The Triple Crown of Youth Baseball

I was inspired to write this book to help others avoid mistakes and improve their overall experiences. Through more than twenty-five years of playing, parenting, and coaching youth baseball, I have experienced a lot. With those experiences came joy, happiness, frustrations, heartache, and, best of all, memories. By sharing those experiences and the information I have obtained, I hope to help others create their own positive memories. The Triple Crown is an award given to a Major League Baseball player who leads his respective league in the three main offensive categories: batting average, home runs, and runs batted in (RBIs). This award is prestigious because it has only been accomplished seventeen times in Major League history, most recently in 2012, by Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers. Cabrera was the first to win the Triple Crown since 1967, when Carl Yastrzemski accomplished the feat. The reason I chose this title for my book was that, to me, the award and youth baseball are oddly similar. Like the Triple Crown award, I believe that there are three main components to youth baseball: players, parents, and coaches. When all three pieces come together and support one another you truly have something special. Almost every situation, player, parent, and coach is different, but the importance of the cohesiveness within the youth baseball's Triple Crown and its effect on athletic success is universal. Triple Crown will take you back through some of my most memorable baseball experiences, both good and bad. It will give players of all ages measurable goals, and strategies for attaining them, to ensure they are maximizing their potential. It will also suggest specific ways to improve all aspects of their game. Triple Crown is a guide to help parents navigate the journey and challenges their child may face as a player, from tee-ball to high school and beyond. I hope this book will give aspiring parents the tools to become a coach or an assistant at any level. It will also explain how to make baseball a rewarding and positive experience for your children even if you choose to be, as many of us are, their number-one fans. Triple Crown is a user's guide for beginning, intermediate, and even "seasoned veteran" coaches. It provides insight into what I learned, how I failed, and my growth through the years with my two sons playing Little League, Babe Ruth baseball, travel ball, all-stars, and high school baseball.