FUNGOMAN JOURNAL

History, as a rule, unfolds slowly in the game of baseball. The traditions continue for decades. The art of using a fungo bat is preserved as the coach's skill, and the fungo bat has long served players in their journey to get better. The evolution of the fungo and fungo bat have a history all their own and we're just adding another chapter to the book. Check out the infographic below.

As new players take the field in practice with the start of a new year, team chemistry will be important. But why leave team chemistry to chance? Coaches have the responsibility to give their best efforts to understanding each player to effectively motivate each one, and collectively influence the entire team. Each player displays different strengths and weaknesses, and thanks to the DiSC test assessment, we can boil down a myriad of personalities into four basic behavioral profiles: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Compliance. These four profiles make up the the study’s acronym to feature the profiles within its very own name, and while people will exhibit a mix of each of the four, most of us are particularly "high" in one or two areas. If baseball is 90% mental and 10% physical, the DiSC personality assessment could be just the key coaches are looking for to unlock more of their players' mental game.

Ichiro Suzuki's long and impressive career has turned heads in the past week. Besides Ichiro's contributions as one of the greatest Japanese imports to the game of baseball, Ichiro is on pace to go down as one of the greatests players of all time, boasting 10 Golden Gloves and recently 3,000 hits in Major League Baseball. Ichiro's meticulous preparation, longevity, and success will be talked about for years to come.