Catchers Equipment

Catchers equipment is crucial, we know that, but is it the right gear? Does it fit your player? I love catchers and love even more I am always looking for the next great baseball leader. Help your players on the road to leadership. The world needs them so very badly. Teach them. Coach them and please get them the right catchers equipment.

Your youth baseball player will have so much more success if you get the right youth catchers gear. Consider this- the position of catcher is the most demanding job on the field. Sure, you have to know how to play the position. How to suit up so that your catchers gear fits right. Get the chest protector right. Shin guards in position. You have to be in very good physical shape with quadriceps like a steel pipe. Bending, squatting and you need to be able to explode out of a catchers stance to meet any challenge. A good catcher can do all of these things, but the best catchers have something extra and every member of the team looks to the catcher for this special quality.

Leadership.

Leaders need high self esteem and self confidence. Their catchers equipment has to fit them so they are assured of every chance for success.

Who else, with a look or just a few words, can connect with a pitcher to center him or settle a case of fright? As a catcher you have to many more responsibilities than the physical requirements of the position. You need a good psychological profile and the ability to motivate people. You need to inspire and your attitude will become the team’s attitude. Many games will be won or lost on attitude and the ability to strive-to go one more step, to dive instead of quitting…nobody else on the field is in a better position to accept this role of leadership than the catcher. The catcher is, or should be, all over the field.

Sure, you have a coach, but the coach is in the dug out. The pitcher may not be present in every game, but the catcher will always be there.

Leadership is difficult to put into words. Sure, there are definitions and there is even a listing in the dictionary and there are coaches with theories, but I believe leadership is the ability to do what is necessary. This will cover many aspects of life as well as baseball.

Sports is played in the mind before a player ever steps onto the field of play. In our minds we conceive who we will be. We create the story, the situations, the extraordinary as well as the everyday. The problem is that leadership isn’t about the extraordinary. This is the mistake most people make. Looking for that wow moment.

The ability to lead is meshed in the everyday and it is seldom accomplished with words. Action is the key term here. The guy who always hustles. The player who never stops trying. The player who stays after practice and who is early to work on techniques. The player who studies longer and harder than anybody else.

Quit is not a word a leader uses, yet he or she can only set that standard for themselves. It is a personal responsibility to be all-to be everything in his or her abilities. The best leaders are not always the best players, but they are the people who soar high above everybody else with their unique refusal and inability to accept the ordinary. The mediocre just doesn’t fit. Like a shoe size too small, it doesn’t work with leaders.

If you want to be a leader both on and off the field, start with your own standards and examine them. Your actions will tell your story and people will notice and when people want to be like you, when their motivation to become better is inspired because of you, then you are on your way to leadership.

In baseball, the number 2 on the scorecard is the catcher, though many believe the rules should have been rewritten years ago. Catchers catch nearly every game while pitchers usually make an appearance every four days. Here are some my personal favorites and a few of the greatest catchers to ever play the game.

Joe Torre started for the Milwaukee Braves in 1960 and in his first at bat, singled to right field. that year he finished second in the Rookie of The Year voting. He was am All Star for the next five years playing both catcher and first base.  Though he might be known more as the Manager of the Yankees and Dodgers, Torre made the rounds having losing seasons  coaching with the Mets and the Cardinals. Even as he lost as a manager, he learned and his leadership abilities propelled him forward. He never quit. Even today.

Yogi Berra is everybody’s favorite catcher. He started his career in 1946 as a catcher for the New York Yankees. Though most remembered as a coach, Berra was an amazing catcher twice tagging hitters and base runners in urn assisted double plays. Later generations will know him for his famous Yogi-isms, one of which is my favorite.

“Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical.”

Johnny Bench played his entire career with the Cincinnati Reds. From 1968 -1983 he played in 2193 games and hit 389 home runs. He was an All Star 14 times and chosen MVP twice.  He is said to be able to throw 250 feet, twice the distance from the plate to second base–from a crouch.

Ivan Rodriguez was signed to a Minor League contract by the Texas Rangers in 1988 as a free agent. He soon proved he could play in the big leagues. “Pudge” as he was called, won a Gold Glove Award eight times as a catcher and was named to seven All Star teams. On the evening of his Major League debut against the Chicago White Socks, he married his wife in between the double header.