Hall of Fame, ABCA Convention

I have had a rare couple of days with no hands-on baseball activity.  Tomorrow I will drive to Nashville for the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Convention.  This is always a fabulous baseball weekend, typically with about 4000 baseball coaches in one place trying to learn new things and prepare for the new baseball season.

I will be driving by myself this year.  Eric took off today with one of his coaching mates, Brandon Hubbard.  The rest of our AC staff is taking off tomorrow morning, but I am not leaving until the school day ends tomorrow.  The main reasons to attend the ABCA Convention are to learn new coaching theories, new pitching and hitting mechanics and drills, network with other coaches from other areas of the country, and receive inspiration for the season that is about to begin.

I love being able to see old coaching friends who I don't see as often as I did when I was a head coach.  Not only do we now compete against different teams than I did when I was at Siena, but I also no longer spend much time on the recruiting road, which is another place to develop relationships with other coaches and scouts.  So in addition to continue to stay up to date about coaching the great game of baseball, I get to enjoy the brotherhood of coaching baseball with so many others.

This will be my longest trip since my sickness last spring, and I am looking forward to the eight hour drive tomorrow.  Driving has been more a part of my life in the past, and the peace of driving on our roads, listening to my own thoughts as well as the magic of XM radio is something that will be an enjoyable part of tomorrow.

As for the Hall of Fame voting, the results of which were released today, congratulations are in order for Bert Blyleven and Roberto Alomar.  The players whose names are associated with steroids in the past decade or so are still far from receiving enough votes for the HOF, and who knows what is still yet to come for them.  I don't really care if they get inducted or not, though some of them accumulated brilliant career statistics.

I still think that former Tigers Lou Whitaker, Alan Trammel, and Jack Morris deserve their day in the sun in Cooperstown, and perhaps one day they will have it.