Caleb Hamilton

[Kevin Urdahl]

Last night, Caleb Hamilton ran a catcher's clinic for my son's baseball team. It was fantastic and I was very impressed with this young player and wanted to share. He was an inspiration to the kids (11U-13U catchers) and he clearly loved the game and was a serious student of it. I know he is now in the Red Sox organization, but I will forever be a fan. I hope he has a long career.

I am a lifetime Twins fan, who has lived in the Seattle area for over 20 years now. Caleb grew up in the Seattle area before playing for Oregon State and being drafted by the Twins as an infielder. He was converted to a catcher in the Twins organization. Caleb said at first he hated it, but now he loves it. Caleb is a buddy of one of the co-founders of my son's club baseball team (who himself played in the Tiger's organization), and invited him to give a clinic for the 11-13 year old catchers in the organization.

I learned so much. He said the most important thing a catcher does is "receive the ball". How a catcher receives the ball can win games and win championships. He said blocking the ball and transitioning to throw are also important skills, but receiving is most important. He talked about the "science" behind why catchers now catch on one knee. It removes a reference point from the umpire in calling low strikes (normally umpires triagualate between the batter's knee and the catcher's knee to define the lower border to the strike zone). When the catcher puts his left knee down to a right handed batter, or his right knee down to a left-handed batter he removes that reference point. He worked with the kids in getting that low strike call. First presenting the target to the pitcher, but then bringing the glove down towards the ground with the pocket facing backwards, then sweeping the glove up and grabbing the low ball and bringing it into the strike zone just above the batters knees for presentation to the umpire. He said without that reference point, and with good receiving technique and good quick hands, the catcher can get that low strike more often than not. Great stuff for all us Dad's and the kids ate it up too. Caleb worked one on one with all of the kids and my son got really good at this technique. He left floating on air about how much fun it was.

At the end of the session, Caleb asked if any of the kids had any questions. One kid asked him, "Who is your favorite baseball player of all-time?"

I loved his response. He said, "Byron Buxton. His skills are off the charts, and he's a really good dude too."

Of course, I will always be a huge Byron Buxton fan. But after last night, I will always be a big Caleb Hamilton fan too.

 

 

 

[CRF]

Great story!

[Seth Stohs]

Great dude. I've had a few interactions with him and he's always been great, willing to thoughtfully answer questions and just be nice with kids and others. Pretty good baseball player too.