Eli’s motion…Former major league pitching coach Marcel Lachemann once shared that success in baseball is facilitated by proper balance (above). Enjoy scenes from Day 2 of the Stammen Youth Baseball Classic. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
A chance encounter during a rain delay years ago opened my eyes and mind over how veteran baseball people address potential with young athletes. And it may surprise you to read…that it’s not all that complicated, or hard to identify.
Versailles, OH – Nearly fifty years ago, now, I was working home plate in a Double A baseball game in the Southern League with the Chattanooga Lookouts and the Charlotte Orioles. Chattanooga was the Double A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics, and Charlette was the Double A team for the Baltimore Orioles.
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And pitching that night for Chattanooga was their top righthanded prospect, out of Carona Del Mar High School, and according to scouts paid to write such things…Matt Keough had as much upside as any young pitcher in minor league baseball.
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The problem was, at least on that night, Keough (the son of former Reds outfielder Marty Keough) couldn’t find home plate with a search warrant.
He walked the bases loaded. He hit a batter. Allowed two runs on pitches that struck the ground five feet in front of home plate. He was, in a word…a mess.
But he threw hard (mid-90s), and his breaking ball, an over-the-top true curveball, had spin that made the baseball buzz. It broke straight down and he threw it so hard that no one, including the catcher, knew what to expect.
Keough never saw the second inning. Pitching coach Marcel Lachemann came out to replace him, and instead of going to the dugout and on to the clubhouse, Keough and Lachemann headed for the bullpen in left field, where they spent much of the next four innings.
“Balance is important. For some it comes naturally, as soon as you learn to walk. For others, it’s something that takes time and adjustment.” – Former pitching coach Marcel Lachemann
Fast forward now two weeks, and the next time I saw the Chattanooga Lookouts. They were playing the Memphis Chicks, in Memphis, and Keough was again on the mound. Only this time, it was a different Matt Keough. He filled the strike one with that blistering fastball, and just when Memphis hitters (like Fort Loramie’s Randy Schafer) would time the fastball Keough would snap off that curveball for a strike. He pitched five scoreless innings, allowed one hit and a walk, struck out nine, and two days later he was pitching for the Oakland Athletics, never to see Double A baseball again.
A few days later, sitting in the dugout during a rain delay, I had a chance meeting with Marcel Lachemann (pronounced Latch-man), and asked him how he had affected the sudden turnaround in Keough, who by that time had already made his big league debut with the A’s.
“Matt’s issue was one of balance and strength,” said Lachemann, himself a former reliever with the big league A’s, now working as a roving instructor in the minors. “He wasn’t strong enough in his upper body to overcome his lack of balance over the pitching rubber. We simplified his delivery, and asked him to just step and throw. With better balance and without all the extra motion to coordinate, he became a better strike thrower.”
Marion Local’s Jackson Boeckman displays good form in action against Russia.
Later, I again asked Lachmann about young pitchers learning to throw the ball over the plate, and the #1 issue with how to coach them.
“Athleticism, to start with,” he explained. “You have to be athletic. You have to have arm strength. But you have to throw with balance. If you don’t it’s like trying to walk down the sidewalk blindfolded. We simplify, created a different muscle memory around balance, and the problem gets better. Not every pitcher is the same, but balance is always important. For some it comes naturally, as soon as you learn to walk. For others, it’s something that takes time and adjustment.”
Over the years I’ve observed exactly what Marcel Lachemann explained to me back in 1977. He would later become a major league pitching coach, and for three-year period in the mid-90s he served as the field manager of the California Angels. Along with his brother Rene, the Lachmanns were as respected a duo of baseball knowledge as you could find back then.
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And to support his theory on balance, I later asked Cleveland Indians hitting coach Derek Shelton about what it takes to become a good hitter in the big leagues.
“What we try to teach is an athletic swing with balance through the strike zone,” said Shelton, now the manager of the Minnesota Twins. “It’s different for almost every hitter, but that’s where we start.”
His statement reminds me of what Craig Stammen said this week about teaching baseball to seven-year-olds.
“We try to teach the same tried-and-true principles to seven-year-olds that we teach in the big leagues,” said Stammen. “That’s what makes baseball so great. It doesn’t matter if you’re 7 or 37.”
Russia 14U Isaiah Grieshop makes this fine running catch of a foul ball against the fence against Coldwater.
And when you watch young players this weekend compete in the Craig Stammen Classic, you see some of what Marcel Lachemann and Derek Shelton talked about, even decades ago.
The more advanced young pitchers will exhibit balance during their delivery – head upright and focused on the plate, shoulders level, and the motion of stepping towards home plate while the arm follows is synchronized – coordinated.
“Some kids have it sooner than others. Some adults have it sooner than others. Others never have it,” said former Braves pitching coach Tom House, who wrote a book on the art of throwing a baseball.
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“It’s a patience thing that improves as the body becomes stronger with age and the parts begin to work together with more harmony.”
It didn’t go far…but it was still worth admiring for this young Flyers hitter.
Hence, to Marcel Lachemann’s point, not every athlete matures at the same rate. And, no, you can’t take it for granted.
“That’s why they hire coaches,” he said fifty years ago. “If a player has great talent to throw hard or hit the ball a long way you have to find ways to make their abilities more consistent – to make it easier for them to have success. A good place to start is to simplify their athleticism. Once you achieve that, things begin to happen, adjustments become more permanent with muscle memory, and a player becomes a different kind of player.”
Former Springfield resident, and Reds pitching coach Harvey Haddix used to say this.
“A lot of players have what you’re looking for. You just have to find a way to get to it.”
The ‘Spot’ invites you to stop by after your next game, in downtown Sidney, for a ‘winning’ Big Buy.