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• 10 Year MLB Veteran
• Silver Slugger Award Winner
• All-Star Catcher
• Tigers - Yankees

(Hall of Famer) Frank Robinson and Tom McGraw sat me down one day in late January 1983, and asked me what type of hitter I thought I was? It was at a mini-camp for the prospects in San Francisco Giants Organization, but for me it was a turning point in my career. At that moment, I was a 19 yr old aspiring minor league hitter, with tons of raw talent, but without much "game" success up to that point.

Together we made an honest assessment of the type of hitter I was, and It was at that moment that everything changed for me as a hitter...and I knew it. Two years after that meeting I was called up to the Major Leagues for the San Francisco Giants. With all the failure in hitting as it is, I knew the difference between more false hope and the TRUTH in the form of the Major League Plan.

Immediately I had the direction I needed to develop my mental approach, and for the first time, in I don't know how long, my mechanics seemed simple because I knew what my objectives were. "I start in position A (my stance), and I need to get to position B (contact)". In truth, there were some movements that I still needed to learn to completely polish my swing, which was to be an ongoing process, but from that point on when I stepped up to the plate, I knew exactly what I needed to do.

E-mail: mattnokes@poweralley.net