January 2020 is Hall of Fame month for Barmes

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Clint Barmes and his family reside about 30 miles north of Denver in Mead, Colo.

There they can experience a “Rocky Mountain High.”

The past two Fridays, Barmes has experienced highs back on his native soil.

On Jan. 10, the Vincennes, Ind., native was inducted into the Indiana State Athletics Hall of Fame in Terre Haute. He went into the Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame on Jan. 17 at a ceremony in Indianapolis.

The Class of 2020 also included George Cuppy, Tony Uggen, Scott Upp and Brian Abbott. Dennis Kas was recognized in the Hall of Fame spotlight.

Barnes, a 1997 graduate of Vincennes Lincoln High School, played two seasons at Olney (Ill.) Central College and one at Indiana State University. A shortstop, he was selected by the Colorado Rockies in the 10th round of the 2000 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft and made is big league debut in 2003. He played with the Rockies, Houston Astros, Pittsburgh Pirates and San Diego Padres and retired after the 2016 season in the Kansas City Royals organization.

His 13-year career included 1,186 games, a .245 batting average, 89 home runs, 208 doubles, 43 stolen bases and 415 runs batted in.

Since retiring, Barmes has jumped into youth coaching. He is part-time assistant baseball coach at Berthoud (Colo.) High School. Much of his time is spent coaching his own children.

Clint and Summer Barmes’ son Wyatt (12) and daughter Whitney (9) are involved in sports and are coached by one or both parents — Wyatt in baseball, basketball and soccer, Whitney in softball, basketball and soccer.

“Our weeks are pretty full,” says Barmes, who was going to go to Los Angeles from Indianapolis for Wyatt’s all-star travel tournament.

“We didn’t want to burn him out,” says Barmes. “He still wants to work and do that kind of stuff in the wintertime. I don’t want to hold him back either.

“I wanted to give him a chance to see what other talent’s out there at his age level and keep him going in sports.”

When Clint Barmes was 12 he was playing about 25 Bambino League baseball games a year in Vincennes. He played at Lincoln High for Phil Halsema and Chris Rhodes.

“I was a Cardinal fan growing up and I wanted to play in the big leagues,” says Barmes of his boyhood aspirations. “That didn’t change until around my senior year in high school. I didn’t know if it was going to happen for me. I was open to play college ball. Just past high school.

“At Olney Central, I got a little bigger and a little stronger. The work I was putting in compared to the high school level was night and day. Putting all that extra work into it, I really started to take off.”

Barmes played for head coach Dennis Conley at OCC.

“(Conley) taught the game and it was more than just seeing the ball, hitting the ball, catching it and throwing it,” says Barmes. “It was breaking down the simplicities of the game and trying to follow and think ahead.

“That’s when all that stuff really started to come to me. It started with him. He’s a brilliant man. He’s really passionate and knowledgable about the game.”

Barmes is grateful what Conley did for him when he was a player there and also for the chance to come back during the winters as a professional and train since Olney is only about 30 miles from Vincennes.

At ISU, Barmes played for Bob Warn. He credits the IHSBCA Hall of Famer for giving him freedom while also adding to his game.

“(Barmes) allowed me to play and be the type of player that I was at that time,” says Barmes. “He could have broken me down. There was so many things that I was doing that weren’t the right ways to do it.

“Once I got into pro ball I had to completely change my swing. But, thankfully, I had success like I did (Barmes hit 375 with 93 hits, 18 doubles, seven triples and 10 home runs to go along with 63 runs scored, 37 RBI and 20 stolen bases as a Sycamore). He let me play.

“I remember learning to play the game the right way once I got to college. It was anticipating — especially at shortstop. I was learning how to pay attention to hitters and pitchers on the mound and what they’re trying to do. It was following the game and whatever is being called. Before, I was waiting for the ball to be hit my direction as simple as that sounds.”

Barmes came out of college with a “metal bat swing” and needed to adjust with the help of Rockies minor league instructors Alan Cockrell, Billy White and Theron Todd.

“You look at the sweet spot on a metal bat compared to a wooden bat — not to mention the weight is a little heaver with wood,” says Barmes. “I learned to use my hands and work down and through the ball to create backspin. (With a metal bat), I would get a little long, drop my back side and try to lift. I was thinking that was how you were supposed to drive the ball.

“The (metal) bats we used were pretty loaded when I played in high school and even college. You could get jammed and still hit home runs. The ball off our bats was pretty hot.”

While Barmes was used at other positions (he logged 351 MLB appearances as a second baseman), he identified himself as a shortstop.

