Royals Hire Tom Emanski

[WCSox]

Link

 

Royals Hire Tom Emanski To Teach Them Fundamentals Of Baseball

 

June 1, 2006 | Onion Sports

 

KANSAS CITY—With their offense floundering, their pitching the league's worst, and their footwork on double-play balls atrocious, the Royals (12-37) announced Sunday that former youth-baseball coach and instructional-videotape producer Tom Emanski would join the team in a specially created fundamentals-coaching role, designed to help the Royals get back to basics and start playing winning baseball the Tom Emanski way.

 

Royals owner David Glass reportedly contacted Emanski after watching his team suffer an embarrassing 15-4 loss against the Yankees on Saturday. After viewing tapes of this and past games, and noting that his players were displaying poor mechanics in the second phase of their relay throws, were failing to execute the "call the cutoff" play, and were not hitting the baseball, Glass immediately hired Emanski—the man whose patented practice techniques once produced back-to-back-to-back AAU national champions—in what analysts are calling a last-ditch effort to turn the Royals season around.

 

"From everything I've heard, Mr. Emanski sounds like a wonderful asset for any team—a must-have for players and coaches alike," Glass said as he observed his players sitting in a circle and rolling baseballs to one another, an exercise Emanski says "fosters teamwork and teaches players how to field ground balls"—two of the many basic skills that have been noticeably absent from the Royals 2006 season.

 

"Tom has a proven track record at molding young, inexperienced athletes into major-league-caliber baseball players," Glass added. "I'm just hoping he can do the same with our Kansas City Royals."

 

Emanski said he welcomed the challenge of working with the Royals, and vowed that, if the players follow his revolutionary training methods, he will be able to add 6 mph of arm strength to each starting pitcher in five weeks, cut down on the team's mental errors, and "take the mystery out of hitting."

 

"The first thing I did after Sunday's game was gather the players and ask all 25 of them what each one thinks is the most important part of baseball, and an astounding 21 of them said 'hitting home runs,' including seven pitchers," said Emanski, who stressed to them that "defense wins ballgames." "The second thing I did was line them up against the fence and hit sharp line drives at them from 20 feet away to improve their reaction time."

 

"It's called the Missile Drill," Emanski added. "Builds team character."

 

Before Monday's game, Emanski taught the Kansas City infielders and outfielders how to properly throw a baseball, outlining the three main steps to making strong, accurate throws—the "stride and set," the "90-degree hip swivel," and the "full, fluid follow-through."

 

"It was a little rough going for some of the guys, but we're taking it slow," Emanski said. "I think now it might be time to let up a little bit and switch gears into 'Encouragement Mode' for a few games to get their confidence back up."

 

"Coach Emanski taught me that, when I'm fielding the ground ball, I should stay down, stick my butt out, and count the hops," said shortstop Angel Berroa, explaining the method Emanski designed to help Little Leaguers and Royals infielders watch the ball all the way into their glove. "Once Coach Emanski also taught me how to count, the technique worked out great."

 

Although most players are reportedly "learning a lot" from Emanski, claiming his methods are "fun, educational, and make good baseball sense," some of the Royals veterans are resistant to throwing away everything they know about baseball in order to be taught these new fundamentals.

Enlarge ImageTom-Emanski.jpg

 

"I don't see how trying to throw balls into a metal garbage can laid out behind home plate is going to help my defense," said Royals right fielder Reggie Sanders, who has yet to record a single outfield assist since July 12, 2005. "Tom says it will be more rewarding once I start actually getting the throws to go into the cans, but I'm beginning to think that it's impossible."

 

"I'm not going to stand around hitting off a kid's tee—I'm a professional baseball player," said Royals first-baseman and No. 3 hitter Doug Mientkiewicz, who is batting .258 on the season with one home run and 14 RBI. "This is an insult."

