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Clean Your Cleats: Advice on Baseball and Life for Ballplayers
What Does it Take to Have a Great Baseball Career?
You daydream about one day seeing your face on a baseball card.
You live for pressure and the green grass beneath your cleats.
But as your career progresses, the game gets harder.
You slump and struggle.
You get injured and overlooked.
Your confidence plummets.
Can you keep improving? Are your big dreams still within reach?
A Handbook for the Dedicated Player
Clean Your Cleats is filled with stories and advice learned the hard way, over a long career on the diamond.
Develop better routines and improve your consistency.
Handle the ups and downs with confidence and resolve.
Strengthen relationships with teammates, parents and coaches.
Learn mindset strategies to become the best version of you.
Dan Blewett, in this practical guide, helps players understand all the little things in baseball that make a huge difference over a long career.
Why clean your cleats? Because every detail matters.
You daydream about one day seeing your face on a baseball card.
You live for pressure and the green grass beneath your cleats.
But as your career progresses, the game gets harder.
You slump and struggle.
You get injured and overlooked.
Your confidence plummets.
Can you keep improving? Are your big dreams still within reach?
A Handbook for the Dedicated Player
Clean Your Cleats is filled with stories and advice learned the hard way, over a long career on the diamond.
Develop better routines and improve your consistency.
Handle the ups and downs with confidence and resolve.
Strengthen relationships with teammates, parents and coaches.
Learn mindset strategies to become the best version of you.
Dan Blewett, in this practical guide, helps players understand all the little things in baseball that make a huge difference over a long career.
Why clean your cleats? Because every detail matters.
- GenresBaseball
324 pages, Paperback
Published February 11, 2022
3 people are currently reading
4 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 15, 2022
A Great Book for all levels of baseball.
Superb lessomsnon both life and baseball.
The wisdom of baseballand the ideas for training makes a baseball junkie like me keep reading until the end.
The outline is superior. I could have imagined it being narrated by a television announcer in a series of lessons.
Finally, replacing the word baseball with another sport would work in many cases.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Superb lessomsnon both life and baseball.
The wisdom of baseballand the ideas for training makes a baseball junkie like me keep reading until the end.
The outline is superior. I could have imagined it being narrated by a television announcer in a series of lessons.
Finally, replacing the word baseball with another sport would work in many cases.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
September 14, 2023
"It's supposed to be hard! If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The heart is what makes it
great!" - Jimmy, A League of Their Own
I picked up this book after watching a YouTube video about what a balk is in baseball. I saw the video's creator, Dan Blewett, had several books. I'm always on the lookout for books to provide advice to my baseball playing son, from general advice such as Changing the Game: The Parent's Guide to Raising Happy, High Performing Athletes, and Giving Youth Sports Back to our Kids or The 5-6-7 Dad to technical advice like The Science of Hitting and The Physics of Pitching: Learn the Mechanics, Science, and Psychology of Pitching to Success. Clean Your Cleats definitely falls into the general advice category. There's really no technical instruction at all. Blewett, as the subtitle suggests, is interested in advice for life and baseball.
The book's advice centers around the player's mentality. Baseball can be such a cerebral game that it's important to be in the correct headspace. Blewett's directions to slow it down, step off, breathe deep, and re-assess work well on the field, but work equally well off the field. Most of the advice in the book is like that.
Do not come to this book expecting Blewett to explain how to grip the ball, find your release point, turn your hips in the batter's box, or any other mechanical details of the game. Instead, come here for guidance on how to navigate the ups and downs of playing baseball over your lifetime. How do you handle a slump? How should you practice? How do you find happiness as you climb your personal mountain?
You can tell this comes from a seasoned (jaded?) baseball player. He often gives advice that sounds counter to what you normally hear. He says there are fundamental things you can't practice (some of which seem pretty integral to baseball). He tells you not to have a backup plan if you want to make it as a ballplayer (and to ignore the naysayers). You have to accept your weaknesses and work on other things (e.g. don't try to be a power hitter if your body isn't made to be a power hitter). And rather than "work harder" you should "play better."
He also acknowledges the fluky nature of baseball with a Crash Davis quote from the movie Bull Durham
And in the end, Blewett remembers it's all supposed to be fun.
great!" - Jimmy, A League of Their Own
I picked up this book after watching a YouTube video about what a balk is in baseball. I saw the video's creator, Dan Blewett, had several books. I'm always on the lookout for books to provide advice to my baseball playing son, from general advice such as Changing the Game: The Parent's Guide to Raising Happy, High Performing Athletes, and Giving Youth Sports Back to our Kids or The 5-6-7 Dad to technical advice like The Science of Hitting and The Physics of Pitching: Learn the Mechanics, Science, and Psychology of Pitching to Success. Clean Your Cleats definitely falls into the general advice category. There's really no technical instruction at all. Blewett, as the subtitle suggests, is interested in advice for life and baseball.
The book's advice centers around the player's mentality. Baseball can be such a cerebral game that it's important to be in the correct headspace. Blewett's directions to slow it down, step off, breathe deep, and re-assess work well on the field, but work equally well off the field. Most of the advice in the book is like that.
Do not come to this book expecting Blewett to explain how to grip the ball, find your release point, turn your hips in the batter's box, or any other mechanical details of the game. Instead, come here for guidance on how to navigate the ups and downs of playing baseball over your lifetime. How do you handle a slump? How should you practice? How do you find happiness as you climb your personal mountain?
You can tell this comes from a seasoned (jaded?) baseball player. He often gives advice that sounds counter to what you normally hear. He says there are fundamental things you can't practice (some of which seem pretty integral to baseball). He tells you not to have a backup plan if you want to make it as a ballplayer (and to ignore the naysayers). You have to accept your weaknesses and work on other things (e.g. don't try to be a power hitter if your body isn't made to be a power hitter). And rather than "work harder" you should "play better."
Hard work, focus, and effort don't earn or entitle you to anything, as they're just the foundations for having any success at all. You don't get trophies, starting roles, or scholarship offers because of how hard you work. You get those things by succeeding on the baseball field - by being a good, skilled player.
At the end of the day, to get what you want you have to play better than your peers - even if you work harder, focus better, or play grittier than they do. Your reputation and work ethic won't be enough.
He also acknowledges the fluky nature of baseball with a Crash Davis quote from the movie Bull Durham
You know what the difference between hitting .250 and .300 is? It's 25 hits. 25 hits in 500 at-bats is 50 points, okay? There's 6 months in a season; that's about 25 weeks. That means if you get just one extra flare a week - just one - a gork; you get a ground ball; you get a ground ball with eyes; you get a dying quail; just one more dying quail a week and you're in Yankee Stadium.
And in the end, Blewett remembers it's all supposed to be fun.
if you love your work, love the grind and love the people you're climbing with, then whether you get there or not, you'll be okay. You won't be happy that you fall short of some of your longest-held dreams. Yet, you'll find peace shortly thereafter, because the memories will be enough, and the long, steep road you followed was fulfilling in and of itself
April 2, 2022
This book is full of useful insights for players, coaches, and parents. A great read - perfect for aspiring ball players.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews