Media Relations Intern visits with Doug Henry

Note: the following story is the second in a series of articles in 2010 written by media relations intern Kyle Thomas:

It's a little after 2pm Monday afternoon and first-year Omaha Royals pitching coach Doug Henry is in his office staring at a spreadsheet on his laptop. He is in preparations for tonight's game as the flags in the outfield flap violently in the wind and a steady mist falls on the tarp-covered field.

After spending 2009 as Kansas City's roving pitching coach being able to come to the same ball park on a daily basis is a welcome change. "That's an understatement. It's nice to kind of have a base," Henry said.

Henry understands that as a coach you need to create a relationship with the guys you are coaching and create a trust with them. Working as the roving pitching coach didn't allow Henry the opportunity of getting to know the players so he could get them to reach their full potential. "To me...it's more psychology. It really is. We try to figure out how to get inside somebody's head and make them believe in themselves," said Henry about getting players to perform. The Royals staff as a whole in Omaha has a job to get these players to Kansas City and do what they think will work to get that job done.

"Building a relationship and building trust is a way to get inside, and let them see that what I'm saying makes sense. So that they can trust us, so they can believe in it and go to work on what we are trying to tell them."

Henry has worked as a pitching coach on the professional level since 2005 and the thing that he stresses to all of his guys is to 'attack the glove'. He said; "Sometimes the hardest thing to do is...just relax, and see the glove, and hit the glove." Henry believes getting the pitchers prepared and doing everything that they have to do as a pitcher is the best way to 'attack the glove'. He wants his guys to be ready so that the only thing they need to do is trust their stuff and hit the glove.

He looks at each pitcher and sees what, if anything, needs changing. "I look at their stuff...you have to look at each individual to see...do they need more movement? Do they need less movement?"

The thing that Henry has realized as a coach at the Triple-A level is that every guy is different and needs different coaching. "Each one of them is an individual and if you try to clone them, they know what's going on. These guys are older guys, they're not dumb." Getting the best out of all of his pitchers is what Henry strives to do. The challenge for Henry is to take a Ttriple-A player and make them a Major League player. "A lot of them...there is a reason they are in Triple-A. They get to the big leagues and don't stick. I have to look at it and say 'ok what hasn't been successful when you got to the big leagues?' That's what we need to work on." When Henry isn't coaching up guys in the bullpen he enjoys getting outdoors for a round of golf or to go hunting on his land in Wisconsin. He likes to get out on the links two to three times a week when it is nice, because as he said, "I don't golf when the temp is less than sixty degrees." He is also a big family person and enjoys spending time with his four children and wife. In fact, his favorite memory in baseball involves his son. It was during the playoffs with the Giants in 2000 at Shea Stadium in front of 52,000 people. Dusty Baker had seen his son catching and had asked if he could help in the bullpen during the playoffs. They had to go a righty, lefty situation in the bullpen so his son is warming him up to go in the game. "I'm going in to face Mike Piazza...I walk through the gate and my whole thing was my son just warmed me up to go into a playoff game. That is my best memory in baseball."

He has been in Omaha for about a month and is yet to really sample the plethora of restaurants around town. When asked if he had a favorite place to eat he said, "Zesto's is pretty good," which only goes to show how dedicated Henry is to the Omaha Royals and his players.