The American Legion Baseball team based in Scarborough, sponsored by Libby-Mitchell Post 76, has just hired coaching veteran and former UMO player Mike Coutts as its head coach for the summer 2006 season.
Coutts, 47, is an Auburn native who has coached in the Cape Cod Summer League in Massachusetts, and last summer in the Alaska College League for the Peninsula Oilers.
Coutts is owner of Frozen Ropes indoor baseball facility in Portland. He moved to Scarborough two years ago with his wife, Lynn, a former UMO softball player, and their two children, a son, 7, and a girl, 3.
Coutts was interviewed after the first Libby-Mitchell tryout Sunday April 30 at Tenney Lane field, off Pleasant Hill Road, Scarborough. Full disclosure: the interviewer for this column, Dan Warren, is also GM of the Libby-Mitchell team).
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Q: Mike, welcome to the Scarborough baseball coaching ranks.
A: Actually, I already coach my son’s single A Little League team!
Q: Okay, welcome to your second coaching job.
A: Thanks.
Q: Anybody ask you, why, at this point in your life, you want to spend your gorgeous summer days in June and July coaching doubleheaders on Saturdays in Legion ball?
A: Hey, I like baseball. I like coaching. We moved to Scarborough two years ago. It makes sense for me right now.
Q: Don’t you get your baseball fill at Frozen Ropes?
A: No. I enjoy teaching a lot, but this (Legion position) is game coaching. That is different. I can teach these kids some things, I think.
Q: So no concerns about spending dozens and dozens of hours this summer with Libby-Mitchell Post?
A: We have a camp upstate. I like it up there, but, you know, sunny day in July, 80 degrees? I would probably rather be on a baseball field.
Q: What does your wife say about that?
A: She is all for it. She came from a sports family. She played softball at UMO. The Alaska job last summer was actually her idea. She wants me coaching.
Q: What do your kids say?
A: My son has already asked if he can be a bat boy. Can he?
Q: Yes. He just has to wear a helmet at all times. We have had a lot of Scarborough Little Leaguers as bat boys the past five summers.
A: Great. Good introduction for some of them to good baseball.
Q: You have quite a coaching resume. Eleven years as part of the coaching staff at UMaine, Orono?
A: Yup, when I got done playing in l98l, Coach (John) Winkin asked me to jump in. I did. It was a great experience.
Q: You spent some time coaching down in Cape Cod too?
A: Yes, five years, l995 thru l999. Had some good players. Good teams. Kids from all over the country.
Q: I have some Boston Globe clippings that say you won some coaching awards in that league.
A: Yeah, we did okay. I probably have some of that stuff in the attic somewhere.
Q: Last summer in Alaska? A long way from home?
A: Yes, but another great coaching experience. Some good competition, some great college players go up there. Quite a change from Maine too. We would have brilliant sunlight at l0 pm. Different.
Q: So why American Legion baseball, and why now?
A: The thing I have heard since I got to Scarborough is that town is going to Class A in sports. We need to step it up. That means greater competiiton, some need to train and get bigger and stronger and faster than maybe was needed in the past.
Q: So you look at it as a big challenge?
A: Yes.
Q: So why do it? Why not take another coaching job elsewhere that would guarantee big success right off the bat.
A: I like a challenge. I like teaching. I like to see kids improve. That is why I coach and teach. I think we can make a big impact here in Scarborough. My wife and I like it here. We want to help.
Q: People in baseball know you are friends with a couple Major League players who used to play either for you, or with you, at Orono-Mike Bordick and Mark Sweeney. Should kids tryout for the Legion team expect to have VIP visits from these big stars?
A: (laughs). No, that is not what it is going to be about. But I will tell you that I can give these kids a glimpse of what has made these two Major Leaguers great for a long time.
Q: Like what?
A: Nobody works harder than Mike Bordick. Guy spent about l7 years in the big leagues from when he was signed in l986. He was not some first round draft pick who was guaranteed to make it. He worked his tail off. He took hundreds and hundreds of ground balls at shortstop. He did what coaches asked him to do. Great attitude. Very businesslike.
Q: How about Mark Sweeney? Got out of Maine in 1991 -played on some teams with Jim Dillon of Scarborough in late 80s and early 90s?
A: Yeah, he played with Jim. Mark always was a great hitter, but there are a lot of great hitters who get signed to play in the majors. He too has now been there, what, l5 years?
Q: He is with the San Francisco Giants this year?
A: Yes. He is playing some lB, maybe some outfield, will do a lot of pinchhitting, as usual.
Q: And there is a message for kids from Scarborough, Windham and Buxton and elsewhere that you want to send out with the Mark Sweeney story?
A: Do you know what it is like to be a pinch hitter in the National League?! It’s hard!
Q: What does it take?
A: Here is a guy who might sit the first few or many innings. Late innings, coach says, Sweeney, if the pitcher gets reached when we are up, you are pinch hitting for him. So Mark then has a short time maybe to get ready. Go to the cage. Go to the runway near the dugout. Take some swings. Get ready. Get psyched mentally.
