Control...Are you in or out of control?

Rob Naddelman: Through a Parent’s Eyes

Controlling your surroundings, relationships, and even your children is a tough challenge for all parents. Even with my little ones, I hear all the time, “I want to do it myself daddy,” when I overstep my bounds and try to do small things for my girls. As they get older and I want to insert myself into their college or job search, I am sure it will be even more of a challenge to strike the necessary balance.

What I am starting to learn is that every day, and every situation is an opportunity to empower my children to handle themselves with self esteem and pride, versus stepping in and doing everything for them. In the end, it may make it easier for me to just handle it, but what am I teaching them in the long run?

Parents of young men that are going through the college search process have a great opportunity to help educate, guide, and empower their children to make good decisions. Don’t do all the research yourself. Resist the temptation to write his cover letters and resumes for him. Ask your son good questions. Get his mind thinking. Try as hard as you can to get him to speak about what he is interested in. Help him understand how courses of study in college translate into real jobs. Educate him on the power of networking and how attending college gives you a network and resources you can tap into for a lifetime. My partner at Baseball Factory is Steve Sclafani, my former teammate at the University of Pennsylvania. I probably continue to tap into my large Penn network at least once a week. It is a powerful tool.

Keep encouraging your child even when he is struggling to find the answers to his future. Hold back on your urge to control the situation for him and help him to seek out what is in his heart and his dreams. Take him to college campuses, watch college baseball games with him on ESPNU or CSTV, go on the Internet with him to research classroom sizes and academic disciplines. Encourage him to follow his intuition and give him the space to explore different options. Balance out what you think is best versus what truly makes him happy. That trust will go a long way towards his self confidence.

When you start to get the urge to take over and control his future, step back and ask yourself these questions, “Who am I satisfying here? Who’s best interest am I serving? Is this more about me then my child?” If your ego is in control, check it at the door and allow your child to stand on his own. It is one of the best gifts you can give as a parent.


Naddelman is a former two-time All Ivy League Third Baseman at the University of Pennsylvania, where he competed in a College World Series Regional. He has served as the President of Baseball Factory for the past 13 years, and also is the Executive Director of Baseball Factory's charitable arm The B.A.S.E. - H.I.T. Foundation. Naddelman and Steve Sclafani (CEO) have been featured in Business Week and CNN for their work in building Baseball Factory into the nation's leader in player development and college placement.

3 Common Pitching Faults

Andy Ferguson: Another Day, Another Double Play

While the task of retiring hitters with today’s metal bats is not an easy one, it is made more difficult all too often. Wood bats tilt the scale in favor of the pitcher certainly, but still most high school pitchers struggle. Why? Aside from generally poor throwing mechanics (which I think is one of the most common traits of players today in general), I think there are a few main tendencies that hinder success.

1. Tendency to overthrow

Likely a product of the showcase era, we all want to measure ourselves by how hard we throw. But does the hitter care? Throw either 65 or 95 and it will matter, otherwise probably not. Ask around, would a hitter rather face 75 or 85? I think you would be surprised at the answer.

Hint: is it harder for hitters to be quick enough, or to wait?

Instead, stay within yourself. If you can touch 80 mph, then you should probably be pitching around 77 or so – with that 80 available for when you need to reach back for a little more. By working within your abilities, it is reasonable to expect that you:

A. Will be more consistent
B. Can work deeper into games
C. Can recover faster, and will have a generally healthier arm

2. Tendency to nibble

The plate is 17 inches wide, and some umpires will give another 2 or 3 inches on either side. But for some reason, that just isn’t big enough. After all, we wouldn’t want the hitter to make contact would we? Nah, there are only 7 guys behind you with gloves that work hard every day to catch it and throw it – remember, practice is fun but they like to make plays in games too.

Instead, make it important to throw more strikes. I’m not suggesting you throw it right down the middle, but rather to divide the plate into realistic pieces based on a combination of the situation and your capability to execute:

A. Halves: Early in the count, behind in the count, and probably in even counts too, you should be working to the outer half most of the time. If you work towards the inner half, you better get it in and be willing to miss off the plate – misses back to the middle don’t usually work out to well in your favor.

B. Thirds: As you progress you can begin to eliminate the middle third, if you are working at this level you need to stay out of that area. The outer third will likely be your bread and butter, with the inner third again used mostly for effect.

We’ll cover this more in a future posting, when we look at working up and down in addition to in and out.

3. Tendency to throw too many off speed pitches

Maybe I’m wrong here, but I would rather not show the hitter all the pitches I have until I absolutely have to. Not only are off speed pitches shown too early and too often, but rarely are they setup properly or even at all. Let’s face it, most pitchers don’t have good enough action on their curve, or enough deception on their changeup to make hitters flat out swing and miss – there has to be some element of surprise, or change in speeds and/or location involved as well. If all the hitter ever sees is off speed pitches, how are you going to fool him?

Instead, establish your fastball and hold back something – if you can. You don’t want to show the hitters too much too soon – neither the one in the box, nor the ones in the dugout watching you and trying to figure out your stuff and what you are doing with it. I think going fastball/changeup early is ideal, but many young pitchers don’t understand how valuable a changeup is – therefore, they don’t spend the time learning and developing the feel needed to throw it well.

So, the formula for success is really pretty simple. Stay within yourself, make strikes more important that miles per hour, and try to hold a pitch back for as long as possible.


Andy Ferguson is currently the Senior Director of Baseball Operations with the Baseball Factory. Ferguson joined the North Carolina State baseball team as a walk-on, and went on to solidify his role on a team that participated in four consecutive NCAA Regionals. He later coached with the Harwich Mariners of the Cape Cod Baseball League, and then served as an Associate Scout with the Pittsburgh Pirates and the San Diego Padres.