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thePeorian.com
A quest to join the “Club”
By Ken Brooke
T
he club I want to join is
closed to outsiders. It
has never heard of me.
It doesn’t care about me. This is
the story of my pursuit to join a
major league baseball club — to
teach and coach at the highest
possible level… or at least knock
on a few doors.
It was eight years ago when
I wanted to be the most knowl-
edgeable expert on the baseball
swing. I wanted to teach swing
mechanics at an elite level. I had
coached high school and college
baseball in the 1990s but I didn’t
consider myself an expert at
teaching hitting. I knew there was
more to be learned.
I began to read books and
study video of the best hitters in
major league baseball. I talked to
swing geeks on forums. I gave
hundreds of lessons to kids of
all ages. I filmed minor league
hitters and studied their flaws.
I even became acquainted with
Tampa Bay Rays player Ben
Zobrist. I worked several baseball
camps with Ben and learned that
his swing mechanics at one time
weren’t good enough for the
major leagues.
Only by a fortunate run-in at
a local batting cage with a swing
coach (he says similar to me) did
he realize he had swing flaws.
When he fixed these flaws, he
went from a journeyman big
leaguer to being selected to the
2009
American League All-Star
team.
Ben told me swing mechan-
ics instruction in professional
baseball was scarce. He said the
coaches were good hitters in
their day and they did a good job
teaching the big picture of hitting
(
approach, pitch selection, mental
aspect, etc.) but not mechanics.
After all, no pro coach noticed
his swing flaw until his chance
meeting with the guy at the bat-
ting cage.
As Ben and I continued to
work and teach together, he told
me that my knowledge of swing
mechanics was good enough to
help a major leaguer. I asked him
if he thought I could break into
to the professional ranks. He told
me that because I never played
professional baseball it would be
difficult to get anyone to listen to
me. He encouraged me to knock
on doors, but it was a closed club.
I began to wonder how many
other Ben Zobrists were out
there — guys with potential, yet
a swing flaw was holding them
back. Last summer I began to
video local minor leaguers and
noticed some of them had signifi-
cant swing flaws that I felt would
hold them back. I printed out
an analysis comparison of their
swings against major leaguer
swings and tried to meet them
before or after their games. A few
talked to me. None of them fol-
lowed up with me.
In May, I decided to take a
trip to the Cubs AAA park in
Des Moines, Iowa to do some
Personal Profile
Los Angelas Dodgers minor league hitting coordinator, Eric Owens teaches in front of the Pro-ball campers