Q: 15 years of that? He must have faced some great relief pitchers in late innings.
A: You bet. Some guys with heat and nasty stuff. Nasty.
Q: And Sweeney is still at it?
A: Exactly. The message I want to get across with players this summer – and with parents, too, don’t forget – is this is the type of approach you need to take to succeed. Whether it is baseball or anything in life, set a goal, and work at it. Work all the time. Work harder than anybody else.
Q: What do you tell kids about failure in baseball?
A: Hey, in baseball, you fail 7 out of l0 times at the plate, you hit .300, and that is good! Hang in there. Don’t give up.
Q: What about off field?
A: We will talk about training and weights and stuff like that for those players interested in that, and ready for that. But we will also talk about being a good person on the team. The Red Sox talk to me about “character guys” on their team. Guys who are good to have on the team, in the dugout. Legion ball is the same thing. We want good kids. We want to help make them better players.
Q: Any specific plans for Scarborough youth baseball? Will you be involved just with the l5 thru l9 year old boys in Legion ball, or with younger kids too?
A: My son is 7, so I have already gotten involved with a lot of these kids.
Q: Any coaching tips?
A: Yeah, pitch overhand to the kids, not underhand. And don’t use that tee! (Laughs). Am I going to get in trouble for saying that?!
Q: At Frozen Ropes, you see kids from all over southern Maine.
A: Yup. Portland, Deering, South Portland, Cape, Gorham, Buxton, all over.
Q: You have seen some successful programs and schools and towns? What types of stuff should Scarborough do as it moves into Class A ranks?
A:I think we have to keep trying to get as many kids as possible involved at ages 5, 6 and 7. Then we have to make sure we keep them involved. They have a lot of choices. We have to teach them the skills to allow them to succeed. Kids like what they can do well.
Q: Any changes made to games or practices you see as necessary?
A: We have to make sure they have fun. Have to keep them moving. Emphasize that baseball is not just sit on the bench for three innings, stand around and wait for a 3-run homer.
Q: Explain that.
A: I think if you ask anybody who has played for me on a team, I keep guys involved in games. How many outs are there. Where are you going with the ball if it’s hit to you. Ask a kid on the bench, should we run here? Take a base? Steal? Bunt? Hit and run? That is how kids learn. Teach them there is a lot about baseball maybe they haven’t thought enough about.
We need kids with all types of talents-big, strong, but also fast, quick, mentally sharp, good teammates.
Q: You will probably be told much of that has already been done and tried.
A: Well, we need to keep up the hard work. Keep trying. Hope for success more and more.
Q: What do you not see you would like to see?
A: I want to see kids who love the game. Love playing. I don’t see enough of that. They like the game, but to play and play well and play a lot, well, you have to love it.
Q: How to compete with other sports opportunities the kids have-lacrosse, summer basketball, year-round soccer?
A: Make sure the kids learn the whole game. Teach them about some fun stuff they might not know much about-going first to third on a single; baserunning; sliding; bunting; tagging up at 3B on a fly to left. Rundowns. Kids love that stuff. That is baseball, especially good baseball.
Q: What message do you have for high school kids who have played ten years, learned a lot, play well, and wonder what is next? The Scarborough High boys team this spring has l2 seniors on its roster. So that is l2 kids who have stuck with baseball?
A: Well, we need those kids playing summer ball. We need them to want to be challenged. We need them to want to excel.
Q: How is success measured? Statistics?
A: Stats are good, but they can be misleading. A kid might go 3 for 3, but were they three line drive shots up the middle, or a bloop, a handle shot, a ground ball between two slow fielders? Is there anything we can do to improve the player’s mechanics, help him be better, and against higher level competition?
Q: What do you ask of the players if they want your help? If you could give a 30 second message to some of the Scarborough top senior class ballplayers?
A: Are they serious? Do they want to play? Do they want to be on a team, come to games and practices, learn, watch, do what we ask them to do? Or is this a part-time hobby?My goal over the next few years is to get the high school kids to give a commitment. Commit to themselves. Commit to improving. Commit to the team, to making things better in Scarborough for little kids. Give the little kids some great role models to look up to. Soccer has done that, from what I can see, the past decade. Every five year old wants to play soccer around here!
Q: Legion baseball has kids do community service work. Get to know Legion members. Ride in the Memorial Day parade? You coached Legion ball in Auburn in the l980s. Any role for this type of activity?
A: Absolutely. Shows me they are good kids. Like the Red Sox say, we want “character” guys around here.
Q: Mike Bordick finally retired from MLB. But you didn’t follow his lead and get out of the game too?
A: Bordick’s not out of the game! Not by a long shot. He has continued to do some teaching and instruction with the Blue Jays each spring. He gets all kinds of offers to coach.
Q: Why do you think that is?
A: Character is one reason. But also how he played the game. That is a good message for teenaged boys to get-be the type of player your teammates respect. Be a guy everybody wants on a team. Be a leader.
If I can get that message across this summer, that is a big start. If we win some games, too, that is a bonus.
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