You can’t teach hitting from the dugout. You have to be there raging in the cage as hitters take their swings. You have to be able to quickly see what they are doing wrong and make adjustments on the spot. That is what Kevin Long has been doing for the New York Yankees as their hitting instructor and that is what he will be showing coaches at the “Be the Best You Are” clinic during his sessions Friday as a main speaker and during the Ultimate Rap sessions. Long will set up a batting cage and do live looks at hitters, showing you what to look for and how to make quick corrections to nagging problems that can affect hitters.
     In his third year as the Yankees' hitting coach, Long has developed a reputation as a go-to guy, and he credits his communication skills as a large reason for his early success. He keeps an array of stats and charts. One of them tracks "reaches," or how many times a hitter extends his hands from his body to reach for a ball. It's obviously a bad habit, one that can rob a hitter of power, among other debilitating side effects. He used those numbers to help Alex Rodriguez make adjustments last season. "We've got to get it compact, we've got to get it tight, we've got to get it explosive," Long said of Rodriguez's swing. The slugger made the adjustment and returned to form. Originally a 31st-round pick of the Royals in the 1989 First-Year Player Draft, Long's path to the big leagues changed after eight years as an outfielder in Kansas City's system. Making his professional coaching debut in 1997, Long managed one season and served as a hitting coach for four years in the Royals' system before jumping to become the Yankees' Triple-A hitting coach in 2004.

     PAT McMAHON
NY Yankees
 

   When you have been putting practice schedules together for more than a quarter-century you are sure to have ways and means to get any type of team ready in any kind of conditions. Pat McMahon has had a career that spanned all facets of the baseball arena, starting with the elemental and rudimentary. He has earned a reputation as a great evaluator of talent and as a motivator as a head coach at the college level.
     Now, he has taken those skills to the professional level where he not only managed the New York Yankees short season Class A squad in Staten Island to the best record in the league in 2008, but also showed his worth as a player development specialist. This year he was a traveling instructor as he served as a special assistant for player development and scouting, including time in the Dominican Republic helping with field instructions.
     After 15 years as an assistant coach for various high school and college teams, McMahon garnered his first head coaching position at Old Dominion in 1990. He went on to coach Mississippi State, where in 1998, he became only the second coach in South Eastern Conference history to guide a team to the College World Series in his first season in the league. He spent the last six seasons as the head coach at Florida where he took the Gators to the NCAA championship game in 2005. In 2001, McMahon became the head coach of the USA Baseball National Team, for which he received the organization’s National Coach of the Year award. He will be part of Thursday Night Thunder where he will have six sessions that will expand on different ways to drill and prepare practice sessions.

     Josh Paul completed his first season as manager of the Staten Island Yankees, the Short-Season Single-A team for the New York Yankees, in 2009. After being drafted in the second round in 1996, he played 13 seasons of professional baseball and caught for nine seasons in the Major Leagues with the Chicago White Sox, Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Paul played at Vanderbilt University from 1994 to 1996.
     He has written (and submitted for publication) a book about the mental game of catching, called The Tools of Intelligence. During his years as a Major League catcher, he interviewed many pitchers (Scott Kazmir, John Smoltz, Jamie Moyer), catchers (Sandy Alomar, Jr., Jason Varitek, Gary Carter), and coaches (Joe Girardi, Leo Mazzone, Bud Black) about the art of catching, and included their thoughts in his book. He gained most of his practical knowledge from Mike Scioscia, manager of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and Art Kusnyer, long-time catching coach for the Chicago White Sox.
     The White Sox selected Paul where he served as a back-up catcher in pro ball until Houston released him in 2008.
     In December 2008, Paul was named the manager of the Single-AYankees. Paul will explore all the ins and outs of catching – from the signs, setups and stance to the mental aspect of working with pitchers and calling a game – during his sessions at Thursday Night Thunder and the Rap sessions Friday.

