Sports has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I think back on all the fun times that I had both as a player and a coach. I have coached everything from 6-7 year olds to full grown adults. I have to tell you, it is a lot more fun and rewarding working with the children as opposed to the adults. I especially liked working with kids and helping them develop into pitchers. It is kind of funny that a lot of people can teach a player how to hit, but few can teach the art of pitching.

I can remember back in the early 90's living in Florida. I was working with 15-18 year olds at that time and helping develop their pitching skills. I ran across this one kid that I thought was a phenom. My assistant coach and I would have discussions on just how hard this kid could throw. Now, I took pride back then at being able to turn anyone's fastball around. If it was straight, I could hit. If it curved, let's just hope that you did not hang it.

Anyway, back to this kid. After whizzing a few by me in warm ups, I wanted to know what this kid had. My assistant coach just happened to be a police office and had a radar gun in his car. He got it out and we decided to clock the kid. I think this must have fired the kid up because he unloaded to the plate and broke the 90 MPH mark a few times.

I was so shocked that a 17 year old had that much juice in his arm. The bad thing was, his head was not in the right place. A few days later, my assistant coach was picking him up for armed robbery. It was a sad day for our team.