must transfer it from his glove to his hand. After he has done that he needs to plant one foot in the ground and step forward and throw the ball toward the base.After I had a talk with the players, their coach told me they vastly improved. He made practices harder. The team responded by playing very good in their final five games. During those games, the team performed with only minor errors. They reached the playoffs and were beaten by a team that was better than them. But they have also got permission from their parents to start practicing for next year. They got the ok from their parents; so know the team is practicing for next year so they can win the city championship. The players reacted toward the story about their coach as if it were a challenge for them to succeed.As I open my door and put my Ray Ban sunglasses on, I see a group of young boys standing on the field. The boys are dressed in white pants with blue stripes and orange shirts saying Southern Bank of Commerce Mets. I stood in front of those young ballplayers and said, Do yall know why I am here? One of the kids said, No, why? Your Coach Cook has asked me to come and speak to you about the importance of practicing the fundamentals of baseball.There are three fundamental skills of baseball: hitting, catching, and throwing. Coach Cook asked me to talk to all of you, because he thinks you all do not want to practice. To succeed in baseball, you must practice because repetition is the key. Whenever one repeats an action it becomes customary and easy for one to perform a task.When I was a ballplayer, my teams were very successful because my coaches told us the importance of practicing. One year my coach could not coach us because he did not have the time to do it. That same year the teams were shuffled and everybody had different teammates. My best friend, Wes Cook, made it on my team. Wes was the best player anybody had ever seen. However, He did not en...
