By PERRY HUSBAND
Special To Collegiate Baseball

LOS ANGELES — Pitch Design was not the primary purpose behind the research that led to the discovery of Effective Velocity. 

There were other reasons I spent a decade testing hitters. 

I wanted to find out exactly what they could see and react to.

More importantly, what they could not see and could not react to. 

The original purpose of Effective Velocity testing was to help hitters level the playing field. It was a hitting tool. 

Pitchers have always had the edge because they know what they’re going to throw, and hitters must wait and react. 

My goal was to learn everything possible about how hitters could see pitches better, react quicker or whatever the data suggested was the right path. 

I assumed that it was possible to get quick enough at pitch recognition to overcome the huge speed differentials elite level pitchers could throw.  

I also assumed that elite level pitchers were using their tools at maximum efficiency and deception. 

I was shocked to find out pitchers were really at a low level of understanding, and it was simply that hitters were playing checkers, while they were playing low level chess.  

Pitchers had huge advantages, and they were still dominating hitters who were Yellow Belts. 

It was also surprising to find out that hitters were extremely limited in their ability to see, identify, and react to pitches beyond 5-6 MPH differentials when the pitches are coming out of an Ev Tunnel. 

An Ev Tunnel is when two or more pitches share both a horizontal and vertical plane for at least 1/3 of the pitch flight to the plate, or about 18 feet or more. 

The idea that a hitter can react quick enough to see a pitch, identify it, and then have time to hit it at 100% is nonsense. 

Pitch Design was born out of digesting all the facts and physics and then realizing, if pitchers only knew the severe limitations of hitters, they would go about things very differently.

Once you know the parameters of how hitters react, it drives the logical conclusions to the best pitching strategies. 

Until hitters begin to train in a completely new way, they will always be in a reactionary mindset that forces their swings to be compromised to adjust to poor timing.   

Reactionary, Visual Testing
Hitter’s Attention is very real and extremely predictable. Hitters are drawn to the middle of the two speeds they see the most.

In other words, if hitters see 90 MPH and 80 MPH, they tend strongly to go to the middle at about 85-87 MPH and try to adjust up and down to the faster and slower speeds. The initial Inside Edge Ev study showed that BA, Slugging %, HR%  all peaked at one speed, 90 EvMPH.

Hitters Have A 6 EvMPH Speed Bubble. Hitters had about 5-6 MPH that they performed best within, a speed bubble surrounding the peak of 92.5 EvMPH (90 EvMPH in 2004).

Pitch Tunnels Delay Recognition. Hitters recognize pitch direction right out of the hand but are delayed in seeing spin and speed.

This means that pitches disguised in a pitch tunnel will severely lower hard-hit balls. Testing backed that up.

When hitters faced three pitches with 10 MPH between them, but all came out of the same Ev Pitch Tunnel, the hard-hit balls were super rare.   

Testing showed hitters perform best within 6 MPH, but everyone in the analytics world has misinterpreted this finding to mean that hitters can only hit pitches within 6 MPH. 

That’s not at all what that means. 

To read more of this in-depth article, purchase the Feb. 24, 2023 issue of Collegiate Baseball or subscribe by CLICKING HERE. Read about Black Belt Hitting and how it is accomplished, why certain stats such as swing and miss percentage, well hit average, batting average and home run percentage can reach their highest or lowest peaks at certain speeds with different hitters and pitchers. Also read about EV Freeze Pitches, Strike and Pressure Pitches and much more.

By LOU PAVLOVICH, JR
Editor/Collegiate Baseball

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Accountability. It is the defining word that any athlete or coach will be judged in life.

One of the most powerful presentations ever on this subject took place at the American Baseball Coaches Association Convention last January in Nashville.

Sam Cila, a retired Staff Sergeant with U.S. Army, served with the First Calvary Division out of Fort Hood, Tex. and worked in Special Operations as a sniper in 2004 and 2005 during the second Persian Gulf War. 

He nearly died after being seriously wounded by an improvised explosive device (IED).

“On July 4, 2005, my teammates and I were caught in an ambush,” said Cila.

“After the explosion, I lost most of my left arm. The brachial artery was severed one half inch from my heart and took severe shrapnel wounds in my left eye. I also took a bullet in my left leg.

“I went through over 50 surgeries over the years to correct the damage.

“Ultimately in 2008, I elected to have my left hand amputated (3 ½ years after he was seriously hurt).”

His life was saved by the quick reactions of his platoon medic who stabilized his wounds and evacuated him for additional care.

