By the way, this post was inspired by a tweet from my friend JamesK at AmazinAvenue.

Should MLB Change the Rules to Protect Catchers?

There has been some buzz by some suggesting that Major League Baseball should change the rules in some way that would protect catchers from suffering similar injuries in the future. For example, perhaps make it illegal to purposely run into the catcher. From Giants manager Bruce Bochy:

“I do think we need to consider changing the rules there a little bit, because the catcher’s so vulnerable,” Bochy said. “There are so many who have gotten hurt — and not just a little bit. I mean, careers ended or shortened.”

Bochy was a former catcher himself, though I don’t know if he’s drawing this conclusion based on his playing experience or because his superstar player is out for the season. I really, really doubt he — or anyone else — would have reacted with such passion had this happened to, say, Eli Whiteside.

I challenge Bochy to name as many as five MLB catchers in the last 30 years who have had their “careers ended or shortened” as a result of a home plate collision. Personally, I can’t think of one. The catcher who everyone remembers getting clocked and having his “career ruined” is Ray Fosse, who was steamrolled by Pete Rose in an All-Star Game (back when players actually PLAYED All-Star Games, rather than just went through the motions) and as a result, had his shoulder separated. That happened in 1970. Do you know when Fosse played his last MLB season? 1979. In fact, Fosse returned to play two days later, caught another 40 or so games, and earned a Gold Glove while batting .307 for the season. Fosse’s career eventually went downhill after that season, but it had nothing to do with Pete Rose plowing him; Fosse had several other injuries afterward and stopped hitting.

But I digress … should MLB change the rules? Absolutely, positively, NOT. Catchers can (and should) learn to block the plate in such a way that they can both prevent injury and the runner from scoring. In most cases, the runner is the one who is most vulnerable to injury if there is a home-plate collision, because the catcher has equipment protecting himself. And the truth is, there is already a rule protecting the catcher (and all fielders, for that matter) — it is 7.08:

Any runner is out when –
(a) (1) He runs more than three feet away from his baseline to avoid being tagged unless his action is to avoid interference with a fielder fielding a batted ball.

So, as long as the catcher is at least three feet away from the baseline, he can’t be blindsided by an incoming runner. If you can’t see someone coming at you, you are vulnerable. If you can, you can take steps to minimize danger. Is it possible to still get injured, even if you see the runner coming and you have set yourself into a safe position? Of course, but it happens rarely and is part of the game. Which leads us to the next question ..

Could the Injury Have Been Avoided? And/Or, Was Posey Improperly Positioned?

I’ve taken a look at the video replay — which provides several angles — many times, and I still can’t see exactly how Posey injured himself so gruesomely. It was a “bang-bang” play, meaning, ball and runner arrived almost simultaneously, so the collision may have hid the moment that caused the damage. To me, it looks like Posey’s left leg was injured after the impact of the collision, when it rolled underneath the weight of his body. Why did his body move that way so forcefully? Because Posey wasn’t in a strong position to withstand the impact of the runner coming into him. Why wasn’t he in a strong position? Because he caught the ball with his left knee already dropped to the ground, and he pivoted from that knee toward the incoming runner to apply the tag. If you watch the replay, you can see he “didn’t have a leg to stand on”, and by turning his body to make the tag, he had momentum moving that way and nothing to brace himself from the impact of the runner coming into him. Ideally, he catches the ball with both feet firmly planted on the ground, then either steps into a strong position to face the runner head-on — such as an offensive lineman in football might do — or, apply a swipe tag (which is probably safer). Once Posey dropped to his knees, he had no power, strength, foundation — nothing — to keep control of his body, and as a result was completely controlled by the runner / the collision.

Does that mean it’s Buster’s own fault that he broke his leg? Well, yeah, kind of. But I can understand, in the heat of the moment, why he did what he did; he basically was operating on instinct, which told him to get down to stop the ball and turn and apply the tag as quickly as possible. The unfortunate part of this is that his instincts were wrong and dangerous. Could he have had better instincts? Possibly. If a catcher is taught to keep his feet on throws to the plate, and he spends hours and hours of correct repetition to instill that, then maybe the catcher doesn’t do what Posey did in that situation. But it’s really hard to say, because sometimes an athlete has to “improvise” — you just hope that the improvisation still relies on safe technique.

Should Buster Posey Move To Another Position?

