See the Best in the World Compete

Being the Best in the World. How much better can it get?

The Olympics are competing to see who's the best in the highest level of softball. They also have competition for baseball to see who's the best in the world of those who aren't playing in their respective professional leagues, but we can watch the World Series in a few months to see who will be crowned World Champion.

Little League gives us their version of a world championship to watch on our TV's as well (although it can be argued that some travel teams would be better in this age group).

Men's Slow Pitch will be having their World finals in September although not televised.

I would encourage you to watch any and all of these, I think as I write this the women's gold medal game is only 7 hours away, so by the time you receive this there won't be time to watch this, but highlights are still up on NBCOlympics.com with some video of Crystl Bustos' swinging for the fences (for those wanting to be a female power hitter. Did you know she started out as a left handed slapper?)

This weekend the kids remind us all of the joy of the game. You can catch them on this schedule:

THURSDAY (AUGUST 21) 4 p.m. (ESPN): Latin America (Coquivacoa Little League, Maracaibo, Venezuela) vs. Mexico (Matamoros Little League, Matamoros, Tamaulipas)

8 p.m. (ESPN): U.S. Southeast (Citrus Park Little League, Tampa, Florida) vs. U.S. Southwest (South Lake Charles Little League, Lake Charles, Louisiana)

The World Series then moves on to the Championship Weekend.

SATURDAY (AUGUST 23) 12:30 p.m. (ABC): International Championship 3:30 p.m. (ABC): United States Championship

SUNDAY (AUGUST 24) Noon, ESPN: Consolation Game 2 p.m., ESPN: Little League Webgems Show 2:30 p.m., ESPN: Little League Baseball World Series Preview Show 3:30 p.m., ABC: Little League Baseball World Series Championship

Catch the Webgems show if you're a kid and need motivation to get better.

Who was the best in 1927?

The next best way for me is to talk to people who've done it. Read books about great players, listen to interviews, watch the web gems.

Did you know that the best team in the world back in 1927 was the New York Yankees? Of course you did. And you knew that Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig were two of their great players.

But did you know that Babe Ruth actually recorded his thoughts on playing baseball after that season? There's an e-book of over 100 pages of these thoughts from the best in the world of that time (some say all time).

This webpage is where to get all the information -- https://www.theinternethittingcoach.com/BabeRuth

Other resources from some of the best in the world

Many feel that ASA is much stronger and they are playing their national championships now.

I had a chance to chat with a 12 national ASA championship coach and get his thoughts on hitting on to a CD recording. His name is Phil Bruder. Find out how to hear what Phil has to say about hitting at this website -- https://www.theinternethittingcoach.com/phil-bruder-hitting.html

And another event that happened over the summer has never happened before, one man hit 27 home runs before he hit 10 outs in the home run derby!

If you want to see if you can learn anything about hitting, maybe even be the best in the world at hitting, some people recorded the swings for us on YouTube, look for "Home Run Derby 2008" or "Josh Hamilton". If you want to see all 3 hours you can go to http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/espn360/player?id=2008071401 (start at 1 hour 26 minutes).

I learned a lot from that even and watching those swings along with teaching my all-star team this year, so I'll be sharing those thoughts with you next time.

Thanks for reading and talk to you next time.

Coach Andy

6801 Dove St. Ventura, CA 93003

805-642-5827