, throw, and catch a baseball.

Every manager I played for professionally, except one, managed in the Major Leagues, including Tom Lasorda and Chuck Tanner, who won world championships. All preached from the same page when it came to the fundamentals. The only difference was the tone of their voices, which could really vary dramatically in volume. Whether you were playing in the lowest of the minors or in a Major league lineup every day, these fundamentals were tested live again and again. The players and teams that followed them the most consistently succeeded the most. It is no different now, nor will it be tomorrow.

Which brings me to my book, Instant Baseball, A Guide to the Timeless Game. In 1995 I was asked to talk to some Little Leaguers. There were about 75 to 100 kids and parents present. To say the least, I was flabbergasted. (Read my introduction to Instant Baseball for more details). How awful was their knowledge of the fundamentals! Plus many of these parents were coaches as well! As I say in my Introduction, "most did not even know the proper way to grip a bat."

Immediately after this eye opener I decided there were bunches of people out there, very well intentioned, yet teaching a lot of bad baseball. That is a double whammy, because now you have to tear down the young player's bad habits before you can even get started teaching the good ones. It's why a remodel job cost double compared to new construction. So the idea was to get at those just starting out, plus their parents and coaches, with the best time tested basics of baseball. Hence IB, and the reason why our paths are crossing now.

But really I didn’t write IB. I just took down, for the first time like a diligent secretary, what my managers who learned from their managers back to McGraw had to say about the fundamentals when you pitch, hit, run, throw, and catch. I just wrote them down. To date I have sold over 24,000 copies of IB. The video adaptation on my website is now averaging better than 125 downloads per day, so the word is getting out, which can only help make our baseball better. That's been my mission with IB since 1995. Hey, put a halo on that angel.