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Baseball Basics

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By LEE DIEKEMPER, Tribune correspondent

Published: December 9, 2007

LAND O' LAKES - Not often do young baseball players get a chance to learn at the feet of a former major-league player or coach. But on an idyllic December Saturday in Florida, area youngsters who may someday be the next George Brett, Ozzie Smith or Roger Clemens were learning baseball secrets from three former major-leaguers and a longtime minor-league instructor at the Land O' Lakes Recreation Complex.

Jack Hubbard, an 18-year roving minor-league instructor with the New York Yankees, along with 13-year outfielder/designated hitter Rob Ducey, 14-year outfielder/infielder Darnell Coles, former major-league coach Roly de Armas and newly anointed New York Yankees pitching coach Dave Eiland turned out to help a few area children learn the art of baseball in the Jack Hubbard Baseball Clinic.

The camp emphasizes individual baseball instruction for campers, whether they are outfielders, infielders or pitchers. The emphasis was on instruction.

"We don't play games or anything like that," Hubbard said. "It's all instruction. It's all nuts and bolts. It's all fundamentals."

Hubbard noted that the key ingredient in the camp was to get young players learning how to play baseball the right way, the fundamental way. By trying to stop old habits and getting the campers to continue with good fundamental habits, Hubbard noted the skills would help build the foundation that, maybe, someday, a camper will get paid to play baseball.

"We want to give the kids some outstanding instruction," Hubbard said. "Everyone who works in this camp has a passion to teach.

"The five of us which also included Jody Reed believe that you have to teach the kids as soon as you can the proper fundamentals so they can learn and take that with them as they grow so they can enhance their knowledge," Hubbard said.

"You start from scratch," said Coles, who is the manager of the Washington Nationals' Single-A affiliate in Hagerstown, Md. "It's not a matter of who is teaching the proper way. It could be a dad or a truck driver or a plumber. It doesn't matter what profession you are in. If the kids are taught the proper way it gives them more of a chance to be successful.

"Baseball is a frustrating sport. Trying to break bad habits along the way at an older age is tough. But in a younger player, it betters their chances of staying on the field and being successful."

"If you get a player at an early stage and you teach them the proper fundamentals, hopefully they will carry that with them the rest of the time they are playing whether that is high school or college or however long it takes them," Eiland said. "I wish I had people like Hubbard's instructors to get instruction from when I was 10 or 12 or 13 years old. This is really incredible - the experience and the knowledge combined."

Among the skills the instructors taught were basics: how a player should set their feet before they throw, how they should throw, how to follow through, how to swing a bat, just to name a few.

"I learned to use my hips when swinging," said Jake Raybuck, 13, of Holiday. "I used to use my arms to swing. And I learned that if I swing all the way through it will be a pretty good hit. I'll hit for more power."

Austin Warner, 13, of Land O' Lakes learned a trick that just might get him an extra base or two in a close game.

"I learned that if you go into foul territory as a base runner and the ball hits you, you are not out," Warner said. That way, if he could lure a bad pickoff throw from a pitcher, or force a bad throw from an infielder on a ground ball, he could advance.

The amusing thing is when the instructors played ball, the campers either weren't born or were too young to know any of the players. Both Raybuck and Warner admitted they had no idea who the instructors were until their fathers told them.

"My dad told me about some of them," Raybuck said. "Jack Hubbard, my dad had met him. But I was kind of, so what?. But they are pretty cool and pretty smart and they know what they are doing. We kind of need them to tell us what to do."

Warner confessed he didn't know any of the instructors but acquired an appreciation for them, and will surf online throughout the summer and monitor the teams the instructors manage and coach for.

"I'm very impressed with them," Warner said.

Hubbard noted that it's possible he and his fellow instructors may have another camp at the Land O' Lakes Recreation Center just after Christmas and before spring training begins in February. But plans have not been finalized yet. Prospective campers can monitor Hubbard's Web site for future camp information at JackHubbardBaseball.com.

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