Neal Heaton

(Editor’s Note: Neal Heaton spent 12 seasons in the Major Leagues as a LHP for several teams. He was named to the National League All-Star Team in 1990 for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1979 MLB Draft out of Sachem HS. He opted to attend college at the University of Miami, where he set several program records and was named to their Hall of Fame in 1993. He is now a Pitching Instructor at 365 Athletics in Bellport, if you’d like to book a pitching lesson with him you can call 631-848-3824 Now that the 2020 season has come to an end. Now what should you do? Now is the time to give your body a much-needed break. When I was in the big leagues, I always took a two-week break after the season to let my body recover. After a long season, your body is feeling drained...

If hitting is timing, then pitching is disrupting timing. There is no better way to do that than to be unpredictable as a pitcher. Hitters are taught to look for fastballs in particular counts–0-0, 1-0, 2-0, 2-1, 3-1, 3-2. They sit back and look for a pitcher’s fastball. If they have any doubt what type of pitch is coming–they lose a little bit of confidence. That can be just enough to get him off his game. Throwing breaking balls and change ups in these hitter’s counts is called ‘pitching backwards’ and it is a very important for a young pitcher to eventually develop this skill in order to get to college because that’s when hitters will really make you pay for your mistakes. At the lower levels, it’s really not as important to pitch backwards as it is to get ahead in the count. Throwing q...

I will start off by saying it is the coach’s responsibility to take care of a pitcher’s arm. No kid in their right mind will tell the coach they don’t want the ball in a big game–especially not a team’s ace in a playoff game. Assuming the pitcher is healthy and he is asked to take the ball on three days rest, as opposed to the usual four or five, it is now the pitcher’s job to properly prepare. If you know that you will be going on short rest, it is very important to keep a few things in mind: Do not lift weights in between starts: You are putting enough strain on your pitching arm by throwing on short rest, so there is no need to make matters worse by doing any upper body workouts that may compound the issue. Make sure you get your long-distance running it: I consider a long-distance run ...

No two pitchers are exactly alike. A major reason for this is because everyone has a slightly different release point. For that reason, certain pitches will be more effective for pitchers. I’ll go over the three most common types of release points, as well as which pitches work best for pitcher’s that employ those arm slots and then you can choose which one is best for you… High 3/4 (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) Very rarely is a pitcher directly “over the top”. Clayton Kershaw is probably the closest to that. Most pitchers throw from a high 3/4 delivery. The reason for this is because it enables pitchers to maximize their velocity and their command while also putting less strain on their arm than dropping down. The reason it puts less strain on your arm is because you’re using your larger muscl...

One of the things people always ask me is–“how did you get noticed by the University of Miami?” Well, things are very, very different than they were in 1978. First off, the school only recruited from the list of the top 25 or so players in the country and I was fortunate enough to have had a good enough junior year that I was on their list and they found me. For the average Long Island baseball player, though, that may not be an option. On the bright side, there’s so many more resources available to you in 2019 than I had coming out of Sachem HS in the ’70s. So here is my advice given my years of experience involved in this baseball community on how you can pick which college you want to attend based on your baseball ability and your academic prowess without wasting your time. Don’t overra...

You only get one shot at this. For me it was in 1979, when I was a senior at Sachem High School. When you have dreams of getting drafted, you have to learn how to make sacrifices. That means staying in when you’re friends are going out. It could mean not going to prom. It means not going to the beach when your friends are. Not many kids now want to make the sacrifices necessary or put in the work. If it’s raining, that’s no excuse not to run outside. In fact, that’s the best time–because most likely nobody else is getting that work in. You need to have the mentality that you’re trying to get a little bit of an edge. That’s really what it takes to have success at the higher levels. It means doing more things that involve the game of baseball–r...