I don’t think so, and I hope such a decision isn’t made. Posey’s injury was highly unusual — a freak accident, if you will. Moving him to another position will not necessarily make him less vulnerable to future freak accidents. Outfielders injure themselves running into walls and diving for fly balls; middle infielders get their knees taken out from under them by baserunners; corner infielders can sustain major injuries by falling down dugout steps or going over railings in pursuit of foul pop flies. Hitters can get injured by pitched balls; baserunners get hurt from sliding. The bottom line is this: injuries happen, no matter where you play on the field. It’s part of the game. Do catchers get more knicks, dings, and bruises? Sure. Do they suffer more injuries that prevent them from participating? I’m not so sure; check the disabled list on any given week and note how many catchers are on it — I would guess that there aren’t any more backstops than infielders, outfielders, or pitchers.

Then there’s the theory that all the bumps and bruises a catcher suffers can affect his hitting. To that, I can attest, is somewhat true. We catchers get sprained and broken fingers, which can hamper a swing. But again, those types of injuries happen to other players as well. Jose Reyes, shortstop for the Mets, for example, frequently has finger injuries that occur as a result of his hard headfirst slides. Additionally, there is the thought that a catcher wears down over the course of a season, and that affects his offense. Well, yet again, that is an issue that happens to other position players as well — it all depends on the conditioning of the player.

Whenever I hear that a team wants to move a catcher out from behind home plate to protect his offensive skills, or “extend his career”, I want to scream the names Johnny Bench, Ted Simmons, Mike Piazza, Carlon Fisk, Thurman Munson, Pudge Rodriguez, Yogi Berra, Gary Carter, Jason Varitek, Lance Parrish, A.J. Pierzynski, Sandy Alomar, Terry Steinbach, Bill Dickey, Roy Campanella, Mickey Cochrane, and dozens of other catchers who had long careers and had success both behind and at the plate.

Personally, I think that if Buster Posey can physically return to catching — and it sounds like that will happen, eventually — then he should. The catching position has become a dark hole in terms of offense, because teams are too quick to move young, good-hitting catchers away from the position to “protect” them. Those same teams then lament that “there are no good-hitting catchers these days”. Gee, I wonder why?

So those are my thoughts. What about yours? Post your opinion on the Buster Posey incident in the comments.

However, most of these sources either don’t elaborate on how your feet should be, or they offer information that does more harm than good.

For example, I remember being taught to get my weight forward, on the balls of my feet, because that is a “strong athletic position”. Unfortunately, with your weight forward you can naturally move only one way: forward. If you need to block a ball to either side, or need to throw a runner out, you will have to waste time shifting your weight back before doing anything else.

That’s not to say, however, that your weight should be back on your heels (though, you’re probably better off back there than forward). Instead, your weight in the catcher’s stance — both with and without runners on — should be evenly distributed on your feet. A better way to say this may be that your weight should be ON TOP of your feet.

Ideally, your toes should be pointing up the the foul lines, positioned outside your knees, with the outside edges of your feet slightly off the ground, and the majority of your weight resting on top of your instep. While at first it may feel strange to have your weight on your insteps, you should otherwise feel balanced. Set this way, you will be an ideal position to move in any direction necessary, with quickness and control.

When one of your fingers gets bent backward or sideways much further than God intended, the result is what’s technically known as a sprain. It’s probably the most common of all sports injuries, and in most cases, not much to be concerned with. Assuming all you have is a minor sprain, you can usually play through it, albeit with pain.

Before you decide to play through a jammed finger, however, you need to make sure it is indeed a sprain and not a dislocation or fracture. The symptoms of a simple sprain is pain, redness, and swelling around the joint/knuckle, and limited range of motion. If the pain is in the middle of your finger bone, you may have a fracture and should get X-rays immediately. Similarly, if the pain is acute, and/or you can’t move the finger at all, and/or the finger looks abnormally twisted or disfigured, get out of the game and seek medical attention. Also, if the injury was the result of a direct blow to the tip of one of your fingers — such as from a foul tip — you will want to seek medical attention in case it is “mallet finger“, which if left untreated could cause permanent deformity.

Let’s get back to the sprain. If you’ve jammed or hyperextended one of your fingers, there is going to be some pain, and a lot of swelling. You can grit your teeth and get through the game, but immediately afterward you should ice it several times that day and during the next 3-5 days — 15 minutes on ice, at least 25 minutes off. This will reduce the swelling, as will taking some aspirin, ibuprofen, or similar anti-inflammatory.

Should the sprain be in one of your knuckle joints, and you don’t have a game the next day, you may want to splint it. It can be as simple as taping a popsicle stick to your finger to keep it straight, though it’s better to see a trainer, school nurse, or doctor and have a professional splint it for you.

