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Tips for Good Fielding When Pitching In BaseballPitchers and managers should pay a great deal of attention to the techniques of fielding the ball around the mound. After the ball leaves his hands, the pitcher becomes an infielder. Like the other infielders, he has a spot to go to on every play. The hardest thing for a young pitcher to learn is to go to his left on every ball hit to his left and to start immediately! Very often, the batter will hit a sharp bouncer between the first and second basemen. Both will try for it. This leaves 1st base open. It’s the pitcher’s job to get to 1st ahead of the runner and take the throw if the ball is fielded. He can’t possibly make it, however, unless he starts running to his left at the crack of the bat. If he’s not going to be involved in the play, on the other hand, all he has to do is stop. To cover the base, the pitcher runs as fast as he can for a spot near the foul line that is about 10 feet to the home plate side of 1st. When he gets near this spot, he turns left so he can run along the inside of the base line (not in the base line). After catching the ball, he looks down for the base, hits the 2nd base side of the sack with his right foot and springs toward 2nd, out of the way of the oncoming runner. With runners already on base, the pitcher, after tagging 1st, should quickly face the infield to keep them from advancing. The beginning pitcher has a difficult time remembering that his feet should be parallel after delivering the ball to the plate. This will enable him to move right, left or straight ahead to field batted balls. It will also make it easier for him to knock down or catch those line drives that come right at him! Sometime a big pitcher has this trouble: his pitching foot comes down ahead of his striding foot. When this happens, the striding foot should quickly be brought up even with the pitching foot. On a bunt with a runner on 1st, or on 3rd, the pitcher is responsible for everything in front of him that is out of reach of the catcher. With a runner on 2nd, he takes everything that is to his right of the imaginary line to the plate (first baseman takes everything on the left). These fielding areas are diagrammed in Chapter 14. A swinging hit to the pitcher’s box with a runner on 1st can get a pitcher in hot water if he always tries for the double play with less than two out. Unless it’s a hard smash, the pitcher should ignore the runner going to 2nd and concentrate on putting out the batter. (He has little chance of getting the runner going to 2nd and if he misses he will have runners on 1st and 2nd with less than two out, instead of a runner on 2nd with an additional out in the scorebook.) Pitchers should let the other infielders handle pop-ups in the area of the mound, and think only about covering an open base if necessary. Want Baseball Training Tips & Tricks? These Little-Known Secrets Will Have Your Youngster Hitting The Longest Yard Over The Boundary Fence!
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