The O.G

It’s been a while since one of our Aussie college players put fingers to keyboard and gave us an update. Just as the Defensive Specialist was about to send out an all points bulletin (APB), our first ever post writer – Adam Gendall decided to submit an update. For those of you who have short-term memory loss, Adam is currently playing at Southeastern Community College located in the armpit of Iowa- Burlington. Lets’ check out what Adam’s been up to:


Dear old mate Defensive Specialist,


No one will argue this game is one of inches, a game that can eat you alive if you let it, or make you a hero if you work at it. I find myself in a respected junior college program with nothing to do but go to class and work on this infuriating game. “Its everyday” as we are constantly reminded - you can wake up in the morning and feel like a sack of shi*, but you still gotta strap it on and find a way to get something out of the day. This time of the year is big! Right around half-way mark of the season with a couple of conference weekends down (double dips Saturday and Sunday), one or two mid-week games and practice every other day. Mentally you begin to see men around you stand up or sh*t the bed.

I apologize for not writing more often, but I’m not going to sit here and make excuses – the Defensive Specialist gives me a hard enough time about it! I play for Southeastern CC in Iowa and we are sitting pretty well so far this season 22 – 8 after a shaky start to the season with the absence of our head coach for the first 15 games (he was suspended). We are poised now to step it up a notch.


What was I ranting on about at the start of the blog? Well lately I have noticed this game has a crazy way of humbling the bigheaded and rewarding the humble. If you were to talk to me only 2 weeks ago I’d tell you how legit I was that weekend when I managed to go 7 for 9 and felt almost unbeatable. During the week I found myself sitting on the pine because of a sore back. Tough to do when you know you’re swinging a hot stick. So the next weekend rolls around (one week ago) and it’s opening weekend for conference play. It was a big weekend for the team looking to get off to a good start to conference play with that little bit of extra hype in the air.


Oh how a hot stick can be struck down when it’s yielder has his head in the clouds - 1 for 10 on the weekend, time to check yourself! Next day I got in the cages and got to work! Where did I go wrong? Well I stunk it up against their lefty (as I am lefthanded) so a chat with the hitting coach and we get into a backwards short toss drill. This drill is designed so the hitter has nowhere to hit the ball except opposite field or else the ball tosser cops a ball in the face, which in turn has you swallowing a fist when he recovers. In addition the hitter gets to see the ball coming across the body, a big part of lefty - lefty at bats.


The next midweek game arrives and surprise surprise another lefty on the hill. Do I become a mental midget and worry about the 1 for 10 weekend? No, it’s time to work; 1 for 1 off the lefty but 0 for 3 off a couple of junk righties with an end result of 1 for 4 on the day- back to the drawing board. This year I am hitting in the 4 hole, something completely new to me but something that is challenging me to become a better all round hitter. I’m not smug in the 7 hole sitting cock shot fastballs every pitch anymore! We need a plan and an approach to off speed. A chat with the hitting coach about struggling to get the bat off my shoulder when I know a “get me over” curveball is coming and it’s in the wheelhouse. The only thing that can be done here is to do just that, get it off ya shoulder!


I was fed with BP breaking balls for the rest of the week. The idea was stay within myself and above all stay on the pitch! The problem seemed to lie in me giving up on the breaking ball even though I knew it was coming. The plan was to see the ball all the way and stay through the pitch as much as possible. Not worrying so much about being fooled out front, provided I kept my hands back long enough. If I could do this, I could still stay back and drive offspeed.

Which brings me to this weekend, the 2nd conference match-up for the season. It’s been only 2 weeks and I’ve gone from hot to not, worked my arse off however and felt like I could get my head down and rack up a couple right here! First 2 at bats of game one: strike out; strike out (“seriously, this game will be the death of me!”). Normally this would ruin me, but if one part of the game is struggling, step up the other part. Next inning on defense (I play first); 2 outs runners on 2nd and 3rd, ball in between 1st and 2nd I laid out to make an inning ending play saving possibly 2 runs. Next at bat base hit to left threw 5.5 hole. “Respect the game, and it respects you back, I guess”. 1 for 3 - bring on game 2.


Doesn’t starting games with 1st ab hit get ya sox off? Especially when it was with 2 strikes and a change piece I was able to show off the week’s work and stay with it to drive back up the middle. A HBP next at bat, then a fist in the arse 3rd ab from the blue with a fastball inside with two strikes. Last ab of the day, one thing you must never do is waste an ab! Up 8-1 in the bottom 6th runners on 1st n 2nd, I get down quickly 0-2 in the ab, easy would be to waste the ab but I watch two off-speed pitches that missed, then a third left up that I turned on. Walk off 10 run rule and so the game has rewarded me, who would have thunk it!

 

Day 2, Game 3: after an overall successful day yesterday it was important that I stayed fully locked in and take advantage of hot form. That I did with a 3-3 game 3, and next was game 4 of the series. Which brings me to my next point of finishing a team that is down and out of a series in game 4. Easier said than done, but it is crucial. The opposition are trying their best to salvage some sort of pride and all you want to do is strangle the team you have dominated all weekend. In this situation we had mercy ruled them 3 times and we started off rolling as we had all weekend with our starter consistently challenging up and doing work. So its 5-1 going into the 7th. Our starter gives up a lead-off double and the coach decides to give the ball to the closer who hadn’t thrown all weekend until now. Walk the bags loaded, couple of knocks and before you know it we’re down 5-7, blink and you could miss it kind of stuff. Deflating if nothing else, as the now full of confidence bad guys go out and shut it down in the 7th.


Impossible to feel content with that kind of ending to an almost flawless weekend, but that’s the game we love. Adversity needs to be dealt with in the right way, strap it on tomorrow and get ya work in. The best thing about this time of the year is it’s only a couple of days before you’re between the lines again, out to kick someone’s arse.




Jesus Adam! Way to get verbose on the Defensive Specialist. Another great effort and many thanks for taking the time to talk about your approach and your series. It’s always intriguing to hear about young hitters finally starting to figure out their swing and approach at the plate. Good luck for the remainder of your season.


Right, the Defensive Specialist will be on location next week – live and exclusive from Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park and Citi Field. If the Defensive Specialist can break away from defensive fundamental drills with Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriquez, he may be able to blog about the experience!