 Photo Credit - New York Daily News Professional baseball is back! Just not in the United States. The Chinese Professional Baseball League of Tawain has begun playing and is currently the "only game in town...or the world".
With one of the best responses to the COVID19 pandemic worldwide, the CPBL opened up games on April 12, 2020. As MLB still figures out its plan for a potential modified season, The Korea Baseball Organization and Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan are both looking to get their respective seasons going in early May. Ultimately, you can catch the action with streamed games for free on Twitch and Twitter. Coach Jared
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 With the cancellation of all 2020 Spring college sports, all ball players are being granted an additional year of eligibility. Essentially, everyone is getting a red-shirt year. According to the definition by wikipedia, "A Redshirt in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the four years of academic classes typically required to earn a bachelor's degree at an American college or university. However, in a redshirt year, student athletes may attend classes at the college or university, practice with an athletic team, and "suit up" (wear a team uniform) for play – but they may compete in only a limited number of games. Using this mechanism, a student athlete has at most five academic years to use the four years of eligibility, thus becoming what is termed a fifth-year senior."
The above ultimately boils down to conflict because incoming freshman in the fall of 2020 (current high school seniors as of April 2020) are not being granted an additional year to play in high school. As a result, there will be an unprecedented influx of ball players competing for the same playing time, scholarships and positions. One remedy the NCAA has done is to expand the roster size for Baseball. A normal size of the roster is 35 with only 11.17 scholarships. With additional roster spots, it only seems fair that a proportionate amount of scholarships should become readily available. This unfortunately is still out for debate. What are your thoughts on whether or not the NCAA should increase the number of scholarships for baseball teams. CLICK HERE to read the entire article from the NCAA website that explains how Spring sport athletes affected by the COVID19 situation will be granted an additional year of eligibility. Coach Jared  Are you tired of lugging all of your gear around ... even if it’s to the backyard or driveway 🤣. On a serious note, having a cart is an essential tool for any serious coach.
It will save countless trips back and forth to the car or storage and makes for a a quick move for all of your gear at once. Interested in getting one? To get yours CLICK HERE and visit #DicksSportingGoods button through our website. As an affiliate, we will get a small compensation and we thank you for your support. Coach Jared  April 15 marks one of the most important days in history for Major League Baseball. On this day in 1947, Jackie Robinson made his debut and more importantly became the first black ball player to play in the Major Leagues and break the sport's color barrier after decades of segregation. Before this, black ball players played in the Negro Leagues that featured teams like the Kansas City Monarchs & the Homestead Grays.
On the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson making history, 1997 marked the year that #42 would be retired for all 30 ball clubs and no new ball player would be able to wear that number. Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera was the last ball player to wear #42 after he retired in 2013. It wasn't until 2007, when the tradition of all ball players of all 30 teams wore #42 to honor Jackie Robinson. This tradition spawned from Hall-Of-Famer Ken Griffey Jr asking former MLB commissioner Bud Selig to wear #42 on April 15th. Although no ball games will be played on April 15th, 2020, Jackie Robinson's legacy will live on. CLICK HERE to check out the complete guide to 2020 Jackie Robinson Day: a feature from MLB. Coach Jared  The one hand wiffle ball catch drill is a variation of our two hand wiffle ball catch drill. This one requires more focus to create "soft hand". The focus of the ball player need to be on using his/her hand as a "basket" when catching the ball and use his/her finger tips more as opposed to his/her palm to catch the ball.
Another pro-tip when performing this drill is to have the ball player imagine that they have a laser or string coming directly out of their nose. They want to keep this laser/string on the ball from the time it leaves the throws hand until the ball is in the ball player's hand. Watch the entire drill video on the 5ive Tool Baseball YouTube Channel.  Photo Credit To www.Vivaelbirdos.com MLB is working around the clock to figure out if the 2020 season can be salvaged. This is of course when the green light is given to even step foot on the field. A new possibility brewing is to have all 30 teams play at their spring training home sites with no fans and create two divisions: The Cactus Division and the Grapefruit Division. Games would be played in Arizona and Florida respectively.
In addition, teams would be realigned to groups of 5 by geography. As a result, teams like the Padres & Mariners that share a complex would be in the same groups for example. CLICK HERE to read the entire article addressing the new division breakdowns and new potential rivalries. Leave a comment below with your thoughts. Coach Jared  The game of baseball boils down to mastering what we call the "5undamental 5ive" here at 5ive Tool Baseball:
CLICK HERE to watch a simple catching drill on the 5ive Tool Baseball YouTube Channel. During the drill, we use multi-colored wiffle balls to develop hand-eye coordination in a safe, fun and small environment. Shout out to @Rukket_Sports for developing this product. HERE is a direct link to their website for the Baseball Flight Control Balls we used during this drill.  Greetings everyone! Here at 5ive Tool Baseball, we recently started a YouTube Channel to post videos that focus on drills to develop skills and coaching tips. To help us help you and the youth baseball community, please subscribe to our channel below and share to 1 friend or colleague with the link below.
This will help us secure our YouTube domain name and make it easier for our videos to reach you and others who can benefit from our instruction. Thank you from Coach Jared and the 5ive Tool Team. 
The 2020 MLB season was looking grim for the Houston Astros amid their sign-stealing scandal, but all of that attention was put on pause with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. First spring training games were canceled, then opening day was pushed back and now the entire season is in limbo.
Despite the above, Astros star pitcher and 2019 American League Cy Young Winner Justin Verlander has shined a glimmer a positive light. On social media, Verlander and wife Kate Upton announced that they would be donating their weekly paycheck to a different charity that is in the fight against the pandemic.​
Ultimately, Verlander is setting a precedent for MLB players to help in a way that can save a number of lives.
 It looks like Grand Canyon state may be the temporary home to all 30 MLB teams to start the delayed 2020 Season. According to many news sources like this article from ESPN, MLB is seriously considering this plan. However, there are several questions that have to be addressed including:
As a baseball coach, fan and former professional player, I’m excited at the idea of watching ball games again! There are only so many highlights, reruns and memes the baseball community can handle. What are your thoughts on the idea of starting games without fans in Arizona? Leave a comment below and vote here. |
AuthorCoach Jared Eichelberger is a San Diego native who enjoys sharing baseball knowledge to help build awesome playing & coaching experiences for all. ArchivesCategories
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