2011 CBD Journal with Ray Ricker Archive

Well it’ that time of the year again for our team. Its time for the second season. This is the season that we have prepared for day in and day out since the fall. This is the time that you dream of the stakes are raised and everything you do matters. Playoff baseball, there is nothing like it and we have the opportunity to play Chestnut Hill College at home for our schools first ever playoff game we have hosted. Read the rest of this entry »

This season has never really caught a rhythm with all of the rainouts and cancellations of games but we are right at the finish line of the regular season. It seems as a short while ago I was writing about our indoor practices and a season full of optimism. Good thing for us we have had a pretty successful year on the diamond and it makes you not want to stop playing for a very long time. We have one game left in the regular season versus a very good UMass-Lowell team who we played earlier in the week and lost on a dramatic walk off homerun. Read the rest of this entry »

Hello everyone. Sorry I have been a little erratic with the blog but it has been a crazy time. It seems as if every other game we are getting rained out. We have played many games since then and are doing a good job of staying in close ball games. Currently we are 19-11 and we sit in third place in the CACC at 9-5 with 6 games coming up in the next two weeks. This stretch is what we have been waiting for as many teams in our league are making their playoff push. Read the rest of this entry »

Consistency. It is a word that every coach uses on a daily basis. Consistency in your swing, mechanics on the mound, weight room, and in the classroom. It is much easier coaching and working with a known product then trying to deal with the unknown. Our players have done a great job at working at being consistent in their work on and off the diamond. It seems as if we can’t get into a consistent swing with Mother Nature. It feels like every week I stare at my computer, start thinking about the week that has gone by and write about some of the things that have gone on, seems easy enough. Not an easy task when you cannot get onto a field because of rain or in my case I had to cancel our conference doubleheader with Bloomfield because of snow! Snow in late March is not what you plan on as a baseball coach. Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome back everyone. It is great to be home in the Northeast getting ready for some cold conference baseball. The short sleeves are a distance memory of what we have been dealing with for the past week and a long time to come. Our field has not been ready for us to get on our field so we have been back to our old tricks of gym practices, BP, and our team lifts. Such is the life of Northeastern teams. Read the rest of this entry »

Hello again. Hope everyone’s season is off to a good start. We have just gotten back from our spring trip with a ton of positives and some negatives including my Kenny Powers Oakley Sunglass tan. The weather was great down in the Fort Pierce area it was in the 80’s which was great for my golf game and even better for us northerners to get a chance and be outside again to play some baseball. Read the rest of this entry »

Hello everyone. Finally after months of indoor practices the 2011 Post University Eagles were able to play on an actual field and not a gym floor. We opened up our season in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina at the Cal Ripken Experience Complex for the North East Challenge. This was our second year headed to this event and it gets better every year. The complex has three all turf fields and are replicas of old major league ball parks. Read the rest of this entry »

Hello everyone ! Hope you all had a great Valentine’s Day with that special someone in your life. Valentine’s Day is a great day to show that special someone how much you actually care about them, but it’s also the report date for pitchers and catchers. Now this is a great day. Like every other true baseball guy, we look forward until the first pitch of the season. A couple of DII schools have started up already while Division I schools start this week. Tons of changes to the college landscape will happen this year, from the bats that some schools use to a pitch clock. I cannot say that I am in favor of a pitch clock; that has always been one of the great things about the game of baseball that you cannot sit on the clock. I understand that you need to make the college game friendlier to the TV audience, but I don’t think a clock is the best thing we can do for the game. Read the rest of this entry »

Hello again from even more snow in Connecticut. It was unusually warm here for SuperBowl Sunday with the temperature getting into the 40’s.You have to be part meteorologist to be a baseball coach, with rain and teams traveling from far away you have to be able to predict what is going to happen a couple of hours before gametime. This is a skill I’m still trying to perfect, with snow in the forecast again this week the coaching staff has come to the realization that we are not going to practice on a real baseball field for another 16 days in Myrtle Beach; which by the way has temperatures in the 60’s. We’re excited for the weather but even more to get on the field and out of the gym. Read the rest of this entry »

Hello from beneath 4 feet of snow in the Northeast and unfortunately a lot more snow in forecast in the coming days!

My name is Ray Ricker and I am in my fourth season as Associate Head Baseball Coach at Division II Post University in Waterbury, Connecticut. The Post University Eagles compete in the C.A.C.C. (Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference) which unlike many colleges in the country, we don’t have to worry about the new bats this year, because our conference only swings wood. Our guys really like swinging the wood, our pitchers love throwing to them, and the game is played the way it is supposed to be played with a crack of the bat and not a ping. Read the rest of this entry »