WK's Coach's Tips

Guest Coach - Bob "Flea" Lillis

Here are some tips for infielders from an old friend, Bob "Flea" Lillis, the Giant's former bench coach. Bob makes a guest appearance and provides us with his keys to solid infield play.

"Flea" retired from baseball following the 1996 season after eleven seasons in the Giants organization. Bob had been in professional baseball since 1951. He spent ten years as a major league infielder with the Dodger, Cardinal, and Astro organizations, and then went on to manage the Astros for four years.

Here are Flea's keys to success for an infielder.

Flea's Keys for Infielders

• See the ball. Watch it all the way into your glove.
• Have good body position. Try to field the ball from the middle of your body over to your glove side.
• Use the full length of your glove (heel of the glove to the finger tips) and width of your glove (thumb to your little glove fingers). KEEP YOUR GLOVE OPEN !
• Use your feet- crow hop to throw. Throw cross seam - so the ball won't tail, sink or run to the player you are throwing to.
• When throwing - focus on your target. Don't watch the flight of the ball.
• Stress ACCURACY on every throw.
• Infielders should work on coming in on ground balls. When a ball is bouncing use two hands. When a ball is rolling slowly you can use your bare hand.
• Be sure to work on going side to side on ground balls- backhand and forehand. Don't forget the proper foot work & balance.
• Work on your double plays. Concentrate on foot work & glove hand transfer.
• Work on going after fly balls-both side to side and forward & back.
• During your pop-up and fly ball drills, make sure you work on shading the sun.
• Again, remember to always stress throwing accuracy and proper footwork on every drill.

Thanks for the tips Flea. That will be our Coach's Tip for this session. Keep your head in the game and we'll see you next time.

WK

Originally posted on July 9, 1996