Stephen Paez

“Energy” isn’t yelling at your opponent or being overly “rah-rah”. Focus and intent are energy. Being on the top step (or on the fence) engaged in the game is energy. Sprinkle in some dugout shenanigans and rituals and you’ve got the recipe for what energy should look like.

Shocking. Pope Leo XIV just personally dragged the Cross for ALL 14 Stations at the Colosseum himself. This is the first time since 1994. The Church might actually be waking up.

Nolan McLean, 84mph Sweeper (22" of break) and 97mph Two Seamer (18" of run), Individual Pitches + Overlay. 40 inches of horizontal movement difference.

"Catch the fucking ball." Matt Chapman to Casey Schmitt after Schmitt couldn't come up with the ball on this throw to first base

I had a conversation with a Power 4 college coach who’s been doing this for 25+ years. We were talking about the mentality of high school players during the recruiting process. Here’s what he told me: “What these kids don’t realize is… I don’t care how many followers you have. I don’t care how many home runs you hit in travel ball. I don’t care how many offers you have. I don’t care about your ranking. I don’t care how hard you can hit a ball. I don’t care about your metrics. The only thing I care about is this: Are you going to produce in between those white lines when we play this season?” Then he said something else that hit: “They’ve been so protected that the first time they fail, they quit… or they transfer.” And here’s the part that matters. The biggest development mistake I see? Players don’t plan for failure. They plan for success. They visualize success. They expect success. But they don’t prepare for 0-4. They don’t prepare for getting booed. They don’t prepare for sitting the bench. They don’t prepare for struggling for 3 weeks. So when it happens — and it will — they panic. Instead of executing a pre-made plan, they try to create one while emotional. That never works. Failure is coming. The question is: Did you already decide how you’re going to handle it?