 

The afternoon after speaking to reporters, Mientkiewicz lost his temper during B.P. and swung as hard as he could, missing the ball completely but creating enough of a breeze to gently knock the ball off its stand. Emanski had to restrain him from angrily swinging his bat at the tee in an attempt to break it, and told Mientkiewicz to take a lap around the field to calm down.

 

"In this game, attitude is key," Emanski said. "Some of the guys get angry or upset when we're doing Greenie Board Batting Practice, in which I give each player five swings, and I rate each swing on a zero-to-four scale. But I believe this is the only way they'll ever learn to swing through the ball."

 

"Of course, even if you master all the fundamental drills—the Bare Hand Drill, Soft Toss Creep, 'V' Drill, 'X' Drill, and Rocket Relay—there is still the issue of talent," Emanski added. "I'm no miracle worker. But, with a lot of hard work and a little luck, I truly believe that a few of these Royals will someday have the skills you need to play in the major leagues."

[sayitaintso]

I hate those damn commericals with his back-to-back-to-back AAU national champs stuff. It's so outdated and Fred McGriff looks pretty young in that commerical too.

[greasywheels121]

[Milkman delivers]

http://www.progressiveboink.com/dugout/arc...ugout7-5-05.htm

 

Poor Fred McGriff.

[3E8]

If you ever see the Tom Emanski commercial again, look for the scene where all the kids a lined up in a row hitting off tees and swing in unison. The kid at the very back nails the entire tee out of the picture and it's funny as hell.

[RME JICO]

Tom Emanski >>> Greg Walker

 

I wonder why McGriff never got anymore commerical deals, because he was very convincing in that commercial, especially with that imposing wrist band.

[whitesoxfan101]

I want that giant hat, and/or Fred McGriff to give me his "full endorsement". Greatest commercial ever, by far.

[HuskyCaucasian]

I hate those damn commericals with his back-to-back-to-back AAU national champs stuff. It's so outdated and Fred McGriff looks pretty young in that commerical too.

You beat me too it! THose commerials have been running since I was a kid. They produced back-to-back-to-back champions like 15 years ago! What have those videos done lately?

[Buehrle>Wood]

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[KevHead0881]

ESPN's Page 2 did a peice on this a couple years ago. Kinda funny...

 

Wednesday, July 9, 2003

Updated: July 20, 7:45 PM ET

 

Ironman of commercials

By Jim Caple and Darren Rovell

Page 2 columnists

 

If Fred McGriff reaches the Hall of Fame, there should be no Clemens-like controversy over which cap he should wear on his plaque. McGriff has worn caps for six different team in his career, none for as many as five full seasons, but there is one specific cap fans identify him with above all others.

 

Yes, you know the one we're talking about. That goofy cap he wears in Tom Emanski's Defensive Drills Video commercial.

 

"I think that could be the ugliest cap I've ever seen in my life,'' Dodgers teammate Ron Coomer said. "And the way it sits up on top of his head like it's about to blow off? Whew.''

 

Hey, it works. The Emanski Defensive Drills Video is the longest running sports commercial in TV history that does not include an offer for a free polar fleece or a football phone.

 

The commercial has run so many times that McGriff has had more screen time on ESPN than Chris Berman. It has run so many times on ESPN channels that anchor Kenny Mayne even references it after a player makes an error, saying, "Obviously, he has not watched Tom Emanski's Defensive Drills Video -- it's endorsed by Fred McGriff."

 

In fact, the commercial airs for the 100,000th time tonight on ESPN Classic, followed by a two-hour special, "The Making of the Tom Emanski Defensive Drills Video," hosted by Stuart Scott and Lisa Guerrero.

 

Actually, we just made that up. There is no two-hour special, and no one really knows how many times that commercial has aired on ESPN. We asked the research department three weeks ago, and they're still searching through all the programming logs. The last we heard, they were only up to 1997.

 

Suffice to say, the commercial has been on a lot longer than Emanski or McGriff thought it would be when they taped it in 1991.

 

How long ago was that? When he taped it, McGriff still played for the Padres, five whole teams ago. Gary Templeton was a teammate. He was a year away from leading the National League with 35 home runs -- that's right, 35.

