Damage Control

By Bill Ripken

We’ve all seen it a thousand times in almost every sport. A player tries to make a spectacular individual play at the expense of the team.

In football it’s the cornerback who goes for the interception and turns a short gain into a touchdown for the opposing team. In basketball it’s the guard who goes for the steal at mid-court and gives the opponent a fast break.

In baseball, there are many situations in which a player tries to do too much and ends up turning an inning in which the opposing team might have scored one run into a big inning that costs his team the game. One of our main teaching philosophies is to keep it simple. Well, as coaches – especially youth coaches – that should be one of your game philosophies as well.

At the big league level, the most glaring instances of players turning a relatively harmless or routine play into a potentially devastating situation are when they attempt to record an out by making a difficult play and end up allowing the batter or baserunners to advance extra bases instead of making the smart and easy play.

This may be an outfielder trying to make a diving catch against the leadoff hitter late in a close game; the ball gets past him and the batter ends up on second or third instead of being held to a single. Another example would be an infielder trying to start a difficult double play instead of taking the sure out at first base; the ball ends up being thrown away, allowing both runners to advance into scoring position, or both runners just end up reaching base safely.

A less obvious situation arises when an outfielder tries to make a spectacular throw all the way to a base or to home plate in an attempt to cut down an advancing runner. Many times the throw either sails past the cutoff man, allowing the trail runners to advance, or the throw flies past the intended target, allowing runners to possibly advance even farther. This can set off a chain reaction in which the player receiving the throw or chasing down the errant throw makes an ill-advised, off-target, rushed throw of his own to another base in an attempt to stop a trail runner.

At the highest level, these types of plays seem to happen to the teams that either aren’t well-schooled or are just not very good. However, this type of decision-making can infect a good team that is in the midst of a losing streak. Players start to press and end up making poor decisions in an attempt to do something to help change the club’s fortunes.

A recent example from a major league team: A throw came in from the outfield to second base, and the ball got away from the player for whom it was intended. The runner at second took off for third, and the pitcher tried to be a hero by scooping up the ball and making an off-balance throw to third. He threw wildly and allowed the runner who was going to third to score.

If I’m managing that team and I have my ace on the mound, I want that pitcher to have the confidence in himself and his team to just pick up that ball and know that he can strike out the next batter or rely on his defense to help end the rally. Sometimes, especially in a close game, it’s better to cut your losses and just eat the ball instead of making an extra throw. One-run deficits are much easier to overcome than multi-run deficits, especially in the late innings.

Making the extra, unnecessary throw is something that is prevalent in youth baseball and often leads to big innings. For some reason, kids have trouble understanding that they don’t have the arm strength to pick up a baseball and throw it across the diamond in time to cut down a runner who is three steps away from the base. Again, one bad throw often can have a domino effect in which the ball ends up flying all over the field.

The theme that I want to drive home here is making the simple play – or sometimes even no play at all – as a means of damage control, especially at the youth and high school levels. The best way to drive this concept home to your team is by putting them in as many realistic game situations as possible in practice. This can be done through intra-squad scrimmages, but it is even better to create a more controlled environment in which you set up the game situation and hit the ball out of your hand. This allows you to control the situation so that it plays out exactly the way you want.

When a mistake is made during a game, it’s nearly impossible to pull everyone involved aside and make the correction at that point. There is too much emotion and excitement involved. Even if you get 30 seconds or a minute to explain yourself, there is no way that you can go over all of the options and ramifications of the play and have your team absorb everything that you are telling them. Try to make them understand how the play should have been handled in a brief conversation and then make a mental note to go over the situation in detail at the next practice.

In addition to keeping it simple, another of our philosophies is to explain why. It’s not enough to just tell a kid to hit the cutoff person or to throw to a certain base in a specific situation. You are much more likely to drive home your point and make an impact if you can tell the kid why he or she should do something. If a kid sees a runner heading home and thinks that he or she can be a hero by throwing that player out, the fielder is going to go for the glory and overshoot the cutoff person every time, unless he or she is aware that making that throw might allow the tying or go-ahead run to advance into scoring position. Knowing that a decision might cost the team the game increases the chances that a young player will execute the play properly.

Damage control. That’s how I want you to think. Teach your players to choose to make the simple or routine plays, to get outs, to hit the cutoff person, to avoid unnecessary throws and to throw to the proper bases in a variety of situations. Tell them to keep runners from advancing and trust their pitchers and teammates to get outs and keep the game within reason. Make them aware that one or two runs rarely win baseball games and that four or five run deficits can be devastating. Put them in game situations over and over and explain why they should handle those situations a particular way.

If you can stay out of the big inning and keep games close, you can do a lot more as a coach from an offensive standpoint to put pressure on the other team and give your team a better opportunity to be successful.