I’m Anthony Mendez. My son’s name is Michael. He’s the too cool for school (just kidding – stay in school, kids) pitcher on the home page. He’s ten, plays travel ball, and has only been playing baseball since 2018. Let’s start about a year before that.
In the Summer of 2017, I moved my family from Englewood, New Jersey, to Los Angeles, California. Shortly after, in the Spring of 2018, my wife and I decided that Michael had to get involved in baseball (emphasis on “had to”). We’re of Dominican descent, so if you know anything about the Dominican Republic you know baseball is like religion. There’s Catholicism then baseball a close second. If you have any Dominican blood, it’s expected. You play baseball. Period. But I didn’t. Not exactly.
I was in awe every Summer we visited DR, but I didn’t have that drive growing up in New York City. I focused on hanging on the block and played stickball instead. But back to Michael.
In the Spring of 2018, we dragged Michael, then 8 years old, to our local Little League in Northridge, California (shoutout to NCLL). He was not happy to be there. The season had already started, and Michael tends to shy away from joining groups that have already formed. Some of the parents there told us that Spring ball is much more competitive, and we should instead wait for the Fall considering he’d never played before (I know, I let down our ancestors).
In the Fall of 2018, Michael flourished! He showed an inclination to learn the game, had a supportive coach, and fell in love with the game! He would come home (win or lose) and want to hit off the tee, play catch, and review MLB highlights of games. He even hit a homer in the final game of the season (sure it was a Little League homer, but what fun!) Bring it on, Spring!
During the Winter break, I had started to study the mechanics of hitting by diving deep into research papers, Driveline Baseball videos, and bought into the Blast Motion system, devouring all of their metrics information. Now here was something I could really get behind – data (I’m not afraid to admit – I’m a much better nerd than I ever was an athlete. Sorry again, ancestors).
Armed with Blast, I could now laser focus on where he needed to improve and what aspect of his swing to leave alone or reinforce. We worked at home. By the end of the Winter break, he was mechanically sound for nine (if you could even say that – you kinda can’t but that’s for another day) and finally ready for Spring ball!
That Spring 2019, his new Little League coach saw what I had worked on with Michael (okay, I kind of started bragging about it to him), so he invited me to come on board as the team’s hitting coach. I put every kid through Blast Motion’s PVC drills, recorded and reviewed slo-mo video, and worked on their swings. We won the championship that season! Michael even gotten a shot at pitching – something he’d wanted to do for a long time but that I’d put off out of fear of elbow injury – and surprised us all. My nerd senses were tingling again, and I dove into even more mechanics and research but this time on pitching.
That Summer 2019, I let Michael be an eight-year-old kid and we didn’t do much training (which was fine). When the Fall season began, we had some on-ramping to do, but his new coach didn’t buy into what I had to offer and by the time Michael started ramping up athletically and developing at a rate faster than some of the other kids, Michael got frustrated with the experience. As did I.
Mid-Fall 2019, we left Little League and found a great travel ball program that same Fall 2019. I continued Michael’s training, but now at a much higher intensity than before. Pushing training to that level might have been a mistake. You’ll see why in a minute.
With his 9U travel team, he played in tournaments, practiced twice a week with the Academy, and twice a week at home. He was getting better fast!
Then, only three months into Spring 2020, the pandemic hit and everything shutdown. I felt like we were in the Summer of 2018 all over again – we didn’t do much of anything baseball. Sure we hit here and there, but I knew that without MLB games to watch, no practices, and his waning desire to play, there was going to be more on-ramping in the future… again.
In June 2020, when practice started again, Michael had lost so much athletically. It’s natural. Children grow and if they don’t continue to practice a skill in order to self-organize their changing bodies, it will require a period of re-training. But how? I needed it to be fun again or else I knew the game would definitely lose him and our Dominican ancestors were standing there judging me like Star Wars’ Force ghosts.
As I’d mentioned, I was already familiar with Driveline’s research, but when I revisited the videos looking for answers I came across their new Youth Online Baseball Development program. It was pandemic-perfect! But it wasn’t the ability to train remotely that I found most intriguing. It was Deven Morgan, their Youth Baseball Director, talking about the pressure of travel ball and making fun a priority or else we lose them from baseball at a young age… forever. It felt like a message from God. I felt seen!
The nerdgasm continued and I took their Youth Baseball Development certification course. I invested in Rapsodo’s Pitching 2.0 system and even took their Pitching Certification course, as well. I joined the ABCA and attended my first conference (albeit virtually – but hope to see everyone in Chicago for the next one.)
The sad part is that while I am privileged to be able to do these things, I know there are many kids who cannot and that’s why I started Mendez Metrics. I want to be able to provide access to this technology and show kids and their parents that baseball training can be fun with metrics. Metrics can create focus. Focus leads to growth.