Posada takes on Pena
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Feb 18, 2008 
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You want baseball? Here’s some baseball:
First base coach/catching instructor Tony Pena was at it again today. This time he had the catchers set in in a corner of the bullpen. Using a fungo bat, Pena would hit them one-hoppers to simulate wild pitches.
The catcher had to field the ball then quickly toss it aside before Pena would hit another ball at them. Basically, it was human target practice.
Jorge Posada, who has a great relationship with Pena, jumped in and challenged him to try and get one past him. Pena hit a sharp one-hopper that Posada caught with his bare hand and threw back at Pena.
Pena caught the ball and crushed a line drive at Posada, who wisely jumped out of the way.
As the drill broke up, I told Pena he was crazy.
“You just figuring that out now?” he said.
Thanks Pete! Glad to hear the ballplayers are having some fun – that’s what baseball is all about!
Yeah baseball news!!
What’s life without a little crazy?
This is what people come here to read about. Good stuff.
Glad that the Yankees kept Pena on their coaching staff. Posada has said that Pena has made him a better catcher.
A little crazy is fine, just no more crazy at Posada please! LOL
This is what I want to read about.
Not some HGH/steroids nonsense.
Thanks Pete. Is Jeter still in L.A. There has been a lot of reports and sightings of him out in L.A. and photographed yesterday and today. Do you know why he’s out there.
Good stuff…
any Arod sighting? at all?
I can see the headline now:
Pena Breaks Posada’s Throwing Hand in Horseplay Incident.
(shudder)
Arod and his wife were at Ocean Magazine anniversary party in Miami this weekend.
No broken hand for Posada please Lord!
Yeah, I’m all for hard drills…especially for the younger guys…
But theres something about our 36 year old catcher who just signed a 52.4 million dollar contract catching hard one hoppers with his bare hand in Spring Training that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Granted, I don’t think he’s ever been on the disabled list. However, this is a stretch where it shouldn’t start.
I guess that’s why I’m reading about it on a blog and not Tony Pena, I will trust.
sorry for the dumb question but what is a fungo bat?
Great stuff Pete. Thanks.
A fungo bat is specially designed bat used by baseball and softball coaches for practice purposes. The bat is not designed to hit thrown or pitched balls, rather it is designed to hit balls tossed up in the air. Typical fungo bats are 35–37 inches long and weigh 17–22 ounces. Coaches hit many balls during fielding practice and the weight and length allow for the coach to hit balls repeatedly with high accuracy.
anybody got a photo?
Dale D — Try this — It’s on googleimages if you input “fungo bat”.
http://images.google.com/imgre.....0&
sz=64&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=ZTnhZiTi26N6HM:&tbnh=150&tbnw=94&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2B%2522fungo%2Bbat%2522%26as_st%3Dy%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26ie%3DUTF-8
My recollection from high school is that they were very long and thin and give the hitter better control over the kind of hit — liner, grounder, or pop — and the direction.
As someone who had to endure three years of this kind of crap from Tony Pena in Kansas City, I’m not surprised.
Good stuff here, and I really like Pena and all the stuff he comes up with. Instead of the same old, same old, (pages 22-24 of the coaches manual), Pena puts some umph and pizzaz into his workouts! I like it, and I’m sure the players do too! Great to have Pena working his magic with our guys. And, for sure, he has really helped Pozada defensively since he became a Yankee Coach.