Baseball Claustrofobia

The indoor facility where we're conducting our winter workouts.

Here's a great quote from Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby that I've always liked to reference, “People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.”

Those words were muttered nearly a century ago, and while the anxiety still exists amongst baseball players and coaches as they wait for winter to give way to warmer weather, the days of waiting around for spring to come have long since disappeared. Baseball, really from the time a player in America becomes involved in travel or AAU ball in middle school, has become a year-round sport, with winter hitting, pitching and conditioning workouts becoming increasingly important as players and teams look for any competitive edge they can possibly gain.

Things over here in Europe are no different. Most clubs will take some time around the holidays off, then crank things back up after the new year. This gives guys two months to get in shape, make adjustments and then fine tune before opening their seasons at the middle or end of March.

It all sounds great in theory, and in today's day and age in sports, offseason indoor training is common. But, I've got to tell you, I'm ready to get outside, see how hitters look against live pitching, how a pitcher reacts in real game situations, see what outfielders are able to read a fly ball off the bat. Like many baseball coaches, I've been conducting indoor clinics and practices since the early part of November, and I've got a severe case of claustrofobia at this point.

I liked my guys in Hungary and I'm enjoying getting to know my team here in Prague, but there's only so much we can do indoors before we start to get cabin fever, and it's a challenge for a player of any age to keep his concentration while working out in basketball court-sized indoor facilities. The same goes for coaches, who scramble to mix things up to avoid redundant workouts that allow Internet and XBOX-scarred players with short attention spans to lose focus and harm their development.

So, while we continue here in Eastern Europe to endure one of the coldest stretches of a winter in over 20 years with scattered snow storms hitting us for the past week (while my coaching friends back in the states continue to enjoy the mildest winter they've had in years, I might add), I continue to grow more and more anxious for spring to arrive.

In the meantime, we'll continue to work hard within the friendly confides of the indoor facility, and perhaps we'll have a few guys put together some seasons like Hornsby enjoyed all those years ago!