NEWS ARTICLES
Joe Maddon meditates, and the Cubs have a mental skills coach: How the team uses mindfulness and encourages kids to do the same
BY DANIELLE BRAFF / CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Like most professional baseball teams, the Chicago Cubs have pitching coaches and hitting coaches, but their secret weapon is mindfulness coach Bob Tewksbury.
Paint A Pitcher
BY FRANK LUZ / VAULT
Bob Tewksbury is the seurat of St. Louis. The Cardinals righthander isn’t an expressionist like Roger Clemens nor a surrealist like Pascual Perez. He’s more of a pointillist, painting the corners of the strike zone. His brush-work was so precise last season that he issued only 15 walks in 145 innings.
Former MLB pitcher Bob Tewksbury grades presidential first pitches
BY SI.COM STAFF / SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
The presidential first pitch tradition on MLB Opening Day dates back to 1910, when President William Howard Taft threw the pitch for the Washington Nationals, then known as the Washington Senators. This year, President Donald Trump declined an invitation to throw out the first pitch for the Nats on Monday, skipping a ritual that former President Barack Obama once said was one of the most stressful tasks a president faces.
A New Approach to the Old Ball Game
BY PAUL DICKSON / THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
It’s not just about hitting and pitching anymore. Former Major League pitcher Bob Tewksbury, who holds a master’s degree in sport psychology and counseling, and who has served as the mental-skills coach for the Boston Red Sox and the San Francisco Giants, brings us “Ninety Percent Mental” (Da Capo, 248 pages, $27), an entertaining and self-deprecating autobiographical work that explores the mental side of the game.
Inside the World of Mental Coaching in Major League Baseball
BY JAMIE LISANTI / SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
Advanced metrics may be an indelible part of baseball, but another strategy is becoming invaluable to the game: harnessing the power of the mind. This year, a record 27 of the 30 MLB clubs employ a mental skills coach—longtime MLB pitcher Bob Tewksbury holds the position for the San Francisco Giants. Here, he discusses the world of mental performance and the psychology behind baseball, as detailed in his forthcoming book, Ninety Percent Mental.
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