He received awards for Valor in Combat as well as a Purple Heart.

The physical torture this national hero went through during this difficult time took a back seat during his presentation at the ABCA Convention.

Instead, he painted a picture of why he failed on too many occasions as a young man and wanted to share his story with over 7,000 coaches in attendance.

“I learned about accountability when I struggled to take 100 percent responsibility in life as I failed forward.

“Sept. 11, 2001, I was working as a correctional officer in Suffolk County, N.Y. I had been at this job for 4-5 years. That particular day, I was scheduled to fly out to Las Vegas later in the afternoon with my girlfriend, who is currently my wife, for Bike Week. 

“That morning I woke up, had breakfast and prepared myself for the day and went off to the gym to get my workout in.

“That day and every day prior to that, I was only concerned about me and what was happening in my world.

“I was honestly self-centered. Nothing outside of that mattered to me. When I got to the gym that morning, it was empty which was really odd. I saw television monitors with breaking news. All of them were showing the same sort of reports. I never really picked my head up to see what it really was because, I am embarrassed to say, I didn’t really care. It was the start of my vacation, plans were set, and I was ready to go to Las Vegas.

“Nothing registered to me about what was happening other than hearing a few words about a plane crashing into a building. I thought some idiot crashed a plane into a building. I finished my workout and walked back to my apartment.

“I walk in the door and press my answering machine so it goes on. The two messages played. The first was that my vacation was cancelled, and I had to report for emergency services immediately.

“All I could think about was that my world was being impacted, and I was upset about it. I was mad and pissed off. It was unfair. Why is this happening to me, and why do I have to go back to work?

To read more of this article, purchase the Feb. 24, 2023 edition of Collegiate Baseball or subscribe by CLICKING HERE. Cila explains how he nearly died during an ambush in the Persian Gulf War, how he nearly died a second time when he was given a double dose of morphine for pain by accident from a nurse, how his personal life turned into a disaster at home and then how his life was turned around as he became a world-class athlete and not a victim any more.

By LOU PAVLOVICH, JR.
Editor/Collegiate Baseball

RAIFORD, Fla. — In the history of college baseball, plenty of wild moments have taken place.

But few can top what Coach Jay Bergman orchestrated during the early 1970s when he was coaching at Seminole (Fla.) Community College and later at the University of Florida in 1981.

For approximately 50 games over this period of time, he took his college baseball teams to play games against Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, Fla. which housed on of the most famous maximum security units in the nation.

“When I was at Seminole, we would play the prison team about 10 times each summer for about five years in the late 60s and early 70s,” said Bergman.

“Our team was paid $100 a game to play the inmates, and each summer we raised about $1,000. The money came in handy to help the baseball program.”

Bergman said the experience was one he will always remember.

“There was barbed wire all around the complex. When you walked through the prison gates, it slammed shut and gave you a chilling feeling. You were surrounded at all times with guards.

The possibility of a riot was never mentioned by the guards, but you couldn’t stop thinking about it.

“When we got out to the field, guards were in the dugouts with rifles. You never forgot where you were.”

Bergman said his kids were wide-eyed when they made their first trek through the gates and saw hardened criminals for the first time ― some being huge physical specimens.

“My kids were probably a little intimidated at the surroundings and the inmates. All of us were frisked and went through metal detectors. My kids weren’t sure how hard the prisoners would play the game.”

Bergman said a number of quality athletes were among the inmate team.

“The prison ball club was a tough, tough group of men. They would slide extremely hard into second base as well as other bases and vent their anger and emotion through the game. Our middle infielders had to be prepared for guys sliding hard into them. All of the inmates wore steel cleats.

“When our batters stepped to the plate, you definitely didn’t dig in because pitches would come high and inside to keep our hitters off the plate. It was definitely no walk in the park. Some of the bigger prisoners definitely tried to bully our kids. It was a unique experience for our ball players, many of whom had just graduated high school.”

Bergman said one game resulted in the death of the prisoner’s third base coach due to a heart attack.

To read more of this story, purchase the Feb. 10, 2023 issue of Collegiate Baseball or subscribe by CLICKING HERE.

The NCAA rule book definition of the strike zone should be blown up. It simply doesn’t work and never has.

The NCAA rule book explanation of a strike zone is, “The area over home plate from the bottom of the kneecaps to the midpoint between the top of the shoulders and top of the uniform pants. The strike zone shall be determined from the batter’s stance as the batter is prepared to swing at a pitched ball.”

