Hello everyone. Welcome back to my blog. After a couple of days off from Post Baseball it was that time again, time to get back on the bus. I am entering my 3rd year in the New England Collegiate League which is widely regarded as one of the top 3 summer leagues in the country. This is my second season as Manager in the league. I really enjoy the opportunity to coach and teach some of the best players in the country. Watching the Major League Baseball Draft gets a lot more interesting not only because of the players that I have coached getting selected in the draft but also seeing what players might not be coming to your summer club. While at Post during the season I am calling and receiving emails from coaches all over the country and have the chance to select my team for the summer. This summer I am the Manager for the Mystic Schooners, my first question was what in the world is a schooner? It is a boat, I’ll save everyone the google search.
We had one practice under our belt before our first game Friday night versus the Danbury Westerners. Some teams bring in their players for a week of practice but I like to let these players whom most of were in Regionals and playoffs the chance to go home, visit their families and some home cooked meals before they spend their summer on the bus and in host families homes. I think it gives them that itch again to play baseball.
Summer ball is about developing these guys in every aspect of their games that each players schools want them to work on. It is usually a big adjustment period with the wood bats even though they have been hitting with the BBCOR bats this season. Gabe Ortiz from Virginia Tech is now a trivia question for the Schooners as he was the first player in the teams 2 year history to hit a homerun. Then a couple of innings later Nick Ferrerrsi from Columbia wanted in on the party and also went deep for a two run homerun. We lost the game versus Danbury 13-7 but we took some great swings, played great defense, just need to execute better on the mound. I really like the character and the characters on this team I have no doubt it will be a playoff contender as we move deeper in the summer.
I will be giving some insight this summer on exactly what goes on this summer from the bus rides, to the pre game antics of these guys. We have some long bus rides as I am writing this from the road on the way to Sanford, Maine a nice 4 ½ hour trip to show these guys what life in the minors is truly like. We are on the first season of East Bound and Down. That’s it for now, if you would like to follow me on twitter for some more summer ball action you can do that at @CoachRix8.
