Last Tuesday my son attended a baseball clinic in Highland, IL. Most of the time I would not leave my house at 5:30 in the morning and drive 2 hours so my son could attend a 4 hour baseball clinic, but this clinic was ran by former Cardinals players and featured an appearance by current outfielder Harrison Bader. The Cardinals have put on these clinics for a few years now, but this is the first year that I believe a current player attended. There were other clinics later this month that were closer for a cost of $95, but for an extra $5 I will drive the 2 hours so my son could get a Bader autograph.
The clinic consisted of five different stations where kids learned about fielding ground balls, throwing, base running, catching fly balls, and hitting. The kids were divided up into age groups. My son's group had about 25 in it. I knew going in that he would not get any one on one instruction, so 25 did not seem too bad. Some of the other groups had 40-50 in them. Parents were allowed to watch, so I followed him around hoping to gain some knowledge of how to teach some things. I really did not learn anything that he did not already know from attending local camps, but maybe some things sunk in more coming from former players.
After the kids completed the five stations, Bader had a short question and answer session. After that, the kids returned to their groups for the autograph session. They rotated in between the former players and Bader. The former players would sign 2 autographs, one being a furnished baseball and the other being whatever the child wanted. Most of the time that was the camp t-shirt or the kid's cap.
There were 4 pitchers at the clinic. I found it a little funny that Danny Cox was leading the hitting instructions.
Scott Cooper was by far the best position player there. I thought he had the best station about fielding ground balls. I know most former Cardinals players, but had never heard of Neil Fiala before that day. Could be because he played 3 games in the majors, only 1 being with the Cardinals. That is 1 more than I will ever play. My son also had each of the 7 players sign the back of his camp shirt.
Of course the big draw was Harrison Bader. When we signed up for the camp, it stated the he would only sign baseballs. My son was fine with that and brought along an official Major League baseball for him to sign. We did not know that he would only sign a ball that was provided by the camp.
It is a very nice signature on the sweet spot, but I doubt we will be able to read it in a few years. It is on a cheap ball made in China with a very slick cover. I did see some kids had already smudged the signature before they left that day.
At least Bader would pose for photos across the table. I will say he was very nice, but the team employee not so much. There were several times he was waiting for the next group of kids to come to his table. My wife and daughter talked to him for a few minutes, but the worker stopped them from taking a picture with him.
The clinic finished up about 12:30, so we grabbed some lunch and headed to St. Louis. I had 4 free tickets to the Cardinals game against the Reds that night. We spent a couple of hours in the Cardinals Hall of Fame (wish I remembered the camera for that trip) before getting into the stadium. It was decal give away night featuring 4 different players.
We were lucky enough to get all four players and a few extras from other people. These are pretty nice and a full 8x10. About 15 minutes before game time, the rain started to fall. It was announced that the game would be delayed with a hopeful start time of 8:30. Having been a long day already, we decided to head home. We did not miss much as the Cardinals would lose 4 to 1.
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