Best mound conversation ever

The other day a friend asked me “what do coaches tell pitchers when they go to the mound?”  It reminded me of the best mound conversation I ever heard.  First, here’s some background on the story.
I was playing shortstop at the time but because I had pitched in college as well, I always was interested in what pitching coaches told their pitchers so I would frequently walk in to the mound to hear what was being said.  The pitcher in this story was one of the best all-round athletes I ever played with.  He threw very hard but early in his pro career he frequently just tried to throw the ball past everyone.  It took him a while to learn to pitch instead of just throw.  Many conversations by our pitching coach didn’t seem to be all that effective.  In short, he drove our pitching coach nuts.  One night, the pitcher was again stuck in that strategy and was struggling with his command.  The pitching coach decided on a different approach.  He called time, walked to the mound and said the following:

“Ok, here’s what I want you to do.  Keep trying to throw as hard as you can, don’t get ahead of batters, stay up in the zone, don’t change speeds, and let’s see just how long we can be out here tonight.” 

“…we’re dealing with a lot of **** here.”

 He then patted him on the butt and jogged off the field leaving the pitcher completely bewildered and me laughing (with my glove up in front of my face) all the way back to shortstop.  


I don’t know if it tops the wedding gift / animal sacrifice meeting in the movie Bull Durham, but I sure liked it!


Have any good stories of your own?