The rule book strike zone is ridiculous because it is not called consistently by umpires, and pitching coaches, hitting coaches, head coaches and players all complain about the zone if it is called according to the book (especially the high strike).

Umpires will call every rule in the book with precision EXCEPT the strike zone.

Because coaches complain, many umpires call the top of the strike zone closer to the waist. Some umpires have large strike zones while others the size of a dime which results in numerous walks.

To be honest, strike zones are all over the map and not consistent.

The width of the zone is fascinating. Home plate is 17 inches wide. But the actual width of the strike zone is 23 inches.

Keep in mind the diameter of a ball is about three inches. If the edge of the baseball touches the outside edge of the strike zone as well as the inside edge, you can add about six inches to the width of the zone.

Any part of the baseball that touches the inside or outside edge of the strike zone is a strike.

Yet you never want to see umpires calling strikes beyond the 23-inch width which wouldn’t be fair to hitters.

During the NCAA Baseball Rules Meeting for coaches at the recent ABCA Convention in Nashville, George Drouches, NCAA Coordinator of Umpires, said the overall NCAA Incident/Ejection/Suspension Reports increased 6 percent in 2022 from 2021.

He stated that in 2022, 45 percent of the NCAA Div. I baseball Incident/Ejection/Suspension Reports filled out were specifically related to ball/strike ejection reports indicating a formal warning had been issued prior to the ejection.

Collegiate Baseball has a simple solution. Simply survey all coaches on the collegiate levels (NCAA, NAIA, NJCAA, California JCs and Northwest JCs) since they all use NCAA rules and find out what strike zone would be fair for coaches in the game.

Umpires must be part of this as well so they get their say on the strike zone. Then you will have a realistic strike zone everyone can live with. That must be put in the rule book and enforced with consistency.

We can guarantee you that the number of complaints by coaches will be reduced substantially and ejections which ultimately take place.

There are several other areas to address concerning the strike zone in the rule book for clarification.

Why are pitches that touch the outside corner of the plate, and within the top and bottom points of the strike zone, not called strikes consistently by home plate umpires?

There are a number of reasons for this phenomenon. First, the home plate umpire has been trained to set up in the slot between the catcher and batter which gives the arbiter a great look at inside and down the middle pitches but not outside corner pitches.

Some catchers set up too far behind home plate which can turn strikes into balls. Sometimes umpires set up too far behind the catcher which exacerbates precision strike calls even more.

All of these areas must be addressed in the rule book to have strike zone that is called consistently.

More thought-provoking articles like this are in the Feb. 10, 2023 edition of Collegiate Baseball. To purchase this issue or subscribe, CLICK HERE.

By LOU PAVLOVICH, JR.
Editor/Collegiate Baseball

HILDALE, Utah. — Imagine not being able to play baseball, or any sport, for over 100 years simply because of religious convictions.

That was the reality in the small community of Hildale, Utah where baseball didn’t exist until now.

Thanks to the efforts of Score International, Water Canyon High School played its first varsity baseball season in 2022.

A brief history lesson is vital to this story in order to understand why baseball and other sports were not played for over a century in this area of the country.

A small community on the border of Utah and Arizona practiced the beliefs of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS Church).

These people were excommunicated from the Mormon Church largely because of their refusal to abandon the practice of men having multiple wives.

Polygamy is illegal in all 50 states, but it was considered the highest degree of salvation for men in the FLDS community.

In 2002, Warren Jeffs became the leader of the FLDS Church and was treated as a prophet by its members as were previous leaders.

He reportedly accumulated 78 wives, including 24 under age. CNN reported that he had over 60 children.

Jeffs ruled with an iron fist.

He didn’t allow sports to be played and prohibited dogs, toys, television, newspapers, the internet, birthdays, Christmas celebrations, festivals, parades, camping and fishing.

He ordered women to wear specific dresses which were limited to solid pastel colors of blue, yellow, pink and white. They also were forced to make their hair in French braids that took hours to finish. He kicked out hundreds of boys from the FLDS but kept virtually all young girls.

All businesses and properties in the FLDS community were taken over by Jeffs which brought in millions a month.

Boys and young men were made to work extremely hard before the legal working age. In 2015, the U.S. Department of Labor assessed fines which totaled $1.96 million against members of the FLDS Church for illegally using underage kids in the workforce.

For many years, men in this polygamist sect were never prosecuted in Utah for having multiple wives. Politicians stayed away from the issue as well.

Women were treated as property and similar to cattle as a commodity.

