Players showed up to Spring Training 2011 with a special guest waiting for them, former Golden Era
player & current pitcher in the Minnesota Twins organization, Chris
Mazza.
While at practice, Chris began by taking
questions from the younger players, which are always a lot of fun to
hear. The first question asked was do you know the 3 R’s, which is a
hitting term we use in the Fundamentals of Hitting… and the nice thing
was Chris still remembered the answer!
Additional questions the players asked we’re
along the lines of have you ever beamed a hitter on purpose and are you
going to be in the Hall of Fame one day…
Following the Q and A, Chris talked about the
importance of working hard and always shooting for your dreams in life.
Coach Derek Bell said of Chris “Baseball is said to have 5 tools
that players are measured by, but I believe there are 7, which add
heart and desire. You can have all the talent in the world but without
heart and desire you probably won’t amount up to much. Chris has those
6th and 7th tools of heart and desire and I hope the players walked
away knowing that anything is possible if you keep believing in
yourself… because Chris is the perfect example of that”.
What Coach Derek Bell is referring to is most people
who see Chris now probably wouldn’t believe in high school he was about
5’10 and only threw around 83 miles per hour… because now Chris is 6’4
and throws 97 miles per hour.
After giving a chat to the players, Chris watched
all the players throw and helped with some mechanics before moving in to
pick-off moves. All of our players to date have learned pick-off moves
to first as well as second base, and Chris fine-tuned the moves and
taught players how to be even quicker on a pick-off throw.
All in all it was great to have Chris on the field
and the players had a TON of fun being around a pitcher who plays
professional baseball!
We can’t thank you enough Chris and we wish you all the success in the world!