  Rod Delmonico coached on the biggest platform of his life and fit in perfectly. Coaching the Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic where his team shocked the Dominican Republic and nearly upset Puerto Rico as they reached the second round. It was the first time he led a team with major or minor league prospects, taking the Dutch reins after years and years coaching and managing in the college ranks. Delmonico took over at Tennessee in 1990 and, in a span of 17 years, resurrected the Volunteers, leading the program to three College World Series appearances and earning national coach of the year honors in 1995.
     He spent a year as an assistant at Florida State after leaving the Vols before he took a job with Major League Baseball International in 2007. He spent 2007 teaching clinics in Europe, including some in the Netherlands. When he took over as the Dutch coach, he already had a good idea of what to expect from many of the Netherlands players - and those with Dutch connections - that he had on the roster. Delmonico's experience with double-elimination tournaments, the format used in NCAA and in the WBC came in handy. Delmonico's team was given one "get-out-of-jail free" loss, in this case a narrow loss to Puerto Rico, but bounced back to beat the Dominican again and punch it’s ticket to the second round.
     Delmonico will be a headliner among the Rap Session speakers. At Thursday Thunder he will implement drills to improve your offense while he’ll use the Rap Sessions Friday to improve the way you teach defense.

   Mike Gillespie continues to be one of the top collegiate coaches. In his second year at UC Irvine, he led the Anteaters into uncharitable territory. They were the consensus No. 1 team in the nation and made their fourth straight NCAA post-season appearance and hosted the regional championships. UC finished its season 45-15.
     Gillespie's return to the Division I college baseball coaching ranks can only be deemed a success. After managing the Staten Island Yankees in 2006-07, Gillespie returned to the collegiate game to take the reins of the UCI program in the fall of 2007 and promptly led the program to its fourth NCAA postseason appearance in five years. UC Irvine went 3-0 at the Nebraska regional to advance to the Baton Rouge Super Regional in Louisiana. Ending the season ranked 11th (Baseball America), the Anteaters recorded the second-highest number of wins in their Division I history at 42-18.
     Gillespie, one of the most successful Division I baseball coaches in NCAA history, will be inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Hall of Fame in January 2010. He is only one of two men (Arizona's Jerry Kindall is the other) to both play for and coach an NCAA-championship baseball team. He was the left fielder for USC's 1961 national championship squad and coached the 1998 team to the program's 12th title.
     In Friday’s main session Gillespie will explain how to go about setting a practice schedule to get the full benefit of drills. In Rap Sessions he will offer inside looks at a number of different drills to keep practice fresh and productive.

Itch Jones
University of Illinios
(retired)

    The magical tones of Itch Jones return to the “Be the Best You Are” clinic where he will once again romance us with tales from the baseball gods. Itch is one of them having left Illinois as one of the most decorated coaches in NCAA history. He ranks 13th on the NCAA Division I wins list with a 1,240-752-6 record and is ranked eighth among active coaches at the end of the 2005 campaign. His 39th and final season was one of his more memorable ones, as Illinois, just a year removed from a ninth place league finish, led the conference race wire-to-wire en route to the program's 28th Big Ten Championship. Jones was rewarded with his second Big Ten Coach of the Year award following the remarkable turnaround.
     Jones had his finest season as Illinois' head coach in 1998, leading his squad to a 42-21 record and the first regular season Big Ten Championship for Illinois in 35 years.
     "Itch Jones is a Hall of Fame coach and is still considered one of the premier teachers of baseball in the nation," said Illinois Director of Athletics Ron Guenther. "He has always been a team player and I'm thankful for the contribution he's made to the University of Illinois baseball program."
     Jones is a member of seven different Halls of Fame, including: the American Baseball Coaches Association, Southern Illinois University, MacMurray College, Illinois High School Association Baseball, Illinois High School Association Basketball, Jacksonville High School and Herrin High School Athletic Halls of Fame. Itch will be at center stage Saturday for two full sessions where he will show how to bring your hitters to new levels with a series of drills and techniques that served him well during his long coaching career.

