Stitcher

Google

Spotify

During this episode of Ahead of the Curve, I interviewed Larry Day, Manager of the Arizona League Indians Red for the Cleveland Indians. Larry shares a wealth of information regarding how he goes about balancing the development of players with winning, how he establishes the team culture with players that are from all over and may not speak English as their first language. Larry Day also provides advice from mentors like Coach Tim Corbin from Vanderbilt University that has been very beneficial to him. 

Episode Highlights: 

How did Larry Day get involved in baseball and as a coach?   

What set’s Coach Tim Corbin apart as a coach? 

What is the reason for the fist bump touches among the players?  

What did his process look like when he began his position? 

Larry discusses the importance of communication. 

What does the process look like for balancing the development of players with winning? 

What does a typical day of training look like? 

How do they go about culture-building and transitioning players from all over to be ready to be a professional baseball player?  

What are some different things that Larry helps grow the coaches he is around every day? 

What are some things Larry does to build relationships with his players from different backgrounds?  

What are some of the latest things that Larry has learned that he is excited about? 

How do we relay complicated details with data for players that don’t naturally speak English?

What is something that he does in practice that his players love? 

Is there anything that Larry Day believes that other coaches might disagree with?  

What are some of his favorite books and resources? 

 

3 Key Points:

Embracing the diversity of different races, cultures, and ages of players helps to establish culture-building.  

Dan Coyle, the author of the book “The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups” works with Larry Day’s players. 

Players don’t care what you know until they know that you care. 

 

Tweetable Quotes:

(Coach Tim Corbin) “He certainly is elite as it comes to coaching and teaching and that is what he truly is. He is a teacher.” – Larry Day (03:45)

“Everything that is executed within that program (Vanderbilt) is 100% intentional. Planned, thought out. prepared.” – Larry Day (06:51)

“It comes down to having the ability to pre-plan and pre-communicate.” – Larry Day (10:04)

“You have anywhere between 4 to 6 fields with games on potentially 4 to 6 fields. You have morning workouts, and you know how baseball workouts go.There is the defense component, there is the throwing component.” – Larry Day (11:12)

“You put that time in 8 days out of a 7-day week to be able to run a clean, productive workout.” – Larry Day (20:29)

“The last thing that we want our players to do is be confused, or our coaches to be confused on what the objective is, what we are trying to accomplish, what the objective is for the day or the drill.” – Larry Day (20:42)

“We have a learning and development component of our organization that solely targets the continued development of staff.” – Larry Day (25:39)

“The smile is international. The ability to non-verbally connect and to have a sense of where your players are at from an emotional, mental, standpoint. You can see the physical.” – Larry Day (30:04)

Resources Mentioned: 

Ahead of the Curve Podcast

Twitter: @AOTC_podcast

Larry Day’s Email: [email protected]

Book: “The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups” by Daniel Coyle 

Book: “Legacy” by James Kerr