Camp Offers Lessons in Baseball--and in Life

Along with hitting and fielding and pitching, Paul (Pop) Ivanovsky is trying to teach the fundamentals of a different game--life.

From a baseball diamond overlooking the ocean in Palos Verdes Estates, Pop runs one of two winter baseball camps in the South Bay for young fanatics of the game.

In the weeklong sessions, Ivanovsky and his instructors at Pop’s All-Pro Baseball Camp pass along plenty of hard-nosed baseball tips for the $175 fee: Keep your mouth open when you’re batting, and you won’t blink when the ball comes in. A pigeon-toed batting stance will force you to stay on the balls of your feet. Separate your hands slightly on the bat for better control. Hide the ball from the batter while pitching.

But beyond those specifics, there is another message. Baseball, Pop tells the 50 wide-eyed ballplayers ages 6 and up, is a game about overcoming failure.

“Baseball is the only game in the world where you can fail 70% of the time and still be a star,” Pop says. “That’s a .300 hitter. In life you have to learn to fail too.”

Such lessons are important additions to instruction in the fundamentals of how to play the game. When last year was winding down and winter baseball camp was in full swing, young ballplayers snared fly balls, tried to connect with whizzing fastballs from the pitching machine and practiced throwing the ball over the plate.

One of the attractions of these winter camps is that professionals are available to help out. At the nearby South Bay Baseball Camp, held at Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, Angels catcher John Orton helped lure campers. Pop’s camp had Dodger batting coach Manny Mota’s three grown sons, who are themselves professionals.

But what draws the crowds is the opportunity to polish skills for the spring leagues.

“It’s a good time to get them ready to roll into Little League,” said Matt Kerster, a competitor of Pop who runs the South Bay Baseball Camp. “We get kids that have never played baseball all the way up to those who live it, breathe it, collect baseball cards and watch it on TV.”

When 12-year-old Chris Hales returned to his Torrance middle school after winter vacation, he could boast to his classmates about the 0.2 second he cut from his time running to first base.

Philip Yamauchi, 10, of Torrance could describe his more-powerful batting grip, and Casey Hoorelbeke, 11, of Rancho Palos Verdes could talk about his new-found fielding prowess.

“When I first came to the camp, I was afraid of the ball,” said Hoorelbeke, who has been to several sessions at Pop’s camp. “I thought it was going to take a bad hop and hit me. Now I charge it.”

That new aggressiveness can be attributed to another Pop lesson: Self-confidence, he says, is as important as a powerful swing.

“A hero is someone who overcomes their fear and does their job. It doesn’t matter whether it’s on a battlefield or a baseball field.”

Pop, 44, a longtime coach who has run his camp for five years, played baseball professionally but quit in 1967 after his infant son died.

He turned to a host of other careers in and out of baseball. The Torrance resident drove an ambulance, worked in construction and trained as an umpire. He also estimates that he has coached more than 5,000 young baseball players--from t-ball on up--in leagues and in one-on-one private baseball tutoring sessions.

Maybe his own experience has something to do with another frequent refrain from Pop: Keep the game in perspective, he says to both future Major Leaguers and those destined to drift away from the game after Little League.

“Baseball is about feeling good,” he says. “Lord knows, there are enough bad things that happen in life.”