I have spoken with several ex professional baseball players and they all say that the college baseball season is much to long. These discussons forced me to put on my thinking cap. Players report to school in mid August and start conditioning, throwing & getting into the cages. Official practice begins and then most teams play intra squad games and a Fall World Series. This is followed by more conditioning, throwing and getting in the cages for a few swings. The XMAS holiday season hits and the players report back to school after New Years. A short Spring practice schedule takes place followed by the regular season schedule and maybe post season play. Before you can catch your breath the weather is nice and hot with the college Summer Leagues running the months of June, July & part of August. You look around and it's time for the Fall practices again and you wonder what happened to the time.
One MLB player told me if he were a college coach he world have the players workout with the strength & conditioning coach on M,W & F mornings and have some type of hitting & throwing program established on M,T,W & TR afternoons for about 90 minutes. He said that as a reward for the players working hard at both academics and during the workouts he would give them the weekends off to relax and be college kids. He felt that 6-10 intra squad games would be enough to determine who would contribute and what positions they would play during the regular season. This same individual claimed that if the players started to slip in the classroom or slack off during the workout he would have practice on Friday evenings and Saturday morning to get their attention. Another former MLB pitcher claimed that he would discourage the pitchers that had thrown alot of innings & the starting position players from playing in a college summer league. He felt that the arms should be rested and all of top contributors needed a break from baseball to recharge their batteries. Both men felt that the players should continue to workout during the summer but that everyone needs to get away from the game for a period of time.
Both men said that if you want to discipline a player for staying out past curfew, kicking it to hard and getting into trouble, etc... they would be invited to join the coach the next two weeks (including weekends)@ 5:00am for a 60 minute track practice. Knowing how much I hated to get out of bed early while in college I can see how a 5:00am extra workout would get someones attention.
My question is what is the opinion of this websites readers?
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