Kevin Long Teaches Hitting

Last week at the Dick’s Sporting Goods store in Rockaway Mall, NJ, New York Yankees batting coach Kevin Long stopped by to offer hitting tips to a group of youngsters from the Rockaway Township Little League.

Kevin went over the fundamentals of hitting and also demonstrated a few drills with individual players. The event — which took place last Monday, April 21st — ran about an hour and included a Q&A with Kevin as well as an autograph session after the lesson.

Come back to the V-Force blog to find out when an MLB hitting coach will be coming to YOUR area to talk about hitting!

Kevin Long talks about the importance of balance in your batting stance.

Kevin signs an autograph and answers questions after the lesson.

Kevin Long poses with members of Mattingly Baseball and Dick’s Sporting Goods. From left to right: Jim, Kevin, Jeff, Jake, and Howard.

More pictures from the event can be found on the Rockaway Township Baseball Association website here

Success at Kaskaskia

The Kaskaskia College Blue Devils have won 120 games in 3 years and have been named and Academic All-American Team for 2006 and 2007!

Kaskaskia is a junior college baseball team that uses Mattingly V-Grip bats exclusively, and has had 9 ballplayers drafted by pro teams in the past five years. More importantly, they have sent over 40 players to four-year schools in that same time span, including D1 programs such as Arizona State University, Tennessee Tech, and Indiana State (among others).

Head coach Brad Tuttle is a big believer in the V-Grip technology.

“I believe the Matting MVP V-Grip bat has increased our extra base hits dramatically.”

Kaskaskia College was the first community college in Illinois established under the Junior College Act of 1965. It has a rich tradition of providing comprehensive, high quality, cost-effective educational opportunities for lifelong learning.