People believed that the highest degree in the celestial Kingdom was when men had three or more wives.

Jeffs was the only person who could choose wives for males in this cult.

Every evening before families went to bed, multiple wives would line up single file to kiss their husband good night one-by-one. One lucky lady would be able to sleep with her husband each night.

Ultimately Jeffs’ downfall came when Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard clamped down on his polygamist lifestyle and was ready to prosecute him.

Jeffs went on the run and was arrested Aug. 28, 2006 in Las Vegas and extradited to Utah where he was convicted as an accomplice to two rape charges and served a 10-year sentence.

He ultimately had a massive 4-story complex built near Eldorado, Tex. which he called Yearning For Zion Ranch. Young girls were taken from their parents in Utah and driven to this complex.

On the outside, it was a beautiful white temple. But inside, numerous sex crimes were committed against underage women as 416 young girls were taken away after police raided the complex with many girls being under the age of 14.

Jeffs was then convicted of raping a 12-year-old in 2011 as he was sentenced to life in prison in Texas.

Shortly after that, Utah courts removed Jeffs and other trustees of the FLDS Church from the UEP Trust which oversaw properties in the Hildale, Utah area with a county assessed value of $110 million, according to Jeff Barlow, executive director of the UEP Trust.

The $110 million valuation of properties Jeffs controlled had a much higher market value estimated at over $300 million, according to several people Collegiate Baseball interviewed.

To read more of this story, purchase the Feb. 10, 2023 edition of Collegiate Baseball or subscribe by CLICKING HERE. The rest of the story explains how baseball was introduced to the small community of Hildale, Utah with the help of Score International last year as they helped kids who had never played the game before. It also focuses on an amazing coach named John Zeller who drove 2,254 miles from Florida to help kids learn the game at Water Canyon H.S. despite suffering from bone cancer.

By LOU PAVLOVICH, JR.
Editor/Collegiate Baseball

ROSWELL, N.M. — It’s not uncommon for college baseball teams to get a player or two from outside the United States.

New Mexico Military Institute’s baseball team, under the leadership of Chris Cook, has taken international recruiting to an entirely new level.

This season alone, 18 foreign players out of 35 total athletes are citizens of other countries. It is highest amount of international players he has ever brought in

They come from South Korea, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Panama, Japan, Guatemala, Cuba and Venezuela. Now in his 11^th season with the Broncos, he has landed 33 international players over the past three years.

The irony of all this is that New Mexico Military Institute is a junior college that is located in Roswell, N.M. — the undisputed alien capital of the world.

Last year marked the 75^th anniversary where an extraterrestrial spacecraft crashed in the New Mexico desert near Roswell with debris and possibly alien bodies that were recovered by the U.S. government, which was allegedly covered up.

Millions of people make the pilgrimage to Roswell each year from across the world to see the International UFO Museum & Research Center and other attractions in this city.

You haven’t lived life to its fullest until you have seen the McDonalds in Roswell which is the shape of a crashed alien spacecraft. Across the parking lot at Dunkin Donuts is a green colored alien 50 feet high.

But that’s a story for another day.

Our focus is on New Mexico Military Institute and the amazing job Chris Cook has done.

“It’s pretty crazy how our program has evolved into bringing in so many international players,” said Cook.

“Some of it was by design and several were very random.

“I have one New Mexico high school player who is from Cuba and actually a Texas and Arizona player both from Mexico who I don’t really even count in the numbers.

“I ended up with the Guatemala player by accident. He was planning to attend our school on his own and happened to play catcher. We needed some depth at that position.

“Several of the Latin American players were recruited through a prep school in Pennsylvania while a couple of others came from random contacts that reached out to many programs across the USA.

“The Korean kids have been a recruiting push for me since the Fall of 2020 which was right after the COVID-19 spring. We couldn’t recruit and couldn’t even leave campus for a long time due to state restrictions.

“So I ended up bumping into an online showcase in Korea. After signing a couple of these players, I actually went to Korea the next two falls and picked up several more.

“The same sort of thing happened with a Japanese player I have. I saw him online after his college placement company in Japan posted videos on their senior players.

“We have a strong international admission’s program, and they do a great job of supporting our international recruiting efforts.”

To read more of this story, purchase the Feb. 10, 2023 edition of Collegiate Baseball or subscribe by CLICKING HERE. Cook explains how he started recruited international players and why it has turned into a recruiting bonanza. In addition, he explains how players from the Orient and Latin America have taught him to be a better coach by adjusting his coaching style.