   A seven-year Major League Baseball veteran, Andy Stankiewicz has now spent three years bringing a professional touch to the ASU program as an assistant coach. Stankiewicz joined ASU from the New York Yankees organization, where he spent four and a half years as a coach and scout. He was the Yankees southwest area scout prior to joining the Sun Devils.
     Stankiewicz joins the college ranks one year removed from a successful managerial stint in the Yankees minor league system. He spent 2004 and 2005 as the manager of the Staten Island Yankees, the class A affiliate of the New York Yankees. Stankiewicz led Staten Island to the 2005 NY-Penn League Championship in only his second year as a manager. Before managing Staten Island, Stankiewicz spent two seasons as the defensive coordinator and roving infield instructor for all the New York Yankees Minor League teams. He also spent one season as the hitting instructor for the Gulf Coast Yankees in the Rookie League. Stankiewicz was a standout infielder for the Pepperdine Waves from 1983-1986. In the 1986 draft, the New York Yankees selected him in the 12th round. He retired as a player following the 2001 professional season. As both a player and manager, Stankiewicz has been a member of five championship teams at the professional level.
     Stankiewicz will offer an array of hitting and fielding drills during Thursday Night Thunder and the Ultimate Rap sessions.

  The Yankees' pitching coach knows what it takes to build the ultimate pitcher and he will be showing exactly how to go about it at his Ultimate Rap sessions Friday. Eiland will go over everything from grips and delivery mechanics to throwing programs and how to read swings.
     Eiland, a football recruit at the University of Florida, had Tommy John surgery two consecutive years during his own playing career and is a former teammate of two of the pitchers he coached this season - Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera.
     He is also an organized, hard-working, tough-minded guy who understands delivery and pitch development and how to use those things to get hitters out, says Mark Newman, the Yanks' vice president for baseball operations. “There is so much information available today. He'll use it and create game plans for each pitcher. He's a teacher.’’
     Eiland served as the Yanks' Triple-A pitching coach where he helped in the development of Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes. In his own career, Eiland says, he was nothing like his young stars. “I didn't have an arm like Phil or Joba; I worked really hard to be mediocre,” Eiland says. “But I studied. When I lay my head on my pillow, I'm very satisfied, not so much with my record or my numbers, but I know I gave it everything I had every day.”
     Eiland was going to play baseball and football at Florida - he was a tight end who gained so much weight during summer weightlifting he was switched to fullback - but got hurt and concentrated on baseball. Pitchers can be thankful for that.

   Dewey Robinson, who has spent 13 years in the Astros organization and the last three as the pitching coach at the Major League level, has a well-defined game plan for all pitchers. 
     “For me, it's all about preparation and getting these guys prepared,” Robinson said when describing his job with Houston. “If they feel they can prepare for this situation that's coming up, they can do better with it. That's what happens. When guys fall into a role and do well with it, they're much better prepared.”
     Robinson has spent the previous two years as the club’s director of pitching development, working closely with Nolan Ryan in the coordination and oversight of the Astros pitching development program at all levels. Robinson also had professional and amateur scouting responsibility, including the evaluation of draft-eligible pitchers.
     The Astros Player Development Man of the Year in 1998, Robinson joined the Houston organization in 1997 after 10 seasons in the White Sox system. He served two seasons as the White Sox bullpen coach from 1993-94 and was also the pitching coach at Class APeninsula of the Carolina League in 1987 and Class ATampa in 1988. Robinson also served the White Sox as a minor league pitching coordinator. He coached at Northwestern (1982- 83) and Missouri (1984- 86) after finishing his pro career in 1982. He will bring his pitching philosophy to center stage in two full sessions Saturday.
     “You have to be very open-minded,” Robinson said. “The pitcher is the one who ultimately decides whether he wants to try it. They have to go out, believe in it, trust it and execute it.”