WooSox Hold First Youth Clinic with Player and Coach Instruction

The Worcester Red Sox hosted their second Youth Clinic on Saturday, July 9, 2022. This clinic was the first one to be held in Worcester, and the first one to be held by the club since 2019. At the clinic, over 100 kids of various ages got the chance to play ball and hear words of wisdom from WooSox players, and coaches. receive free tips and tricks from WooSox players and coaches on four major aspects of baseball: pop flies, ground balls, hitting, and pitching.

Hitting was manned by hitting coach Rich Gedman and assistant hitting coach Michael Montville. Here, kids practiced their hitting skills through mock at-bats where they got advice from the duo. Montville told one kid, “Try to hit me square in the mouth.” Fortunately, the kid did not hit Montville in the mouth, but he had more powerful hits after this advice. Montville even made a note of that by saying, “See what happens when you try to hit me.”

Youngsters learned pitching tips from pitching coach Paul Abbott who spoke to them about the mechanics needed to throw “Powerfully, properly [and] so we can throw repetitively and not get hurt.” He told kids that the best way to pitch was by “Thinking of your back side as the power and your front side as the steering wheel.” Abbott finished the station by having participants practice mock throws to him and catcher Deivy Grullón.

At ground ball station, participants learned the basics of good fielding from manager Chad Tracy and bench coach Jose Flores. The duo made it clear that they were impressed by the kids’ ability to take their advice and quickly apply it to their fielding. With the fast improvement in their game, Flores commented “You guys make great throws and are very great listeners...[it’s] very, very impressive.”

The pop flies station was run by infielder Ryan Fitzgerald and outfielder Devlin Granberg. There, kids were thrown balls by the duo that they had to field and throw back to them accurately. In addition to helpful tips and drills, both players were energetic and engaging with the kids. Many of the youngsters were unfortunately Yankees fans or named a Yankee as their favorite player, to which Granberg joked, “Sorry if you’re a Yankees fan, you can’t participate.” Of course, all these kids got to catch pop flies from both these players, and got to see Fitzgerald’s baseball magic trick, picking a ball off the ground and making it disappear, which Granberg confessed confused him when he was college teammates with Fitzgerald at Creighton University.

After the stations, Fitzgerald, Granberg, and Grullón stayed until every child had all the signatures they desired, from posters to playing cards even to shirts.

At the end of the day, all participants walked away with tips to help them improve their baseball skills. Tracy even remarked, “If you keep practicing these tricks from today, you can be playing at Polar Park] in 15 years.”

The WooSox will hold three more free youth clinics: July 23, August 6, and August 20. You can sign your youngster up here.