Norms JV Team Batting Tips

Accelerate as you hit the ball - don't slow down while you hit the ball. Acceleration through the ball maintains your bat speed, which helps the ball to jump off your bat

Maintain a loose grip on the bat - don't squeeze the handle tightly. Tension in your hands will reduce your bat speed, causing a loss in power.

Keep your eyes on the ball - don't lose contact with the ball as you hit it. See the ball clearly as the bat hits the ball

Push with your back (top) hand while pulling with your front (bottom) hand. The push gives you better power and follow-through while the push adds energy to the swing. Don't forget to do both - PUSH AND PULL

Release the top hand in the follow through - this adds extension to the swing which will give you more power

Keep your hands in front of the bat - throw your hands at the ball so the bat head is the last thing to go through the strike zone

Shift your weight from your back foot to your front foot. This will increase power

Hold the bat with the knob in the palm of your hand, with the pinky of your bottom hand off of the bat. This will improve your leverage, and increase bat speed

Know where you like the ball to be when you hit it - then wait for that pitch. To find your spot, go to the cages...

Keep your head down - start the swing with your chin on your front shoulder, end with your chin on your back shoulder.

Don't worry to much about your hips, elbow, etc. Concentrate on keeping your hands relaxed, and generating bat speed. The rest will follow.

Current Roster, March 27, 2006

Norms Spring Training Roster as of March 27. 2006. This list includes players listed as subs and as full-time. A payment of $30 from each player assures a player of a jersey with choice of roster # (based on team seniority) and playing time. The $30 can be a donation from said player, or from contributions to said player from their selling of a 15-page $2 apiece entry book for our team raffle to be held in late April at Joe Sensers.

Brent Anderson
Marcus Anderson
Tim Jorgensen
Eric Harre
Jay Gregerson
Jeff Johnson
Lance Wuollet
Brandon Butorac
Aaron Wright
Ryan McCausland
Chris Jones
Mike Daughton
Kelly Knutson
Todd Schneiderhan
Dave Heupel
Kurt Clark
Bruce Werner
Derek Willis
Jon Casselman
Dan Ferris

April 30: Beer Bash & Raffle is Set (From Coach Brent)

The Raffle tickets are in. For all you Thomson/West guys - I will give them to Marcus. Hes on vacation this week. I'll give them to him this weekend and you will have them on Monday. Unless you want to make other arrangements. If somebody does, let me know and I'll see what I can do. The cost of the tickets are $2 apiece. You can choose to just buy the whole pack for $30, or you can sell them. Remember, if you can get more than $2 thats even better. Just the required donation to purchase a ticket is $2.

The beer bust is on SUNDAY, April 30th from 3-4pm. I'm not very happy about this, but I cant do anything. Its free food and beer for 1 hr and the prizes are ok. You do NOT have to be present to win anything.

I need $$$$ to buy shirts, so the faster you can sell the tickets, the better off we'll be. I understand the Thomson/West guys will be behind a little, but I really need the Qwest guys to step up on this. Thanks

4. If you have any questions or someone is missing on this list, please let me know. Here is who I have on the roster for this yr. Again, we play on Wednesday nights in Eagan starting on May 3rd.

From Billy-Ball.com (about Kirby)

Today is not the day to remember the repeated allegations of sexual improprieties by Kirby Puckett, today let us remember the ball player who for 12 years brought a joy to the game of baseball. When we looked at the rotund 5-foot-8, 230-pound body of Puckett we didn’t see the classic athletic build of his teammate Dave Winfield, we saw one of us. We saw what could have been one of the guys who we play ball with Sunday afternoons in the park.

That is until we saw what the man could do with a baseball.

He brought joy and pleasure not only to his legions of Minnesota Twins fans who adored watching Puckett, but to fans of every team. He was no Joe DiMaggio look alike in centerfield but when Puckett retired following the 1995 season, with a .318 career average, it was the highest career batting average for a right-handed batter since DiMaggio retired with a .325 average.

In his very first game in the majors, he had four hits and by the time his career came to a premature end he had hit 207 home runs, drove home 1,085 runners and stole 134 stolen bases. He finished with 2,304 hits and his 2,040 hits in his first 10 years were more than any other player in the 20th century.

