June 4th 2007
Game 3 of Regional at San Diego St.
Cal St Fullerton (Unranked) 2-0 in tournament
Fresno St. (Unranked) 1-1 in tournament
Starters:
Cal St Fullerton: Justin Klipp (First Start of the year… 4th start of Fullerton career)
Fresno St.: Brandon Burke (Had 13 saves the next year on the National Championship Team as a senior.)
Health Status:
Brandon Burke: Fairly Healthy (No known injuries)
Justin Klipp: Stress Fracture in left shin for the past 1½ months
My name is Justin Klipp. I was a recruited walk on at Cal St. Fullerton. I am here to share with you my rollercoaster ride of playing D1 college baseball and eventually my professional career. I arrived at San Diego St. that day the most nervous I had ever been for any reason in my entire life. I was only told that morning that I was starting!!! Before we even warmed up as a team, we sat in the stands watching the Fresno St./ Minnesota game to see whom we would be playing. Fresno St. had a promising young freshman on the mound who topped out at 96. A few batters into the inning, I witnessed one of the most terrifying and devastating incidents for a pitcher. I saw a pitcher’s worst nightmare before the most important start of my career. On a hanging slider… the guy at the plate smashed LITERALLY A LASER right back off the pitcher’s forehead. Everyone around me, including myself, just froze in shock at what had just happened. It was as if time had paused for ten seconds and once that ten seconds of shock wore off, it was then that my mind started racing like the Daytona 500. The ball must have flown off his head about 40 feet in the air before it landed. As I was listening to my I pod to pump me up before my game and to keep my mind at ease, my heart instantly fell to the bottom of my stomach. The pitcher was out for about ten minutes before they took him off the field. He ended up being ok suffering just a slight concussion and returned later that evening from the hospital to watch the rest of our game. However, if he had thrown a 95 mph fastball, he most likely would have been in a coma. Up until that very moment I had not one ounce of fear within me. Up until that moment…
Fear… fear is a major component of the game of baseball, even life. It is a natural instinct within us all, however, can be easily controlled with the right tools. I was fortunate enough to learn those tools at Cal St. Fullerton. Without those tools, I would not in a million years have been able to accomplish what I accomplished in my baseball career. I will share with you the secrets that have managed to bring the Titans to College World Series 15 out of the last 31 years. If you think the program is just plain lucky then you are sadly mistaken. There is a reason Cal St. Fullerton was ranked the 2nd best college baseball program since 2000 by Baseball America, only behind Oregon St. Over the course of this blog, you will learn the secrets of why I, Justin Klipp, pitched 4 2/3 innings allowing just 1 run, 4 hits and 1 BB striking out 4, against the future National Championship Fresno St Bulldogs in a Regional playoff game… ALL WITH A BROKEN SHIN!!!!!... not to mention witnessing a devastating comebacker just hours before my first start of the year. We won that game 13-2 and after the game, Coach Horton ( 2 time National Coach of the Year) personally apologized to me in front of the team for not letting me finishing the fifth inning to get my first career playoff win. (The reason I got pulled was because at the time it was a close game and I struck out the first 2 batters of the 5th inning however gave up back to back singles. I was noticeably getting tired and my pitch count had reached 80, which was the highest by 30 pitches I had thrown all year.) We went on to win our Super Regional at home against UCLA in 2 games to make our 15th appearance at Omaha in 31 years. I am excited to share with you the secrets that transformed my game and allowed me to perform even with a broken shin. I am excited to hear the results of you as coaches having great success with what I am about to share with you, as you teach the secrets that guarantee success to your kids. Get ready to hear crazy baseball stories that very few have the privilege to know. Get ready to coach championship teams!! Here is one last food for thought…
The day of the Nick Adenhart tragedy, I was at a Santa Ana junior college game watching this kid pitch and I happened to stumble upon my teammate and buddy Jon Wilhite. He was there with his buddy Henry Pearson who were there watching their buddy pitch before they were going to the Angels game that night. After the game, they were both passengers in the car of the tragic accident. Henry and two others, including Adenhart, perished in the crash, but fortunately Jon Wilhite survived with an internal decapitation. He is one of 6 people ever to survive his condition. My condolences go out to all the families of the victims of this horrific tragedy. You can donate to the Jon Wilhite Recovery Fund by going to any Wells Fargo Bank using the account 3980643658. What I was getting at before reflecting on this horrendous incident was that while at the Santa Ana game, Jon was telling me about his coaching a youth travel ball team. He told me that he took over a team whose previous season had a losing record of something like 8- 23. Jon was able to bring that team to start off the following season with an 11-2 record. Now, these were the same kids as the previous year…so logically one would think of the possible reasoning behind this sudden 180 degree turnaround. Did the kids work that hard in the offseason and get better physically? Doubtful… Did they all decide to get together and shoot steroids?? Haha… Or did they possibly just learn the correct way of how to play the game that very few have attained the knowledge of learning? Indeed… My buddy Jon was able to transform his players in just a short time to turn they into a winning team. My god…if it was just that easy!!! But it is… I will be posting one blog a week every Sunday until my story is told (which should take a few years). As you will be teaching these skills to your team, I will respond to your questions and concerns throughout the week. All of these posts will be a captivating story about my career followed by a tutorial on the mental aspects of the game that will enhance your experience as a coach and a father more than you will ever know…
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