(click here for Part One)
Last week we examined some of the situations where baseball players “choke”, and found that “pressing” usually results in “choking”.
Now we’re going to learn how not to press and therefore not choke.
Prepare – Physically, and Visually
Preparation is the key to success in any sport (or business, for that matter). When you [...]

(This is the first of a two-part article)
Unfortunately, I’m a Mets fan, and if you’ve followed their 2007 season, you may have heard about “the greatest collapse in baseball history” — their loss of the NL Eastern Division title despite being in first place by seven games with only 17 to play. There have been [...]

Learn to breathe? Who needs to “learn” how to breathe? Didn’t we figure that out about three seconds after emerging from the womb?
Well, yeah, but, not really.
You learned to breathe to survive, not necessarily for optimum efficiency. Possibly, some knucklehead gym teach along the way taught you puff out your chest and suck wind [...]

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 [...]

For much of North America — particularly in the colder climates — the baseball season is right around the corner. That means it’s time to pull your baseball glove out of the closet and get it ready for the upcoming season — or buy a new one and start breaking it in.
There are at least [...]

For many, the baseball offseason is not only long, but dormant. While there are some areas of the USA where baseball is played year-round, the rest of us have been suffering from cabin fever since mid-November, waiting for the snow to melt and/or the weather to warm up.
However, just because you can’t get outside, [...]

Last week (on July 4th) I watched the premiere of “Kokoyakyu: High School Baseball” on PBS. It is a documentary covering high school baseball in Japan, and specifically, “Koshien”.
Koshien Stadium is the home field of the Hanshin Tigers, except for two weeks in August when it hosts Japan’s national high school baseball tournament. “Koshien”, therefore, [...]