Every year seemed to bring another year of brilliance. In 1986, he was an All-Star, Gold Glove winner, and Silver Slugger, playing in 161 games for the second straight season while hitting .328 to finish 3rd in the league (to Wade Boggs), 3rd in the league in slugging (to Don Mattingly), 2nd in runs (to Rickey Henderson), 2nd in hits and total bases (once again to Mattingly), and his 31 homers were 6th (to Jesse Barfield). In that year, NBC announcer Bob Costas jokingly promised that if Puckett was batting over .350 when his child was born he would name his kid Kirby. That’s the story behind Keith Kirby Costas.

Somehow that season paled in comparison the following year when Kirby again was an All-Star, Gold Glove winner, and Silver Slugger and hit .332, led the league in hits, finished 3rd in total bases, and hit 28 homers as he drove home 99 runs. But Twins fans can barely remember the regular season of Puckett after his .357 batting average led the Twins to a seven-game victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in one of baseball’s great World Series.

In 1988, Puck hit .356 with 24 home runs and 121 RBI, and for the second straight season finished third in MVP voting. The next year he “slumped” to .339, only good enough to win the batting crown.

1990 brought a rare year for Puckett hitting under .300 when he finished at .298 and the Twins finished in last place, but Kirby was just setting up his fans for a fabulous 1991. Kirby was in year six of his 11 straight All-Star appearances, and he won his fifth of six Gold Gloves. His .319 batting average was good enough for 8th in the league and he led his Twins from a worst-to-first rebound into the post-season.

In 1991, the Twins first faced the favored Toronto Blue Jays in the American League Championship Series and Minnesota prevailed in 5 games. Puckett hit .429 with two home runs and six RBI to win MVP honors. But while America was answering Michael Jackson’s musical question “Black or White”, the Twins were singing the praises of Kirby in arguably one of the greatest World Series of all time. The Atlanta Braves had also climbed from last place the previous year to reach the Series versus the Twins and held a three games to two lead entering Game 6. In the 3rd inning, Puckett made one of the Series great defensive plays making a leaping catching against the plexiglass wall of the Metrodome robbing Ron Gant of extra bases. Fast forward to the bottom of the 11th and Puckett leading off for the Twins facing Charlie Liebrandt, "And we'll see you... TOMORROW NIGHT!" was the call made by Jack Buck in describing the greatest walk-off homer in Twins history. The next night in Game 7, Minnesota's Jack Morris and Atlanta's John Smoltz engaged in spectacular pitching duel with Black Jack winning 1-0 in 10 innings to give the Twins the championship.

Puckett played on, and played brilliantly, even winning the RBI title in 1994. But, almost exactly 10 years ago, on March 28, 1996, Kirby Puckett woke up that Spring Training morning unable to see in his right eye. Diagnosed with glaucoma, this bright star’s career was over. At the press conference announcing his retirement, Puckett said, "I was told I would never make it because I'm too short. Well, I'm still too short, but I've got 10 All-Star games, two World Series championships, and I'm a very happy and contented guy. It doesn't matter what your height is, it's what's in your heart."

We look at this round little ballplayer and we remember that he was the last player to hit for the cycle for the Twins. We recall that he had six hits in a game…twice. He was the last player to win three consecutive hits titles, and one of only three AL players ever to have done it. He was on the 1986 All-Star team with fellow Hall-of-Famer Dave Winfield; and in 1987 with Cal Ripken; 1988 he again played with Rickey Henderson; 1989 with Bo Jackson; 1990 with Mark McGwire; 1991 with Ken Griffey, Jr.; 1992 with Robbie Alomar; 1993 against Barry B*nds; 1994 with Pudge Rodriguez; and 1995, against Tony Gwynn, just to name a few of the stars who were hardly his peer. But whomever Puckett played with or against, Kirby held more than his own, he held your attention, he brought a smile to your face, he gave you hope and faith in the game he loved.

Puckett said, "Baseball doesn't owe me a thing. I owe my whole life to baseball." Today, baseball, and all of us who were touched by his luminosity should remember how much we owe Kirby for all the pleasure he brought to the game, and nothing more than that.

Puck We Miss You Already

I can't believe the news today. I can't close my eyes and make it go away... Kirby Puckett, the greatest Minnesota Twin of all time, our hero growing up, a World Series champion, the little engine that could, did, and then would do again, is gone. The keys on my computer can't type words fast enough to explain my thoughts. The keys are crying as my emotions are scattered. I look for words that could possibly explain the loss to the Minnesota Sports World, but all I find is "Where have you gone Kirby Puckett?"

