coaching

Pitch a lot is the message of this book. OK, Leo has made his point, but if you accept that there's not much else this book has to offer. I was hoping for a bit more insight and didn't get it here.

Don't let the refreshing lack of complexity fool you. This book provides sound, common sense advice in easy to understand language. Many books on pitching advocate a "cloning approach" to a pitcher's delivery. Other books on pitching drills are confusing and overly technical. As Leo puts it, "Why turn throwing a baseball into a science project?" I got away from attempting to perfect my son's wind-up and delivery after reading this book. As long as the delivery is sound, I really don't think it matters exactly where you break your hands, how far away from the body the hands are when they break, exactly where the glove hand is when this is happening, etc, etc. If you find that other books are confusing you, how confused do you think your youngster is? Give Leo's approach a try.

I cannot but help notice the two earlier reviews which completely pan this book. I cannot disagree more with them even though my own personal inclination still favors ultra-detailed and scientifically based stuff on the subject of pitching mechanics. This book comes as a breath of fresh air because it makes pitching into an 'elevated game of playing catch'. There is an outright refusal to enter into how to manipulate pitching mechanics in minute detail, in favor of laying down a couple of broad absolute pitching fundamentals and then allowing the pitcher the freedom to do what comes naturally dictate the rest. John Smoltz is quoted as saying something to the effect that before he was traded to the Braves, the Tiger's coaches had screwed around with his natural mechanics to his utter detriment and it is this sort of interventionalist thing that Manzone avoids.

Of course the book has passages in which it is written:

"Glavine does this, "What Maddux as he..." and "Smoltz is great when he..."

But these are just illustrations of how the Braves apply their highly controversial ideas on throwing/pitching daily as part of training/conditioning to specific pitchers and how these pitchers got the Brave's program to work for them.

Nor is that all. There is the almost predictable advocacy of the change-up pitch, used to such devastating effect by the top Brave's pitchers. Even on the subject of breaking pitches the minimalist philosophy shines through and the results are fascinating.

I can understand how some readers might feel short-changed by the 'less is more' philosophy but that would be to completely miss the whole point of this book. This is one of the most important books on the subject of pitching ever written and you would be damned a fool to overlook it.