Coaching Fundamentals

Bob "RED" Parker was born in Attleboro, Massachusetts on July 9th, 1916. He inherited red hair from his Irish ancestors, thus he was nicknamed "RED". "In the old days, we did not have coaches so I learned to play each position by trial and error. It turned out that my best position was pitcher."

"The Great Depression of 1929 was a very difficult time for everyone. President Roosevelt was elected in 1932 and soon developed some federal programs including the National Recovery Act, Civilian Conservation Corps and the Workers Protection Act. "I was 16 years old, in my third year of high school and the oldest of 3 children. My father only had 2 1/2 days work at that time so it was decided that I would leave high school and join the Civilian Conservation Cops in Winsted, Connecticut. The name of the camp was "Camp White". I earned $30 a month of which I kept $5 for myself and sent $25 home to help my parents and two younger brothers."

"Each CCC camp had approximately 200 young men. Baseball was a very popular pastime therefore each camp had a baseball team. The city of Winsted had a baseball league. The ages on their team were 20 to 30 years old! The ages on our team were from 16 to 18 years old. Our second line pitcher was pitching for us and I was playing left field. Going into the last of the 9th inning, we had an 8 to 6 lead. Our pitcher was having some trouble in the last inning. The score became 8 to 7 with 3 men on base, 3 balls, no out and no strikes on the batter! Our coach called a time out and called me in from left field to pitch the rest of the game. The pressure was on me big time. I couldn't throw a ball or the score would be tied. I could not let thebatter get a hit of any kind. I had been practicing my NASTY PITCH which was called the "OUTCURVE" in those days. I threw this "nasty pitch" directly at that batter's head. The batter tried to avoid being hit in the head while at the last second the ball quickly snapped into the strike zone. I struck the batter out as well as the next two batters and won the game 8 to 7!" The NASTY PITCH is explained in my book.

"I tried out for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1934. I only weighed 135 pounds back then. At the end of the week, baseball scout, Pop Kelcher, wanted to sign me up but was afraid I'd hurt my arm permanently because I was too thin. He suggested I go home and eat bananas in order to gain 10 pounds. He promised that if I could gain weight, he would sign me up. Unfortunately I couldn't gain an ounce but the experience was one I will never forget!"