“That’s where I loved to play,” says Barmes. “Shortstop was always my love. That was always my favorite position.”

Barmes came to understand what it meant to shift and that if the pitcher hit his spot, it was likely the hitter would send the ball to a certain spot on the infield and he would be ready for it.

“You try not to give it up too early,” says Barmes. “But you start cheating (in that direction) in certain ways.”

There came a point where Barmes might be asked to play in the hole for a right-handed pull hitter or told to play right of the bag with a hitter who projects to hit it that way.

“(Shifting) never happened to me until I was in the big leagues,” says Barmes. “Nowadays, I’ve seen it in Little League.”

Don Baylor was Barmes’ manager in Colorado.

“Don was a great coach all-around,” says Barmes. “He was very knowledgable about the game and more on the mental side.

“At the big league level, that’s very important. If you can’t hit by the time you get to the big leagues, it’s going to be a struggle. Now you have to work with your mental and approach.”

Barmes says it helps to clear the mind so the hitter can focus on seeing the ball or what they’re going to do in a particular (ball-strike) count.

“(Baylor) talked about throwing your hands in the slot,” says Barmes. “I picked that up from Don (as well as Cockrell, White and Todd).

“That was the old-school way of teaching hitting and it worked for me. My hands started my swing and my body would kind of do what it does. If I started thinking lower half or anything but my hands, a lot of times it slowed me down.”

Clint was not the first Barmes to play in the majors. A relative on his grandfather’s side of the family — Vincennes-born Bruce “Squeaky” Barmes — got a September call-up with the 1953 Washington Senators. He played 11 full seasons (1950-60) in the minors and hit .318 and made all-star teams in the Florida State League and Tri-State League. A 5-foot-8 left-handed hitter, he was known for his speed.

“I didn’t meet Bruce until I was in A-ball,” says Barmes. “I was playing for Asheville (N.C.) and we were in Hickory (N.C.).

“This older gentleman is yelling at me from the concourse, ‘Hey Barmes!’ and at that point nobody ever pronounced it right (it’s Bar-Muss). This guy must know me because he’s saying my name right. He starts talking about Vincennes and throws out all these names of people I’m related to.”

After that, Clint got to know Bruce and his family and would see them on trips to the East Coast.

During his speech at the IHSBCA Hall of Fame dinner, Barmes thanked all his coaches from youth leagues on up.

“Now that I’ve been coaching, I understand what it means for these kids to get good coaching,” says Barmes. “The role they are playing is very important. The impact that they have on these young players may be more than they realize.

“I’m one of them.”

Clint Barmes, a Vincennes (Ind.) Lincoln High School graduate who played at Olney (Ill.) Central College, Indiana State University and 13 seasons in Major League Baseball, was inducted into the Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame Jan. 17, 2020, in Indianapolis — a week after he went into the Indiana State Athletics Hall of Fame. (Steve Krah Photo)

 

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It’s all about service for 2020 IHSBCA Hall of Famer Abbott

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Brian Abbott has been an educator, coach and administrator for a long time.

In all his roles, he has strive to follow the model of servant leadership.

“I like serving others,” says Abbott, who will go into the Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame with George Cuppy, Clint Barmes, Scott Upp and Tony Uggen during a Jan. 17, 2020 banquet as a contributor/coach. “I like baseball. I’ve met a lot of good people.

“I have a lot of good friends that I never would have met if I was not involved.”

Abbott, who grew up in Carroll County and graduated from Delphi (Ind.) High School in 1979, began his coaching career as a teenager at the local Babe Ruth League level. He led a group of 13-year-olds to the state tournament in Noblesville.

He pitched at Huntington (Ind.) College (now Huntington University), graduating in 1983, and served one year as an assistant at Brookville (Ind.) High School (now part of Franklin County High School) followed by 21 years as a high school head coach at Eastbrook and Huntington North. His teams won more than 300 games, seven county championships, four conference titles, three sectional crowns, one regional title and made one Final Four Appearance (1999 with Eastbrook).

As Eastbrook coach, Abbott got to compete against baseball minds like future IHSBCA Hall of Famers Ty Calloway at Western, Greg Marschand at Lewis Cass and George Phares at Taylor.

“I always thought the (Mid-Indiana) Conference was tough when I first started,” says Abbott. “The teams were all good because their coaches were really good.”

Abbott had the distinction of pitching the first no-hitter on the new lighted Delphi diamond when he was a junior for the Oracles. He played for three coaches while in high school — Greg Fisher, Dave Young and Mike Lane.

