Bud Black taught me how to throw a baseball, seriously

DENVER – It was simple enough, I asked Colorado Rockies manager Bud Black what his best tip for a pitcher of any age would be.

Black, a big league manager and 15-year player at the game’s top level responded in his patented dry humor, “how long do we have?”

Black, in his first year with the Rockies but in his tenth season overall as a manager, won a World Series as a pitching coach with the Los Angeles Angles. As a player, he had a 121-116 record with a 3.84 ERA in almost 400 career games.

Under his leadership, the Rockies have a slick 4.06 staff ERA, the second most WAR accumulated from the rubber and a major league-best ground ball rate. If you could ask anyone a question about pitching, Black might be the person to ask.

He then added, “do you need three sentences or the whole hour I give at pitching clinics?”

I told Black that I had all day and I could talk pitching with him all day.

“I think for a young kid that fundamentally there are proper ways to throw a baseball. Hand on top of the baseball, thumb down, fingers on top as you come through your throwing motion as you make your arc. Elbow above your shoulder, finish in front of your front knee. If you repeat that and play a lot of catch to build arm strength. You have to play catch and throw to get better. But there are some fundamental things that are truly important. I’ll show you.”

Black, a man of his word, did show me.

He had me grab a fresh Rob-Manfred-signed big league baseball and pick it up in my two-seam fastball grip. As my right hand clutched a baseball to throw for the first time in 20 hours, he stopped me, grabbed my left wrist and walked me through the separation from my glove.

He stopped and stressed the importance of a quick transition while on the rubber.

He let me continue then stopped me again to make sure my fingers were on top of the baseball, relating this to our conversation by stating that this might be the most important tip for a young player.

I finished my phantom throw while standing on the steps of a big league dugout, closer than many come to throwing at a big league park. He said “good” and told me that he has been giving these tips since he was 18-years-old and coaching Little League and he hoped I would pass it along to my Little Leaguers at North Boulder Little League.

That concluded his quick lesson but he asked me the next day if the nine to 12-year-olds had appreciated the tips and I told him I gladly passed them along.