MICHAEL SANTORO
CATCHER, NEW JERSEY
“During the last 3 games I haven’t had throwing problems. I’m still doing well. And
the work we did has improved other parts of my game.”
June 2003
I first e-
My Name is Michael Santoro, l am an 18 year old catcher from New Jersey. I have signed
for an athletic scholarship with a Division One college. I write to you because in
the last 8 games of my high school season I have had a persistent problem simply
throwing the ball back to the pitcher I throw the ball over his head, in the dirt,
high, low, to the left, and to the right I have had my pitchers stay after practice
with me so that I can practice throwing back to them. I have tried “clearing the
mechanism” trying to zone everything out. I’ve tried concentrating on my mechanics
and not concentrating on my mechanics, but resultantly, every 4 or 5, and sometimes
2-
about it. I tell myself
to stop thinking about it and play the game and I continue to think about it even
more. I can’t concentrate on the more important aspects of my catching because I’m
always only thinking about my throws. It absorbs my mentality and it’s very frustrating.
I play very, very tentative lately and it scares the hell out of me that I can’t
do something that I have been doing for years, thousands upon thousands of times.
My throwing to the bases tends to only suffer when I have an extremely bad game
throwing back to the pitcher. Out of the eight bad games maybe two were beyond embarrassing.
Although generally my throws to bases are perfect even when I don’t throw back to
the pitcher well. I feel like the catcher from that movie “Major League Il” and I
can’t understand why.
Please Doctor, I am a Division One Catcher. I am the hardest worker I know. Baseball
is solely without question my entire life. All year round, the only thing I care
about is baseball. I love and respect the game more than anyone else I have ever
met. Please help me rid myself of this painful problem. I want to have fun again.
I want to play the game the way it’s supposed to be played. I want to stop embarrassing
myself and affecting all other aspects of my game for such a stupid problem. Doctor
Crowley. I could really use some guidance. No one else seems to know what to do.
Thank you.”
On June 8th I worked with Dr. Crowley on the telephone for about an hour or so and
he walked me through my problems using his unique approach. Mind you we never met
in person and Dr. Crowley had never seen me play ball. We worked on several issues
such as (1) scared that I’ll throw the ball over the pitcher’s head: (2) my arm action
being too short and not bringing my arm all the way back behind me: (3) self-
I e-
The game on Sunday went very well, no bad throws and I felt very confident. We also
had a game on Tuesday night. and the entire game I was great until the 5th inning
when I threw about 3-
June 22nd: ‘I only had one more bad throw in the June 17th game. During the last
2-
July 24th: I’m still doing well. I’m glad I could help you with this testimonial
Maybe
someday you can help another catcher with my problem. Thanks again for all your help.”
Michael Santoro
Full Transcript and Testimonial of
MICHAEL SANTORO
CATCHER, NEW JERSEY
