By LOU PAVLOVICH, JR.
Editor/Collegiate Baseball

OMAHA, Neb. — What is the best way to get baseball players to relax in high stress situations like the College World Series?

Over the past 70 years of this event, many unique and strange rituals have taken place in dugouts.

Perhaps the most creative and entertaining was what transpired at this year’s CWS.

Arizona’s reserves performed a type of ritualistic water dance usually in the fourth inning when special music was cued up in the press box just before the Wildcats were ready to hit.

Five or six players would start jumping up and down which would morph into players squeezing the life out of water bottles which shot water straight in the air and fell onto the dance group.

Their hands would  gyrate up and down to the beat of the music as they screamed for joy.

Watching the big smiles on the faces of the starters who were about to bat was a revelation since they were obviously focusing on what they were planning on doing in their next at bat during the most important games of the year.

This dance always broke the tension and relaxed these players instead of being focused robots who may or may not perform under extreme pressure.

As we saw Arizona hitters perform time and time again, we wondered if this technique, which had never been done before in the history of the College World Series, was something coaches should embrace in their programs during the season. The Wildcats had the most hits (63) in the College World Series and most runs scored (32). Time and again, Arizona hitters came through in the clutch as they finished second at the College World Series.

This amazing group of reserves also cheered loudly when Arizona did anything well and always squeezed water bottles as columns of water shot into the air. It was water world Wildcat style. They also adopted a Spiderman figurine for good luck in the dugout and sported rally mustaches.

While there are a number of old school coaches who obviously cringed when they saw the antics of Arizona players dancing in the dugout, we started thinking about whether similar techniques have been used by teams during the 70-year history of the College World Series. While not to this extreme, the answer is a resounding yes.

“My first reaction is that it was pure genius what Arizona players did,” said Tom Hanson, author of the best selling book Heads-Up Baseball: Playing The Game One Pitch At A Time with Ken Ravizza.

“All you have to do is look at the results they had.

“However, my first question with such antics is whether it is negative toward the other team or disrespectful and a form of taunting or ragging their opponents. If so, I would be against it. If it was all about their players, then it was great.

“The question is what works for an individual and a team? The challenge for every team is to play to a high level of performance with freedom and without interference. The formula for this success is performance equals potential minus interference.”

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OMAHA, Neb. — There were 262 strikeouts over 17 games at the 2016 College World Series, the fifth most in CWS history which dates back to 1947.

You would think pitchers would have more difficulty gripping balls with the adoption of the flat seam ball the past two seasons. But that hasn’t been the case.

Strikeouts per nine innings for each NCAA Division I team have dropped every season from 2009 (6.96) to 2014 (6.48).

But the past two years, strikeout numbers have spiked.

Strikeouts rose to 7.02 per nine innings in 2015 and 7.17 in 2016. Since statistical trends have been kept since 1970, only twice has the number gone over 7.00 which were in 1998 (7.07) and 1999 (7.12).

The 7.17 figure of 2016 is the highest strikeout numbers since these records have been tabulated.

To read more about the 2016 College World Series, which includes 4 photo pages, purchase the July 15, 2016 edition of Collegiate Baseball by CLICKING HERE.

By JOHN PINKMAN
Special To Collegiate Baseball

STERLING, Va. — Accuracy is everything in pitching.

So many of us spend long hours working with pitchers on their location. Every now and then (which seems to come more often sometimes), you become frustrated working with a pitcher who has great mechanics but just can’t seem to throw the ball where he wants.

First I video and analyze, shooting at about 1/2000 of a second. That will freeze the ball and allow me to focus down to the fingers. I also carefully watch the throwing motion, isolating my vision on a single aspect of the motion.

After years of looking at pitchers, I swear my eyes operate at 1/2000 as well; I just can’t freeze and reproduce the motion.

During those sessions I study basic mechanical actions that may be the cause of the problem.

Static and dynamic balance, core stabilization, stride leg angle and landing, and head and eyes level to the horizon are primary body factors that cause control difficulties.

Occasionally I, as I’m sure you do, sneak up behind a pitcher in a set position to see how he is holding the ball in his glove. Taking a quick look or asking him to suddenly show me the ball, has uncovered basic ball grip flaws.

I’ve learned never to assume a pitcher truly understands how to hold any pitch. Assured that he is holding the ball correctly, I retreat to the back of the bullpen mound.

One day my son Patrick and I were reviewing a tape of a pitcher who was having velocity and location problems. We were viewing a segment of tape that was shot from a camera directly over the pitcher’s head. To our surprise, and quite by accident, we discovered the exact cause of both problems.

As the pitcher pulled the ball out of his glove, his fingers moved on the ball. At the cocking position his thumb was completely off the ball! In order to do that the ball has to be held tightly against the knuckles.

Imagine throwing a change up without your thumb on the ball. The pitcher, who was sitting next to us, had no idea that this was happening.

The very next week we worked with another boy with worse location problems. I mean you weren’t safe standing behind him wearing a mask and holding a twin mattress! He was doing the same thing.

The grip in the glove was good, but like the other pitcher, again we found the thumb flying off the ball during the cocking phase. This shot is now a routine when we videotape our pitchers.

To read more of this story, purchase the July 15, 2016 edition of Collegiate Baseball by CLICKING HERE.