Baseball 101

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»For Parents

»For Players

»For Coaches

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About Us

We here at Learnbaseball.us come from a background of professional scouting. We have observed lots of amateur baseball from the youth levels through the high school and college levels. Some of what we have seen has been excellent, but too much of what we have witnessed has been sub-standard. Far too many of our young players are not learning how to play the game properly.

  1. The fundamentals are lacking. Many young players do not have sound skills. Some youngsters do not throw or catch the ball correctly. Others have poor hitting technique and poor pitching mechanics. Even among some of the better players, the basics are inconsistent at best.
  2. Many youth players don’t understand why they are doing what they are doing. They often follow bad habits that they see in major leaguers, who are able to get away with technical flaws because of incredible physical gifts.
  3. Many of the amateur players do not have a good understanding of the game. Their knowledge of game situations is limited at best.
  4. Young players often lose interest in baseball over time, either because their flawed technique leads to limited success and/or they are not having fun in unstructured, poorly-organized, poorly-run programs. Many practice sessions are inefficient and unproductive. There is too much standing around and not enough skill-oriented, technique-intensive activity.
  5. Too much emphasis is placed on winning at the lower levels, when the primary goals should be skill development and learning how to play the game correctly.

We love baseball! It is a beautiful game that requires both physical skill and mental sharpness. It is a skill-based sport that demands consistent, technique-intensive practice. Proper instruction and coaching is the key to improving the level of play in the amateur ranks. We at Learnbaseball.us want to share our knowledge and experience with as many coaches, players, and parents as possible in order to improve the level of play from youth baseball through college.

John Brickley

John Brickley, 51, has been involved in baseball for close to half a century. He has been a player, manager, coach, and scout. His career includes ten years of scouting at the professional level, three years of managing and coaching at the collegiate level, ten years of coaching at the high school level, and over 25 years of playing experience at the professional, semi-professional, collegiate, high-school, and youth levels.

In 2005, Brickley was the interim manager of the Wareham Gatemen in the Cape Cod Baseball League, and, back in 1993, he served as bench coach, hitting instructor, and infield coach for the Harwich Mariners in the CCBL. In the ten years between CCBL coaching stints, Brickley was a scout in professional baseball. From 1993 to 1997, he scouted the New England area for the Kansas City Royals. And from 1997 to 2004, he was a Scouting Supervisor for the Cincinnati Reds, responsible for the organization’s scouting operations in the northeastern United States and eastern Canada.

During his playing days, Brickley was a sweet-swinging, left-handed hitting infielder. From 1975 through 1978, he played four years of varsity baseball at Rollins College (Winter Park, FL). In 1981, he played a year of professional baseball in Europe, signing with the Haarlem Nicols of the Royal Dutch Baseball Federation. For 15 seasons, Brickley was one of the top players in the Intercity Baseball League, a competitive summer league north of Boston, MA (1975-1980, 1982-1990).

In addition to his experience in the Cape League, Brickley has coached at many different levels in his career. He began coaching in 1979 while in graduate school at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, where he guided the school’s JV baseball team to 13-6 record. From 1983 through 1988, Brickley coached the Melrose High School freshmen baseball team to an overall record of 61-7-3, including two undefeated seasons. In 1985, Brickley became the player-manager of the Melrose Rams, a new team in the Intercity Baseball League. In two years at the helm, Brickley led the Rams to an overall record of 45-13-1, including back-to-back regular-season crowns in 1985 and 1986, and a playoff championship in 1986. From 1988 through 1990, Brickley was the player-manager of the Augustine’s As of the Intercity Baseball League. During his three-year tenure, he led the A’s to an overall record of 60-26-3, including two first-place finishes in 1998 and 1990, and a playoff championship in 1990. From 1989 through 1992, Brickley coached the Melrose High School varsity baseball team, where two of his perennially competitive teams qualified for Massachusetts state tournament play in 1989 and 1990. He was voted Middlesex League Coach-of-the-Year by his peers in 1990. Brickley has also been an instructor at many baseball clinics and camps throughout his career.

Brickley holds a M.S. in Sport Management from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst (1981), and a B.A. in Mathematics and Business Administration from Rollins College (1978). He was a high school mathematics teacher for 17 years before going to work full-time in professional baseball.

George Biron

George is a new member of our team and we're thrilled to have him on board. He's serving as our Senior Pitching Instructor and you can see his work in our Basics of Pitching DVD.

George's baseball background is extensive, having spent 31 years as a professional scout. Before that, he was the head baseball coach at Manchester (N.H.) Central High School (`71-`76). In his playing days, he was the Captain of Keene State College as a Junior and a Senior as well as a four year starter there. George was inducted into the Keene State Hall of Fame in 1988. George is also the director of the Mount Wachusett Community College Baseball School (1983-present).

Kelly Sullivan

Kelly joined us in May of 2009 to present Baseball 101 for Women with us on DVD. She's a 2008 graduate of Northeastern University and possesses a B.S. in Journalism. She is also a Second Lieutenant in the Massachusetts Army National Guard serving as a public affairs officer/adjutant general officer. Kelly is an outstanding public speaker and we look forward to having her work with us doing our live 101 presentations.

Dan Mason

Dan has spent the last year and a half (post-draft `06 & `07) with ESPN Scouts Inc. as their Northeast Scout. During his tenure there, he covered the top ten rounds of the amateur draft, as well as the top prospects in the AA Eastern League, the AAA International League, and the Cape Cod Baseball League. Prior to ESPN, he was an associate scout with the New York Mets in 2006, a year where four New Englanders were selected in the draft by the Mets.

Dan is also a founding member of learnbaseball.us, creating the company in April of 2008!

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