If you’re a dumb, bullheaded lug like me and too tough to see professionals — and insist on playing the next day — you can “buddy tape” the injured finger to the one next to it and continue to play. Regardless of whether you’re smart and seek some medical attention or a mule such as me, try to avoid using the jammed finger as much as possible, and continue ice treatment, for several days. Once the swelling starts to go down, you should start doing easy motion exercises — such as simply turning the finger around in circles or gently bending it back and forth. As the swelling and pain continues to diminish, do the same exercises with some resistance — a few rubber bands work well and allow you to gradually build up strength. You can also squeeze a pink rubber ball or anti-stress device. Once the swelling goes down, you’ll want to get that digit moving and working sooner rather than later.

Treated properly, your jammed finger should be back to normal within a few weeks — often sooner. Remember the two key phrases when dealing with sprains: “Ice is nice, and, motion is lotion.” Ice for immediate treatment of swelling and pain, motion after the swelling and pain subsides.

There are dozens of books on the “basics” of baseball playing, but few are authored by someone with the cachet of Cal Ripken, Jr. After reading it from cover to cover (twice), I also have to state that few other books on the fundamentals are as clear, correct, and, most importantly, applicable to nearly every ballplayer — regardless of age or skill level.

Ironically, the one thing that separates this book from the rest is the creed delivered by Cal Jr., which happens to go against the title: there is no “one way” to play baseball — at least as far as a player’s style. The “Ripken Way” is actually a more general view of playing baseball: play hard and with passion, practice well, have an idea, and respect the game. At the same time, the “Ripken Way” has little to do with forcing a specific technique. Rather, as Cal states, a large part of the “Ripken Way” of coaching is “to celebrate the individual” — in other words, the ends justify the means, or, put another way, as long as the fundamentals are being executed, and the result is success, let the athlete continue to do what he’s doing, even if it looks unusual or “incorrect”.

This idea goes against many parents and coaches today who feel there is only one right way to accomplish a specific task. I’m not sure when it started, but at some point the baseball “guru” came out of nowhere, professing the single best way to hit or throw a baseball (interestingly, I’ve yet to hear about a fielding guru). If you’ve spent any time researching baseball techniques and mechanics on the internet, you’ve no doubt run into these self-appointed demigods of baseball. They claim to have spent hundreds of hours studying high-speed film, biomechanics, kinetics, etc., and as a result have found the one best way for a human being to throw or hit. You can buy their book or DVD of “secrets” for $399, or you can try to get into their sold-out clinics for a price higher than that.

In a perfect world, dealing with perfect human bodies, these theories might be correct. However, we live in an imperfect world, and most of our bodies are equally imperfect. If nothing else, every “body” is different, and as a result one way of execution that works for one person may not necessarily work for another. All one needs to do is look at video of Barry Bonds, Ichiro Suzuki, and Pete Rose to know that highly successful hitters can be very different in their styles. The Ripken Way celebrates these differences, and encourages them, with the idea that the differences are what make baseball such an interesting game.

Though “Play Baseball the Ripken Way” does not demand absolutes, it does offer the fundamentals that are common among successful, professional ballplayers — and this is the real meat and potatoes of the book. Cal and brother Billy Ripken fully explain, and demonstrate (with photos), the proper way to field a ground ball, throw a baseball, and swing a bat. Where there are several techniques to accomplish the same task, the Ripkens explain all the ways, who does them, and why. That’s something you don’t always see in the other books — an explanation. The Ripkens tell you the best way to field a ground ball is to have a wide base and your butt down, then explain why (because it pushes your hands out in front of your body, an easy position to field a grounder).

For any coach looking to grasp an understanding of fielding and hitting fundamentals, this book can be your bible. The only part of the book that falls down is the chapter on catching, which promotes old techniques that aren’t fully explained. It’s interesting, but expected, since former catcher Cal Sr. passed long before this book was published, and the person who provided the bulk of the catching info was Mark Parent — a fine catcher in his day but one who relied on illogical “old school” mechanics. (Ironic, isn’t it, that I bill this as an “old school” site yet denounce “old school” catching? I digress …) I’d be more open to the catching chapter if it wasn’t so abruptly dissimilar from the rest of the book, which provides logical explanations behind all described techniques. Even the pitching chapter has plenty of useful information and background info vital to a coach or young pitcher.

Despite my distaste for the catching chapter, I recommend this book to catchers, because it provides a comprehensive overview of what everyone on the field should be doing. The catcher is the field general and part of his responsibility is knowing how his troops are supposed to react to the ball and execute. The more a catcher educates himself about the game, the better prepared he will be to confidently lead a team.

