Pitching and hitting lessons focus of off-time ball player
It’s just a 2,000-square-foot concrete building located on South
Street in Hollister but Daniel Barone hopes to make it a field of
dreams for area youth.
Pitching and hitting lessons focus of off-time ball player
It’s just a 2,000-square-foot concrete building located on South Street in Hollister but Daniel Barone hopes to make it a field of dreams for area youth.
On Nov. 5, the 24-year-old right-handed major league prospect, who pitches in the Florida Marlins organization, decided to open the facility to teach kids the proper fundamentals and techniques for both pitching and hitting.
“I just love baseball and want to be around it 24 hours a day,” said Barone, who doesn’t have to report back to the Marlins spring training camp until February. “I love working with kids to help them progress. It’s so nice to see them improve. And since I’m back home for a few months, I thought this would be a fun thing to do.”
Since word has trickled out into the community that the Double-A minor league pitcher for the Carolina Mudcats is offering to give one-on-one instruction to anyone ranging in age from 6 years to adulthood, Barone has seen his business steadily grow in a short time.
While Barone handles the pitching lessons, his close friend and former teammate at San Benito High, Kalev Betancourt, himself a standout player at the college level and current assistant baseball coach at Monterey Peninsula College, handles the hitting lessons.
During his lessons, Barone walks his students through a typical workout routine that he would do at the professional level. His goal is to make “pitching as easy as possible.”
“I’m not trying to change anyone since everyone is different. What I do is show them the various check points that you go through before releasing the ball,” he said. “The important thing is fundamentals and consistency. It’s also important to use the lower body (legs) so that you can pitch for years without hurting your arm and needing surgery.”
An 11th round draft pick in 2004 by the Florida Marlins, Barone has rapidly moved his way up through the pitching ranks in the past year.
Barone started the 2006 season with the Greensboro Grasshoppers (Low-A) squad. By May, Barone’s impressive starts with the Grasshoppers along with his 2.69 ERA helped move the 6-foot-2 fireballer to the Jupiter Hammerheads high-A team where he did a four-month stint and posted a 3.50 ERA before being called up to the Carolina Mudcats (AA team) in August.
In his two starts with the Mudcats before the season came to a close, Barone got in 20 innings of work, posting an ERA of 1.80 and a record of 1-0.
Since day one he has impressed the minor league coaches courtesy of his ability to “paint” the corners with his exceptional location and his 93-mph fastball, which he calls his bread and butter pitch.
The Mudcats media guide also points out his solid changeup and slider. The guide mentions that the promising prospect should start out in Carolina in 2007, “before possibly seeing major league action some time this year.”
If that comes true, it’s a dream that Barone has held near and dear to his heart ever since he first learned the fundamentals of the game as a small child from his grandfather Dick Barone, who played in the major leagues in the 1950s.
“If you work hard enough, you can do whatever you want to do,” Barone said. “It’s been a lot of hard work. But even if I don’t get to the big leagues, I wouldn’t take the experience back for anything.”
Barone hopes to encourage other kids to pursue their baseball dreams and show them that with a lot of hard work and determination that they too can make it one day.
“There’s just so much baseball talent down here,” Barone said. “I’d really like to put Hollister on the map. There are so many guys that I played with growing up that had enough talent to still be playing now. Hopefully, I can help these kids out and teach them to pursue their dreams. My goal is to make it to the majors, but whether I make it to the majors or not, I will still do this. It’s really important to help the kids.”
And help them he has.
In just a few lessons with one particular student Barone’s emphasis on proper leg work and the use of the big muscles in the lower body has helped increase the student’s velocity by roughly 5 mph.
But Barone also points out that speed isn’t everything.
“We have guys in the Marlins organization that barely throw 85 mph, but they’ve been successful because they can put it where they want. I used to blow fastballs right by people at the lower levels, but I can’t always do that now because there are some pretty good hitters up here. You need to be able to paint that fastball and throw it for a strike on any part of the plate. And that’s one of the things that I teach,” Barone said. “It’s not about velocity. It’s about consistency.”
Inside Barone’s facility there is an area for working out, a pitching area that includes both a dirt mound and Astroturf and a batting cage to work on a number of hitting drills.
Lessons cost $35 for a half hour and $60 for an hour. Gift certificates are also available. To book a lesson or to obtain additional information, Daniel Barone can be reached at 831-801-1922.
