Professional players make
NY Slugger Academy a hit
BY JASON COHEN
While MLB’s sign stealing
scandal is dominating baseball
headlines, one Bronx facility
is teaching kids how to
play the game properly.
New York Sluggers Academy,
located at 728 E. 136th
Street, trains a couple of hundred
youngsters each week,
ranging from youths to professionals.
The facility opened in
2012 and is operated by Brett
Brown and former MLB
player Eladio Rodriguez.
Since it’s inception, Brown
said he has been blown away
by the impact it has had on
the community.
“There was a need for a
baseball training facility unlike
anything else that’s currently
in the Bronx,” Brown
said. “Our goal is to get these
players to play at a high
level.”
Brown told the Bronx
Times he used to train kids
in a school gym with batting
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A kid trains at the NY Slugger Academy. Schneps Media Jason Cohen
cages, but knew he wanted do
more.
“I wanted to replicate
something like that,” he explained.
“We felt like there
was a better way to teach
baseball. We felt that in
the travel baseball community
within Manhattan, the
Bronx and Queens there
wasn’t a place that somebody
could go to really and train,
that was what the impetus
was to open.”
The facility has fi ve batting
cages with weight bearing
posts that are 12 feet
apart and a pitching tunnel.
Coached by former professional
players, the kids train
1-on-1 or as a team and learn
how to swing, fi eld, catch and
hit.
“It’s defi nitely more focused
and specialized,”
Brown said. “If you come
here you’re serious about
playing.”
Many MLB players work
out there, including St. Louis
Cardinals centerfi elder Harrison
Bader, who attended
the Horace Mann School.
Brown stressed how important
it is to have proper
mechanics and not just rely
on talent.
“Everybody who comes
here is blown away by the
place and what we do here,”
he commented.
Another key element of
the academy is the coaches
are local. Many of them work
at Bronx high schools, including
Cardinal Spellman
and Monroe.
In nearly a decade of running
the academy, he has observed
kids grow on and off
the fi eld. More importantly,
seeing them return when
they are older makes him
proud.
“It’s great when a player
comes back or when I see a
player that went to college
or high school,” Brown remarked.
The training camp recently
had the New York
regional director for USA
Baseball there watching the
kids.
“We’re building relationships,”
he said. I feel like the
area here in the Bronx and
Manhattan is overlooked.”
One youngster the academy
has impacted is Josh
Zola, 14. Zola, who lives in
the Manhattan, has been attending
the facility for three
years and plays for the Slugger
14U team.
He attended a few places
beforehand, but according to
his uncle Tony Porcello, none
have benefi tted him as much
as this one.
“They’re (the coaches)
the best with kids,” Porcello
said. “They’re strict, but
keep it fun.
“At this age it’s about
learning. They know what to
do, how to teach and what to
teach. We played with a couple
of other organizations,
but this place has the depth
and the facilities, which is
key.”
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