In the end, this book provides the fundamentals of baseball that every coach and player needs to know, and in an easy-to-understand context. If you’ll pardon the pun, it “covers all the bases”, explaining the whys of technique and the hows of manning each specific position — making the teaching of baseball that much easier. The book also offers insight on how to approach and prepare for a game, what to think about during a game, and other mental nuggets. All in all, a fine book that deserves to be on the shelf of every baseball coach and serious ballplayer.

If you’re interested in purchasing, click on the picture of the book to get it from Amazon. A tiny portion of the purchase price goes toward the upkeep of this site. Thanks.

So here I will teach all about framing, for the masses who do not have the pleasure to learn from me. However, you may be unhappy with what I have to say.

The best way to “frame” a pitch is to catch the ball where it is pitched — and don’t move!

That’s right — no turning the wrist, moving the body, or otherwise “easing” the ball into the strike zone. Just catch it and “stick it” (meaning, hold it there — “sticking” is a term stolen from gymnastics, to describe a gymnast holding his/her form at the end of an exercise).

While you may on occasion run into an umpire who will call strikes when you pull a pitch into the strike zone, the better umpires — which you will hopefully see as you reach more advanced levels — will be wise to your ways and nearly always call “ball” when they see you move your mitt.

The best thing you can do as a catcher to help your pitcher — and the umpire — is to catch the proper half of the ball (left, right, or top) with soft hands and HOLD your mitt exactly where you catch the ball. Even if it’s an inch or two out of the strike zone, just HOLD IT THERE. Give the umpire a good one- or two-second look at where the ball is. By doing this you are putting coins in the umpire�s trust bank; little by little he will trust you and where you receive the ball. Build up this trust over the course of a game, and maybe — just maybe — you will be able to ever so slightly ease a pitch an inch or two over to the left or right and into the zone.

So I lied, sort of. There is an art to framing a pitch into the strike zone, but it is an advanced skill, and one that should be used sparingly — like once or twice a game at most. And actually you “frame” more with a lateral, subtle move of your body than with the glove. The problem with learning to frame is that most young catchers (old ones too — watch Mike Piazza) will try to pull nearly every ball into the strike zone. This only irritates the umpire and causes him to eventually disregard the end of the ball’s flight.

Rather than try to force pitches into the strike zone, a better plan is to attempt to catch the ball when it passes through the strike zone. Coach Dave Weaver uses a term I like; he says “beat the ball to the spot”. Again, this isn’t something you can do on every pitch — unless you have a guy like Tom Glavine who is always around the plate. Most pitches will move a bit — to the left, right, or vertically — and sometimes you might be able to catch the ball just as it’s passing through the strike zone. At times this is early, so you need to reach out to get it, while other times you will need to keep the glove back and receive the ball deeper, after it breaks. We’re talking a matter of inches here, not feet, and your ability to decipher whether to reach or wait will come with experience — both your own and your time with a particular pitcher.

Try it next time you’re catching a pitcher in practice. Pay close attention to the movement on that pitcher’s pitches, and learn to anticipate its mild breaks. Try to figure out ahead of time where the ball is going to pass through the strike zone and “beat it” to that spot with your glove. Remember to keep soft hands, and make gradual movements — as opposed to jerking at the last second to snatch the ball. Receive the ball and hold it, so the umpire can take a picture of it. The umpire will thank you — and so will your pitcher.

There are a few things I love about the Akadema gloves. First, the quality of the leather (including the lacing) is top-rate. Years ago, Rawlings’ “heart of the hide” was supposedly the best leather but today’s examples don’t hold a candle to Akadema. Secondly, the unique design makes much more sense than the conventional / traditional catcher’s mitts. It is a double break, but the “second” break is way up along the top of the thumb, and actually serves to form the pocket. That design is crucial for two things: it makes it easy to catch the ball in the pocket, and it prevents thumb injuries. Conventional gloves have one long pad on the thumb side, and thumb sprains occur if you catch a hard thrower who is frequently crossing you up wild inside, or if you get a foul tip against the pad. The way these “Reptilian” gloves are designed, your thumb is in a very safe spot, away from the shock of those situations. The third thing I really like about this glove is the break-in period, which was extremely quick. In the past, I always had two catcher’s mitts: one for games, and one for practice that I’d break in. The break-in period generally took 2-3 months of catching pitchers every day. These gloves take 2-3 weeks.
This is the 32.5? catcher’s glove, suitable for younger / smaller catchers:

Catchers with larger hands and frames (high school and up) will probably be more comfortable using the 33.5? glove. This is the glove that I use. It took only about two weeks to break in for game use, and is hands-down the best glove I’ve used in over 25 years of catching.