 

"When we filmed the commercial, the hat on Fred didn't look that bad," Emanski said. "But it's OK, because it got the tape more publicity."

 

Thank god this wasn't a hoops video -- no one needs to see the short shorts.

Like we said, it was a different world.

 

Emanski met McGriff when the first baseman was 18 and playing winter ball in Puerto Rico. At the time, McGriff hadn't played a game in the big leagues and Emanski was the director of a company called Baseball World that produced baseball instructional videos.

 

"He wanted to videotape my swing,'' McGriff said. "He slowed it down and broke it down on video, and I learned a lot about hitting from it."

 

The two stayed in touch often enough so that Emanski was more than a stranger in 1991 when he called McGriff to film an endorsement for the Defensive Drills video.

 

"I said I was coming out with a new tape, and I was wondering if he could do a commercial for us," Emanski said. "He said 'OK,' and on a gentleman's agreement he did it."

 

That is not the way it worked with Nike and LeBron James.

 

Emanski flew to Chicago, where the Padres were playing the Cubs, and McGriff read off a couple lines in front of the camera. It might be the most emotional, moving performance by an athlete in a commercial since Muhammad Ali endorsed the Roach Motel. The advertising world has never been the same.

 

Even though the spot has been running for more than a decade, Emanski said McGriff never received a formal contract. "He gets a small percentage of the proceeds from the video sales, but for the money he gets from this, he would hardly be able to pay off a portion of his taxes," Emanski said.

 

So how much has the Crime Dog's endorsement been worth? Not even Emanski can say.

 

"I think it gave the tape more credibility, but whether it does better than the other tapes that no player endorses, I couldn't tell you," said Emanski, whose involvement in the project was supported by investors who continued to pay to air the commercial on ESPN.

 

"I know that the investors made their money back and a little bit more, and that all nine video have done pretty well, because the commercials kept airing."

 

Despite the obvious age of the commercial and the goofy blank cap, McGriff has never asked Emanski to stop running the ads. And thank God he hasn't. Otherwise, what would we have to watch at 3 a.m.?

 

"It's good he did it," Coomer said. "Anything we can do to promote baseball for kids is good. We spend a lot of time promoting baseball videos and computer games, but those things have no relation to the actual game and getting kids to play it."

 

Exactly. Who knows how many kids have been inspired by McGriff's commercial to buy the Emanski video, work hard on their defensive fundamentals and give baseball their all so that one day, they too might reach the major leagues and earn the right to wear the blank cap of champions?

 

Jim Caple is a senior writer for ESPN.com and can be reached at [email protected]. Darren Rovell, who covers sports business for ESPN.com, can be reached at [email protected].

Edited June 3, 2006 by KevHead0881

[SoxFan1]

If you ever see the Tom Emanski commercial again, look for the scene where all the kids a lined up in a row hitting off tees and swing in unison. The kid at the very back nails the entire tee out of the picture and it's funny as hell.

Never noticed that.

[Balta1701]

Can we try sending Uribe and Anderson to him?

[RME JICO]

Can we try sending Uribe and Anderson to him?

 

Classic, they can also wear the funny hat and wristband.

[DonkeyKongerko]

Word on the wire is that the Royals are looking to upgrade at catcher to Garbage Can.

[WilliamTell]

I want that giant hat, and/or Fred McGriff to give me his "full endorsement". Greatest commercial ever, by far.

 

For some reason it reminds me of the Pirates hats back in the 70's. Those really tall hats, they should bring them back.

 

I also watch that kid in the back nail that tee. Funny Stuff.

[Soxfest]

Will Fred McGriff help Tom out?

[SouthsideNorthsideFan]

If you ever see the Tom Emanski commercial again, look for the scene where all the kids a lined up in a row hitting off tees and swing in unison. The kid at the very back nails the entire tee out of the picture and it's funny as hell.

 

Right??? That is a great f***in' catch, 3E8!!!