Long before Abbott was associated with high school baseball, he regular at the IHSAA State Finals and remembers seeing Paul “Spider” Fields lead Lafayette Jeff to its second state championship in 1973. Another found memory is going with his father and grandfather to the Colt League World Series, an event organized by Hall of Famer Harry Bradway and staged at Loeb Stadium in Lafayette. One year, he saw future big league pitcher Sid Fernandez compete there.

During the single-class era, Delphi played in an IHSAA sectional with Lafayette Jeff (coached by Fields), West Lafayette (coached by Hall of Famer Fred Campbell), McCutcheon (coached by Hall of Famer Jake Burton), Harrison and Lafayette Central Catholic.

Abbott and Burton first faced off back in the ‘70s Babe Ruth coaching days when Abbott was in Delphi and Burton in Dayton, Ind.

As a Huntington Forester, Abbott played for three head coaches — Jim Wilson, Fred Vonderlage and Tim McKinnon. Current HU coach and Hall of Famer Mike Frame was a third baseman and classmate of Abbott.

In Brookville, the hometown of Brian’s wife, Trisha Abbott, he got to work with another coach bound for the Hall of Fame — Jim Hughes.

“He was a good mentor to me,” says Abbott of Hughes. “He loved baseball. He loved sports. He was a positive person. He always had something good to say about everybody.

“He was one of those people you hate to lose.”

Abbott currently as a pitching coach at Huntington U. and held that position at Indiana Wesleyan University.

A math teacher for 37 years, Abbott currently instructs eighth graders at Riverview Middle School in Huntington. He holds master’s degrees in mathematics and administration from Ball State University.

He often drives to the nearby Crossroads League games himself. When Huntington makes weekend trips to places like Tennessee in February, Abbott and a friend get on the road about 2 a.m. and then come back to Huntington after the last game.

For several summers, Abbott has worked for Hammel Floor Service, sanding, re-lining and lettering basketball floors. He uses his math skills to put down and fill in the patterns.

“It’s really been neat,” says Abbott. “I’ve had a chance to go to a lot of different venues.”

Abbott has been part of a crew that did gyms at most of the North Central Conference schools as well as Market Square Arena, the University of Notre Dame, Purdue University and many more.

He knows about the intricacies of sanding a parquet floor, such as the one at Carmel High School.

He’s met many accomplished coaches — men like George Griffith, Norm Held, Bill Stearman, Howard Sharpe, Jim Miller and Steve Shondell — and had the privilege of putting the name of John Wooden on the hardwood at Martinsville High School.

“Growing up, he was a guy I respected,” says Abbott of Wooden, the coaching legend. “I read his book.

“I feel like I have a good feel of the high school land. I follow high school sports and I love baseball. Being in the association is a good role for me because I feel like I’ve got a pretty good feel for a lot of different things.”

After serving as associate executive director to Hall of Famer Bill Jones, Abbott has spent the past eight years at IHSBCA executive director.

He was nominated for Hall of Fame induction by the IHSBCA executive council.

“I was very humbled by it,” says Abbott. “I’m a mule. I’ve coached.

“It’s been a really good experience.”

Abbott got his start in the IHSBCA when future Hall of Famer Rick Atkinson of Mississinewa invited him to his first State Clinic.

“Little did I know what he was trying to do,” says Abbott. “I didn’t figure it out until about a year later.

“I kind of got drafted into service.”

Atkinson would take statewide IHSBCA office and turn over his district representative duties to Abbott, who led the group that fed the old Kokomo Regional for years.

In that role, he got to know one of the association’s founders and leaders in Jones.

“Bill was very thorough and very complimentary,” says Abbott. “He was very nice to me. He would take me underneath his wing and teach me things.”

Abbott has seen the IHSBCA membership grow. Each January, the association’s state clinic brings around 500 coaches to Indianapolis.

The latest renovation at the Indiana Baseball Hall of Fame in Jasper is almost paid off.

“We’ve been working real hard at that the last couple of years,” says Abbott. “The coaches association put in about a third of that money — in the $240,000 or $250,000 range.

This week, the IHSBCA presented five proposals to Indiana Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association and is hoping for action by the Indiana High School Athletic Association.

“I’m just trying better baseball,” says Abbott. “I think my strength is as an organizer and listening to other people and figuring out how I can serve them better.

“I haven’t been afraid to change things. When Bill (Jones) started I’m sure he had to make some adjustments.

“As we’ve had solutions and suggestions come along, I’ve been willing to be open and say let’s give it a shot.”

One of those things was starting a Futures Game last year as part of North/South all-star activities.

