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Simmons testing Brewers catchers
The Official Site of The Milwaukee Brewers: News: Simmons testing Brewers catchers
PHOENIX -- Every day for two years in the early 1980s, the Brewers' starting catcher would sit with his backup to talk baseball. Ted Simmons often presented a test for young Ned Yost, which is why Yost had to smile earlier this spring when the Brewers' current catcher walked into the manager's office with a puzzled look on his face.
Simmons, now 58 and joining the coaching ranks after nearly 20 years out of uniform, had presented catcher Jason Kendall with a puzzle: Say you have a baserunner in a rundown and you run him back to the base, only there's another baserunner already occupying it. One of the runners is out, but Simmons told Kendall there is a way to get a double play out of the scenario.
Then Simmons turned around and walked away.
Now, Kendall is no rookie. He is a 12-year veteran of the big leagues who has caught 1,625 games. But he went straight to Yost and confessed, "I don't have any idea."
Simmons, now 58 and joining the coaching ranks after nearly 20 years out of uniform, had presented catcher Jason Kendall with a puzzle: Say you have a baserunner in a rundown and you run him back to the base, only there's another baserunner already occupying it. One of the runners is out, but Simmons told Kendall there is a way to get a double play out of the scenario.
Then Simmons turned around and walked away.
Now, Kendall is no rookie. He is a 12-year veteran of the big leagues who has caught 1,625 games. But he went straight to Yost and confessed, "I don't have any idea."
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