You see Puck was more than just an icon, Kirby was Minnesota baseball, he was the standard that all fans in the Midwest aspired to be. He was a great character, a fire plug. The Yankees had solution Joe and the Mick, the Red Sox had Yaz, and the Twins had the Puck. We had the Puck.

Today I showed up for work with the heaviest heart since the loss of Vikings Offensive Tackle Korey Stringer. Kirby was in dire state, suffering from a stroke. By all accounts, the man who gave us "See yah Tomorrow Night" had met his final "Yesterday."My morning coffee buddy could tell that I was not the same, and asked what was wrong. When I told her of my sorrow, she just sort of scoffed and said, "You mean you are sad for that wife beater?" I don't recall any court of law EVER convicting Kirby of any sort of thing.

I was shocked. Words avoided me all day. To hear that this was someone's only impression of Mr. Puckett a such a dire time, was as crass as it could get. It saddens me to think that this great baseball man could only be thought of in those terms, by many who would easily put him in the same category as O.J. Simpson. The man was fighting for his life.

I am sure the beating he took by the Minnesota court of public opinion after an acquittal of sexual harassment charges took its toll on the man. I am very sad about that. Kirby has always been one of my favorite sports guys of all-time. He brought Minnesota it's only REAL World Titles, and the community shunned him when they thought he was a fake, when he needed them most. The alledged wife beatings, and cheatings and all that, to me are just that. It's sad to see how his private life (what is true, what is not, what can be proven, what cannot) is ultimately what people will remember.

But I will always remember "Puck" as that dude who came over to a college student sitting alone by the Twins bullpen. He was jogging in from leftfield after shagging flies, and I called out, "Hey Puck!"

He nodded, and turned direction, catching me off guard as he ran right to where I was sitting.

"What's up big guy?" He asked now just a few feet away from me. I had nothing, I was just flabbergasted by the unexpected friendliness, "What do you want me to sign?"

I was wearing a Watertown, SD VFW hat, so I quickly pulled it off my head and offered it up.

"You got a pen?"

I was busted, and had to confess that I really didn't have anything. He started laughing, and clearly sensing my nervousnes quickly calmed me down like he would do for so many fans who he treated as equals.

"That's okay man, I'll just hang out here for awhile and there will a ton of kids with sharpies and stuff."

"So VFW huh? Do you play?"

"No, I was a coach."

"How did you guys do this season?"

We struck up a nice little 15 second or so conversation about VFW baseball, and soon enough, as predicted, a crowd of kids had migrated to us.

"See, I told you! Do any of you kids have a pen, so I can sign this guys VFW hat?"

I will never forget that whole short conversation. How it was that he ended up signing my hat and laughed with me about how funny it was that I didn't have a pen. It was that same guy, with that same disposition that put all of his teammates at ease when they needed it most; that clutch hit, the south side slang, a joke, a rub on the bald head, that intangible leadership, the home run stealing catch over the hefty bag, that rare thing called poise. You can't teach it, you can't acquire it, you just have it.

Kirby had it and needed more than anybody. He needed that adoring Minnesota Public, the fans he once called, "The Greatest fans in the World" more than life itself. Minnesota was Kirby's state, he earned the right, but guess what? When he needed it most, the land of 10,000 lakes turned its back on him.

He left his job in the Twins front office and moved to Arizona, to the land of retired baseball players. He had his rings, and Hall of Fame plaque and commnity awards, but he did not have his adoring public. Instead, Kirby must of felt as if his World had eaten him away.

In rare public appearances at Timberwolves games, or celebrity charity events, people were noticing that Kirby was growing in physical stature. As his body ballooned, his prominence as a baseball icon shrunk to nearly nothing. He was invited to Twins baseball events like Twinfest and the Winter Caravan tours, but he chose to stay out of the public eye.

Tonight, tomorrow and for the next week, local TV stations and dorky radio talk show hosts who publicly despise the game of baseball, will attempt to eulogize Kirby Puckett. I don't need them to remind me of how great Kirby was to all of us in this state, I need them to just shut up and let the baseball world speak for the Puck.