By STEVE KRAH
This weekend’s Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association North/South All-Star Series is being held on Mike Frame Field at Huntington University’s Forest Glen Park.
Frame, a 1983 HU graduate who was head baseball coach for the Foresters for 39 years and a member of multiple halls of fame, addressed players and families at banquet prior to the games (two at noon Saturday, June 22 and one wood-bat contest at noon Sunday, June 23).
The man who lost a portion of his right leg during the COVID-19 pandemic talked about foundations.
“As a baseball player, you have to have foundations in place that are going to help you get to the next level,” said Frame, the father of current Huntington head coach Thad Frame. “If you don’t have those foundations you’re never going to make it in terms of higher levels of baseball.”
It’s a concept he ties to long-time Philadelphia Phillies scout Tony Lucadello, a man the young coach met early in his career while he was signing his then-Huntington College players.
“I asked Tony to give me some pointers in terms of recruiting and those kinds of things,” said Frame. “One thing that he shared with me is when you recruit somebody it’s from the waist down. The game of baseball is played from the waist down. Watch their feet and all the way up. I used that up until the last kid I recruited at Huntington because it makes a lot of sense.”
Frame recalls recruiting with wife Diane and telling her, “he can’t play.”
Diane would reply, “Why? He hasn’t even played yet.”
Mike came back with “He runs like a duck. I don’t think there are any ducks out there to play at a high level.”
Foundations in baseball from the feet helps in hitting, running, pitching and fielding.
There are also the foundations of family, friends and faith.
“Some day those foundations are going to be challenged and they’ve got to be in-place and they’ve got to be something you can lean on,” said Frame.
In Thanksgiving Day 2020 while working as head baseball coach and assistant athletic director, Frame got COVID-19 and was hospitalized and isolated from his family (including his wife, two sons and daughter) and friends.
His body started producing multiple blood clots and he was taken to Fort Wayne.
“They got all of them except one in my right heel,” said Frame. “They tried three or four times to get rid of it.”
That’s when he leaned on his faith.
“If you are a believer in Christ, that’s the time to say I believe this: I trust that you have things under control.”
Frame told the all-stars that they are at the height of their physicality.
“But what if that’s taken away?,” said Frame. “What if your foundations are challenged some day. Your’e married and you have a sick child. What’s going on?
“You have to put those (foundations) in place.”
www.IndianaRBI.com 