A classic movie channel has been showing “The Music Man” lately, the story of a con man who tries to sell the small town of River City down the river.
A pitching guru came to La Jolla recently, promising the 20 young hurlers arrayed before him that he would increase the speed of their pitches by six miles an hour by the end of his instructional clinic.
Was he a flim-flam man in the mold of Harold Hill, peddling mere stories, or could he deliver on what he promised his youthful audience?
Tom House, a former major league pitcher for nine years who has since made a decades-long career of coaching future Hall of Famers like Nolan Ryan, took his first subject at the afternoon clinic, Nick Hammel, a rising senior at La Jolla High.
“Shuffle, shuffle,” the 70-year-old instructed Hammel, as the 17-year-old went through his pitching motion, substituting a white handtowel for a baseball. House had him repeat the ersatz delivery twice, then led the young right-hander in stepping off how many feet his stride from the mound carried him.
A short while later, House, working with his third Viking varsity pitcher, turned to Gary Frank, head baseball coach at the high school: “A thousand repetitions in a month. They can get it.”
The savant’s mantra: Three miles per hour increase in pitch speed with improved mechanics, and three miles per hour in perceived additional speed with a longer stride – up to seven feet – from the rubber, for a total of six mph.
A release point closer to the plate as a result of the longer stride, the veteran pitching coach explained to his young charges, means the ball has to travel a shorter distance to hitters, who have less time to react.
Hammel, La Jolla’s number one this past spring until arm woes hit at midseason, Nick Ferenczy, and Dane Hansen, the three expected to be key members of the Vikings’ pitching corps next spring, all seemed to be buying what House was selling.
House, a personal friend of Frank and his father, Howard Frank, who represented him legally his last year playing in the majors, holds a doctorate in sports psychology from USIU (now Alliant University) and throws out phrases rapid-fire like “GFF, Go Friggin’ Fast” and “Keep your eyes level,” and talks of scapulars and “loose shoulders.”
It’s a dizzying array of data House has on pitchers – and quarterbacks, whom he also works with – and in his opening chat to the hurlers and their parents at his clinic, he said he wanted to focus on what would be useful in the limited time frame and minimize technical information that wouldn’t be beneficial.
Gary Frank got to serve as batboy for the Texas Rangers in games at Anaheim Stadium when House was their pitching coach in the 1980s. Both referred to the “hours and hours” of batting practice that House threw to Frank at LJHS’s field at Muirlands Middle School. House’s son played for La Jolla in the mid-90s.
Howard Frank shared the story with a reporter of House strategically staking out a place in the Atlanta Braves’ bullpen, when he was still a player, during Hank Aaron’s drive to break Babe Ruth’s home run record. “He knew exactly where Aaron hit his homers,” said Frank, “and he caught his 715th home run on the fly. He ran to home plate and gave the ball to Aaron. Aaron always appreciated that Tom never tried to sell the ball to him or anything like that.”
House, in his opening talk in the dugout, made some pointed remarks that were aimed at the players’ mental outlook as much as their pitching skills. “At this level,” he said, “you’re a commodity. Do you know what ‘commodity’ means? You’re a piece of meat, depending on how well you perform.”
“Which of your parents loves you more?” he asked. “Your mom. She’ll feed you, no matter how you’re doing in baseball. She cares for you as a person. When players win the Mercedes, they always give it to Mom, because of that. What does Dad do? When you’re going bad, he gives you that (arms crossed). ‘Hmm.’”
“Focus on the process, and you’ll never fear failure. How come there are so many players from the Dominican Republic in the major leagues? They have no fear of failure. They don’t know what it is. They are so happy to get off the rock, to have three square meals a day, that they are grateful just to be here.”
He often asked the young listeners to spit back what he just said. He checked a handful of players’ triceps versus biceps size. “You can only accelerate what you can decelerate,” he repeated, explaining that the ideal for pitchers is equal size of both muscles, the biceps as the accelerator for arm speed, the triceps the decelerator.
He backed his statements with statistics: “What is the most important part for a pitcher’s arm? The shoulder. Eighty-seven percent come back after Tommy John surgery. Only 23 percent come back from shoulder injuries.”
Cole Dimich, rising senior and quarterback on the Vikings’ football team, as well as the baseball team’s starting left fielder, came to the clinic and was told early on by House, “I’ll work with you later.” House has been the personal throwing coach for current NFL stars Tom Brady and Drew Brees, names the young players maybe could relate to better than names from the past like Nolan Ryan.
Other Vikings going through House’s exercises – which included carioca with arms raised the length of the field and back – included Garrett Brown, Frank’s starting catcher last season, Blaise Gimber, a JV starting pitcher, and Carsten Fehlan, a rising sophomore and pitcher who is the projected JV starting quarterback next season, among others.