At some point as a hitter you need to realize that if you're seeing nothing but sliders and curves each at bat than you need to start looking for off speed pitches and focusing on staying back as long as you can. In Ryan Howard's case, he's seeing most of the breaking balls away therefore, his efforts should be focused on waiting and trying to drive the ball to left field. Instead of going opposite field, he continues to pull the ball into the shift or miss the pitches completely, resulting in over a dozen strikeouts in the postseason.

So much of hitting is having the right approach at the plate; it's not just physical ability. Hitting a baseball is no doubt the hardest thing to do successfully in all of sports, but I would expect a Major League MVP to have more quality at bats in crunch time.

The Dodgers aren't loaded with superstars as were many of the Yankees teams of the last ten years, but they have a leader in Torre who quietly took his team that wasn't supposed to be in the playoffs, to the playoffs in 2008.

How does he do it? By managing with class and getting respect from his players. He has a knack of getting his teams to stay focused all year long and tells them not to get too high or low emotionally; staying even tempered and composed is a trademark of a Joe Torre squad.

Sometimes the most brilliant managers have trouble being successful in baseball. Coaching baseball is not just filling out the lineup card and making the right pitching moves, rather, relating to your players and being able to extract greatness out of them at the most crucial moments is so important. This greatness comes from confidence within the player, which often is supported by the confidence a manager projects towards his team.

The game really is 90% mental and an experienced coach or manager can do wonders with a team to get them in the right frame of mind. Joe Torre is not successful because of the money his players earn. His success comes from being a real person to his players and teaching them how to seize the moment, put the game into perspective and exemplify greatness in the biggest moments.

Some players try to visual positive results from an at bat, others may hit the batting cages harder, while I take a day or two off.

I did plenty of hitting on my non pitching days in college and was quite successful, however, I did have some streaks where I couldn't do anything at the plate. But these bad streaks didn't last too long, because after 3 or 4 bad games I would just ask to take a seat for a game or two.

It's not that I didn't want to play, believe me I did. But I came to realize that as I sat on the bench watching the pitchers and teammates hit against those pitchers, it seemed so simple. Hitting that is. After watching dozens of at bats for a couple days I felt like I could hit anybody and my confidence level was through the roof.

It's the same phenomenon that I experience after I take a month off from playing golf. The layoff makes me actually think I can play golf and I usually score pretty well.

So if you're a player or have players struggling try a game or two on the bench. Don't see it as a punishment, but rather a remedy.

Even after the playback it was difficult to tell whether or not the ball passed the pole in fair or foul territory. The whole thing took a couple of minutes, probably no longer than an argument which would have occurred in lieu of the replay.

I like it. Championships should not be won or loss solely on the eyes of a 50 year old umpire. If we have the technology, let's use it. The question is, will this eventually filter down into college and high school baseball as more games are being televised and streamed over the Internet?

Ok, I understand the number one concern in little league is the safety of the players, but is this going too far. The report stated that the kid has very good control, so it is not a case of him letting the ball fly and kids getting hit all the time. So what is really the underlying issue with this kid pitching in this league? Could it be the other teams can't hit him, therefore, they don't think it's fair?

I've heard of this type of situation before and just don't understand why we continually teach kids to run away from a challenge when times get a little tough. The only way for other little leaguers to learn how to hit this pitcher is to throw players good fastballs in practice at the same speed or harder then what they'll see. Will they miss a bunch? Sure. Will they eventually train themselves to be quicker and start the swing a little sooner? Absolutely.

When your coaching young players and they are struggling with a particular skill or task, don't just throw in the towel and move on to something easier. Challenge them. Every time they fail, they are learning.

Start grooming your players to be mentally tough. Tell them they need to have a short memory in baseball and to forget that they struck out or made an error. Instead of pampering our young little leaguers, let's prepare them for life and teach them that one of the best paths to greatness is to compete against the best and take your lumps along the way.

The U.S. softball team's total dominance in the Olympics may be part of the issue. After all they outscored their opponents 51-1 in the last games. On the other hand, the Cuban team seems to be the favorites on the baseball side. Of course, MLB hasn't had the foresight to arrange for 10 days off during the season every 4 years to make baseball a hit during the Summer Olympics.

Imagine, the U.S. baseball team playing against the Latin American countries and Japan during the games. Do you think that would generate interest?

The comment that baseball and softball is too "American" is ridiculous. Maybe Judo is too Chinese, Equestrian is too British, and sailing is too Australian. Let's dump those as well.

If the unwanted American dominance is the real argument, then I guess swimming is the next sport to be axed.

This was a personal goal for me for one main reason. I figured that if my fastball was consistently at 90 mph or higher with some movement, I would definitely get signed by a Major League club.

In my freshman year at the University of Pittsburgh, I reached my goal as my fastball topped out at 92 mph. So at this point I was expecting to get signed at sometime while in college. Everything was going well, I was in the starting rotation as a Freshman, my arm was alive and strong, and I had very good command of all my pitches.

Then bad things started to happen. My nose was shattered in practice by an overthrown ball and needed to be surgically repaired. A number of weeks were lost. Then in my sophomore year I badly sprained my ankle in a freak accident that left the ankle swollen for a couple more weeks. It took a good year to get back to normal. Also in my sophomore year I started to experience shooting pain in my shoulder, which knocked a good 3 - 5 mph off my fastball. The dream of playing professionally started to slip away.

So as the pain increased and I received multiple shoulder operations, the good live fastball I once had, dwindled away, along with the thought of playing pro ball. What might have been?

When looking back, I realize that my fastball was only at it's best for about one and a half years; not enough time to get any solid followings from the scouts.

So the moral of the story is this. If you're a baseball player, especially a pitcher, take full advantage of your abilities while you have them. At any given moment a knee may blowout or a shoulder can start to deteriorate. Cherish the days you can play the game at your highest level; this way you won't have any regrets after the skills are long gone.