College Baseball's Opening Day

I watched the Minnesota Gophers play the Seton Hall Pirates in the Big East-Big Ten Baseball Challenge in Clearwater, Florida. I captured these photographs from that game.

I just returned home from my Florida vacation and I'm looking forward to the beginning of our baseball season.

Yankees' Spring Training Photos

This morning, I visited the New York Yankees' Spring Training camp in Tampa, Florida. CLICK HERE to view the photos from that session.

Bat Bags

Last year, each of our players received a bat bag. The red bat bag had the Warriors' logo along with the last name and number of the player stitched into it. Last season, the bags were funded by a sponsor (and the expenditure amounted to nearly $500 ($30 per bag for 16 players).

Upon request, I have investigated the possibility of ordering bags for the players who are new to the Warriors in 2009. As we do not have a sponsor for this expense, the bags will be optional. If a player/parent elects to order a bag, the same vendor from last season will make the bags available fora approximately $32.

More information about the bags will be available on this website in March. At that time, I will communicate a date in which the $32 will be due in order to be included in the order.

Please contact me with any questions or comments.

Spring Training Workouts

While vacationing in Florida, I've had an opportunity to visit a few of the Spring Training camps (Phillies, Yankees and Blue Jays). As always, the early workouts focus on the fundamentals. Here are a few photographs that I was able to capture of the events. Click on photos to enlarge:

1- A coach works with a young shortstop on proper footwork
2- Many more fans attended the Tampa Rays' Fan Fest at Tropicana Field this year (after the Rays' American League championship last season) as compared to last year.
3- A first baseman finds the corner of the bag with both the heals of both feet.

4- A Yankees' shortstop begins to move his pivot (right) foot into a position to square his body for an accurate throw to first base.

5- Blue Jays' pitchers practice fielding ground balls and making the underhand toss to first base.

6- Pitchers practice fielding balls from the mound and making a good throw to first base.

7- Blue Jays' pitchers practice footwork off the mound and making a good underhand toss to the first baseman.

8- Batting practice pitchers throw from a distance of about 40 feet. They show the batter the ball and toss strikes 95% of the time. The idea is for hitters to work on hitting fundamentals...not to challenge hitters by trying to get them out!

9- Pitchers and catchers do a lot of running.