We were the first hitting group of the day. We hadn’t hit well the weekend before and coach Gwynn was trying to find a way for us to hit.
He wanted us to hit the ball how we had been taught and trust our instincts. The first hitting group hadn’t executed as we wanted to and it wasn’t a good start to the practice.
Coach Gwynn, sitting right outside the cage on his stool. He was frustrated with us, telling us to hit the ball where it’s pitched, go with it, hit it fluidly and don’t think, just do it.
We still weren’t getting the concept of going the other way with the ball and coach finally said he’d had enough. “Let me show you how it’s not that hard,” he said.
Coach was in his 50s and hadn’t swung a bat out on the field from a live arm throwing to him in years. Cool and calm, he picked up his bat and asked to use my batting gloves.
That alone I was ecstatic knowing coach was using my gloves to swing, something every player had wished their idol, a legendary player would do. Sure enough, like vintage Gwynn, he took no practice swings, saw one ball thrown at him before taking the first swing in years and hit the ball right over the shortstop.
Perfect line drive.
Everyone stood still in awe of coach and just being able to witness something none of us had ever seen so close and so personal. He proceeded to hit the same spot in the grass on five consecutive swings. The next thing he wanted to show us was how to get inside of the ball and pull it, hit the ball where it’s pitched. It seems so simple yet it’s a difficult sport where failing is normal.
But for coach Gwynn, all it took was to see one pitch again and he turned on it. It was a perfect line drive over the second baseman and coach proceeded to walk out of the hitters’ cage.
All of us were still in shock of how easy it was to him, how he hadn’t swung in years and here he was putting the ball where he wants.
He walked out and said it was that easy if you just trust your hands and your work ethicIt was a memory that not many coaches can teach you, to actually execute what they are explaining to you to prove that it works. It was something extraordinary to see and jokingly he said he might make a comeback and laughed it off to ease the mood.
His aura around the field made you want to play the best you can because you wanted to give coach everything you had.
He was a soft spoken guy with a contagious laugh that you couldn’t help but realize, baseball is supposed to be fun, enjoy it.