“It’s a good adjustment from the Junior Showcase,” says Abbott.

The 2020 Futures Game and North/South All-Star Series is to be held in Evansville.

Brian and Trisha Abbott have two children — Tyler (who is married to Chelsie and have a son named Quinn) and Briley.

Brian Abbott, the executive director of the Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association, will go into the Indiana Baseball Hall of Fame in January 2020 as a contributor/coach. He is also an eighth grade math teacher in addition to serving as pitching coach at Huntington (Ind.) University.

 

Cuppy, Barmes, Upp, Uggen, Abbott going into IHSBCA Hall of Fame in 2020

BY STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Two former big league players and three coaches will be enshrined in the Class of 2020 of the Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

The ceremony is slated for 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 17, 2020 during the IHSBCA Coaches Clinic at Sheraton at Keystone Crossing in Indianapolis.

George Cuppy, a right-handed pitcher who played in the majors from 1892-1901, was selected by the veterans committee. He was born in Logansport, Ind., in 1869 and died in Elkhart, Ind., in 1922.

Cuppy won 162 games with the National League’s Cleveland Spiders and St. Louis Perfectos and the American League’s Boston Americans.

Four others — Clint Barmes, Scott Upp, Tony Uggen and Brian Abbott — were selected by a vote of the IHSBCA membership. The ballot went out in October.

Primarily a middle infielder, Barmes enjoyed 13 seasons in Major League Baseball.

Barmes is a graduate of Vincennes Lincoln High School (1997), played one season each at Olney (Ill.) Central College and Indiana State University, the latter for Hall of Fame coach Bob Warn.

While at ISU, Barmes was voted all-region and all-conference after hitting .375 with 93 hits, 10 home runs, 18 doubles, seven triples, 37 runs batted in, 63 runs scored and 20 stolen bases.

He was drafted by the Colorado Rockies in the 10th round in 2000. He played eight seasons with the Rockies (2003-10), one with the Houston Astros (2011), three with the Pittsburgh Pirates (2012-14) and one with the San Diego Padres (2015), hitting .245 with 89 homers, 415 RBI, 932 hits, 434 runs scored and 43 stolen bases.

Barmes appeared in the postseason twice (2009 and 2013) and hit .286 in the 2013 National League Division Series.

Upp is active as the head coach at LaPorte (Ind.) High School. He is a 1986 LPHS graduate. He coached the Slicers to an IHSAA Class 4A state title in 2000.

In 21.5 years, Upp is 472-197 with five Duneland Athletic Conference titles, eight sectional championships, three regional crowns, two Final Four appearances and one state championship in 2000.

He is a six-time IHSBCA District Coach of the Year, the State Coach of the Year, and District 4 National Coach of the Year. He has been IHSBCA president and served on its board of directors and numerous committees. He is a member of the IHSBCA, American Baseball Coaches Association and National High School Baseball Coaches Association.

Upp coached the 1997 IHSBCA North All-Stars and has sent several players on the college baseball with four making it to the professional ranks.

A graduate of LaPorte, where he played and later coached with 13-time Hall of Famer Ken Schreiber, played at and earned his bachelors degree from Missouri State University. He has a Masters in Administration from Indiana University and is in his 28th year in education, currently serving as associate principal at LPHS.

Scott and Pam Upp have three sons — Kevin (who played baseball at Valparaiso University), Kyle (who played baseball at Purdue University) and Travis (who currently plays at Purdue Fort Wayne).

Uggen has been the head coach at his alma mater — Blackford High School — for the past six years after 20 at Northfield and has 476 victories, 13 conference titles, seven sectional championships, four regional crowns, two semistate titles, Class 2A state championships in 2001 and 2012 and a 2A state runner-up finish in 2013.

He has coached six IHSBCA North All-Stars, 15 all-state players and 20 have gone on to the next level.

A two-time 2A Coach of the Year, he was IHSBCA North All-Star head coach in 2006 and seven times a District Coach of the Year. He has served on several IHSBCA committees.

Abbott has been the IHSBCA executive director since 2012 and spent 21 years as a high school coach, serving at Eastbrook and Huntington North.

He amassed more than 300 wins, seven county championships, four conference titles, three sectional crowns, one regional title and a Final Four appearance in 1999. Abbott is also the pitching coach at Huntington University and has been on the baseball coaching staffs of Manchester University and Indiana Wesleyan University.

Ticket information for the Hall of Fame dinner is available through HOF Chairman Jeff McKeon at 317-445-9899 or jmckeon@plainfield.k12.in.us.