Leo Mazzone was one of pro baseball's premier pitching coaches. In his years with the Atlanta Braves, he trained several Cy Young Award winners and helped lead his team to the World Series. In Pitch like a Pro, Mazzone and coauthor Jim Rosenthal offer step-by-step instructions for players and coaches in Little League through high school. They teach all of the pitching basics and give athletes advice on how they can use the right training techniques to grow stronger and stay healthier. Contents include: Mazzone's between-starts throwing program How to grip different pitches Proper mechanics and delivery technique Pitching strategies and tactics Field the position Pitch like a Pro offers contributions by such well known pitchers as Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smotz, and Denny Neagle, along with black-and-white instructional photographs.

You volunteered to coach the local baseball team, but are you ready? How will you teach the fundamental skills, run effective practices, and harness the energy of your young team? Fear not: Survival Guide for Coaching Youth Baseball has the answers. In Survival Guide for Coaching Youth Baseball, longtime coach Dan Keller shares his experiences and provides advice you can rely on from the first practice to the final game. From evaluating players’ skills and establishing realistic goals to using in-game coaching tips, it’s all here—the drills, the strategies, and most important, the fun! Develop your team’s fielding, catching, throwing, pitching, and hitting skills with the Survival Guide’s collection of the game’s best youth drills that young players can actually use. Best of all, you’ll be able to get the most out of every practice by following the ready-to-use practice plans. Survival Guide for Coaching Youth Baseball has everything you need for a rewarding and productive season.

The authoritative sourcebooks for parents, players, and coaches Baseball is a complicated game to learn, particularly for a 9- to 12-year-old's attention span. Bewildered managers, coaches, and parents of the more than 2.5 million Little League Baseball® players need all the help they can get. Filled with fun and easy-to-follow instructions and advice on teaching the fundamentals of baseball, the bestselling Little League Baseball® series is sure to score with coaches and kids alike. COACHING THE LITTLE LEAGUE® PITCHER This book provides Little League coaches and parents with valuable information on how to help their pitchers improve, covering everything from the kinds of pitches and the strategic aspects of pitching to tips for keeping players healthy and fit.

What Does it Take to Have a Great Baseball Career? You daydream about one day seeing your face on a baseball card. You live for pressure and the green grass beneath your cleats. But as your career progresses, the game gets harder. You slump and struggle. You get injured and overlooked. Your confidence plummets. Can you keep improving? Are your big dreams still within reach? A Handbook for the Dedicated Player Clean Your Cleats is filled with stories and advice learned the hard way, over a long career on the diamond. Develop better routines and improve your consistency. Handle the ups and downs with confidence and resolve. Strengthen relationships with teammates, parents and coaches. Learn mindset strategies to become the best version of you. Dan Blewett, in this practical guide, helps players understand all the little things in baseball that make a huge difference over a long career. Why clean your cleats? Because every detail matters.

"Youth Baseball Drills" features helpful tips to make on-field practice more fun and can be employed to develop players' understanding, skills, and love for the sport.

CATCHING-101: The Complete Guide for Baseball Catchers is the most comprehensive book ever written for baseball catchers. It contains tips, drills, and proper mechanics that will help every catcher or coach better understand the most difficult position on the field. This book contains information on EVERY aspect of catching that Coach Barksdale has learned through his years of experience from coaching nationally ranked NCAA teams, and playing at almost every level from Little League to professional baseball. A few of the topics covered in CATCHING-101 are: Receiving Blocking Catching Pop Flies Throwing Fielding Bunts Plays at Home Plate Drills Pitchouts Pass Balls/Wild Pitches Giving Signals And More! If you have been searching for a source with lots of high quality information about catching, this is the book for you! CATCHING-101 was written by Coach Xan Barksdale who is currently an NCAA Division I baseball coach and an ex-professional baseball player. Coach Barksdale played in the Atlanta Braves organization and has been a featured speaker at the prestigious ABCA (American Baseball Coaches Association) national convention.

St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny's New York Times bestselling manifesto about what parents, coaches, and athletes get wrong about sports; what we can do better; and how sports can teach eight keys to success in sports and life. Mike Matheny was just forty-one, without professional managerial experience and looking for a next step after a successful career as a Major League catcher, when he succeeded the legendary Tony La Russa as manager of the St. Louis Cardinals in 2012. While Matheny has enjoyed immediate success, leading the Cards to the postseason four times in his first four years−a Major League record−people have noticed something else about his life, something not measured in day-to-day results. Instead, it’s based on a frankly worded letter he wrote to the parents of a Little League team he coached, a cry for change that became an Internet sensation and eventually a “manifesto.” The tough-love philosophy Matheny expressed in the letter contained his throwback beliefs that authority should be respected, discipline and hard work rewarded, spiritual faith cultivated, family made a priority, and humility considered a virtue. In The Matheny Manifesto, he builds on his original letter by first diagnosing the problem at the heart of youth sports−it starts with parents and coaches−and then by offering a hopeful path forward. Along the way, he uses stories from his small-town childhood as well as his career as a player, coach, and manager to explore eight keys to success: leadership, confidence, teamwork, faith, class, character, toughness, and humility. From “The Coach Is Always Right, Even When He’s Wrong” to “Let Your Catcher Call the Game,” Matheny’s old-school advice might not always be popular or politically correct, but it works. His entertaining and deeply inspirational book will not only resonate with parents, coaches, and athletes, it will also be a powerful reminder, from one of the most successful new managers in the game, of what sports can teach us all about winning on the field and in life.

Dear Baseball Gods, Why didn't you look out for him? Didn't he deserve better? He hustled, competed, and played the game the right way. What happened wasn't fair. A Second Comeback Dan sat by a tree, staring at the ground trying to decide what he would do next. The doctor had just explained that everything he worked for was now ruined. A second Tommy John surgery? Does anyone come back from that? Is my career over? Is this it? A Winding Road to the Top As a walk-on in college, Dan had to earn everything. He pitched on three hours sleep, lived in the clubhouse, played for a team that collapsed mid-season, and endured more arm pain than any kid should. A Way to Move On When finally forced to hang up his cleats, Dan looked in the mirror and didn't recognize the man peering back. If no longer a ballplayer...what would he do? What had been the point of it all? Who was he? The Deeper Side of Life as an Athlete In this philosophical memoir, written as a series of letters, you'll learn that the pinstripes don't wash off so easily.

Reporter Charley Hubbs has left almost everything of his former life behindaeven part of his memory. Now Charley has the story that any reporter would kill for. Problem is, he might have done just thataand his name has moved from the bylines to the headlines. As the dead bodies pile up around him, Charley sets out to prove to himself that heas not the homicidal maniac the press has made him out to be. Enlisting the aid of seductive, whip-smart bartender Elizabeth aLizzya Zapler, he makes a daring courthouse escape. From that point on, itas a race against time for the truth. Along the way, Charley discovers that he can run, but not hide, from his past. Against the backdrop of Chicagoas storied Wrigley Field, a baseball shrine cursed by a billy goat, Charley is caught in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse that plays out in two seasonsaone of futility and the other of hope. Only by unlocking the mysteries of his past and opening his heart again will he be able to find if hope truly does spring eternal.