This is what Ray Brown, development officer of Baseball Confederation of Oceania, wants to emphasize as he starts the baseball clinic yesterday at the Francisco Tanko M. Palacios Baseball Field.
Brown’s visit this year—his fourth since 2000—is part of BCO’s commitment in assisting the CNMI baseball family in the continuous development of baseball.
CNMI is a member country of BCO.
Brown will be on island for three weeks before he will go to Tinian for another week of baseball clinic.
Brown said he will work with youth and prepare them for the Micronesian Games. He will basically give the young baseball players again the same lessons he provided them in the previous clinics like pitching, catching and fielding.
However, there some new strategies both in defense and offense that young baseball players here need to learn.
These include moves on how to get primary lead, how to approach grounders and some batting styles.
Although there is no drastic changes in baseball strategies, Brown said players can add a little new knowledge that can matter a lot especially during crucial part of the ball game.
Importantly, he said that when a coach strategizes “you want to put your team to highest percentage possible.”
So players as well as coaches really need to learn more when they play.
Eight teams are scheduled to attend the three-week baseball clinic with the teams given two-hour session each.
Brown who watched last Sunday’s Little League games said he saw potentials among some of the young players.
He also noted the Saipan had already produced three players who are now pursuing their career in college. They are AJ Aldan, AJ Kintol and Jonathan Salas.
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