Long before such childhood distractions as the Cartoon Network or John Madden Football on video game consoles, kids like Jim Cuthbert wiled away their spare time playing baseball. “We played different versions of baseball — stick ball, wiffle ball, in the street and in the schoolyard, every day and every night, all summer, and after school,” says Cuthbert about his childhood in Brooklyn. “All we did was play ball. Instead of getting tired of it I just got more and more into it.”##M:[more]##
With Diamond Player Development, a new indoor baseball facility on Route 33 in Hamilton, West Windsor resident Cuthbert hopes to give kids and young adults who love baseball an opportunity to learn about the sport and spend time around people who love the game, just like when he was a kid.
This summer Cuthbert, who was a catcher at St. John’s, Class of 1997 and is still in organized baseball as northeast scouting supervisor for the Texas Rangers, is offering a full series of programs ranging from camps for younger kids, to specialized instruction for older kids, to travel camps that go to locations such as Australia, Puerto Rico, and Florida.
The summer program for ages 5-12 is held in weekly sessions starting the week of July 10 and ending the week of August 7 at a cost of $149 per week. The camp runs from 9 a.m. to noon on weekdays. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are spent at Mercer County Park, while Tuesdays and Thursday are at the Diamond facilities.
More advanced players can participate in the Summer Development Program from July 11 to August 3 for ages 11 to 18. The program puts players through a pro-style workout that Cuthbert developed borrowing from the Texas Rangers instructional league format. The $599 program features videotaped inter-squad competition and video analysis of players’ performances after the games to evaluate mechanics and mistakes.
Year-round programs at the 16,”000-square-foot facility include individual lessons from $50 to $75 per hour. Also offered eight weekly group sessions of one hour each at $150. Diamond also offers an indoor winter league for kids to face live competition during the off season, and a fall version of the Summer Development Program.
Diamond has also been holding special nights for area Little League teams. West Windsor’s Little League is invited on Wednesday and Thursday, March 8 and 9, when kids will receive free batting cage tokens, free baseball and softball lessons, and discounted pricing in the pro shop. A portion of proceeds from program sign-ups and pro shop sales will go to the WWLL.
Amateur baseball has changed a lot since the days of sandlot games and stickball that Cuthbert recalls from his youth. The big change, he says, has come at the college level. A decade ago, Cuthbert says, colleges handed out almost as many baseball scholarships as there were members on the team. Today, most schools only offer five or six on teams with 22-person rosters.
“In terms of the dynamics of baseball and softball at the higher levels, there are more kids vying for fewer scholarships,” says Cuthbert (who also provides a college recruiting service for high school players who need help through the complicated recruiting and admission process). The competitiveness results in players and parents pursuing every opportunity for “exposure” — playing against better competition, and increasing the child’s chance to develop.
“It has trickled down,” Cuthbert says. “High school players are preparing more than ever for exposure to college coaches, and the same thing is happening with middle school players looking to play in high school. At the Little League level you have kids trying to stay in shape during the regular season to prepare for the travel team.”
Despite the fact that his battered knees prevented him from pursuing his own baseball dream, Cuthbert was in good position to help younger players. He had chosen St. John’s for its sports management program, which covered sports law, sports marketing, how to run a facility, and more.
When he graduated in 1997 he started out as an associate scout for the Colorado Rockies. He also had various part-time coaching positions, gave private lessons, ran baseball trips overseas, and developed his own business, Manhattan-based Team Wearhouse, to distribute team uniforms.
Cuthbert and his wife, Maria, moved to the Southfield Meadows development in West Windsor in 2001 after Maria got a job at Maurice Hawk School, where she still teaches third grade.
While working as a coach and a scout, Cuthbert devised a plan to open a baseball academy that could offer various levels of on-site training. “I was traveling up to an hour to give training and I was coming across kids from Mercer County. I thought a lot of them would like to work out at a more formal facility, where you’re not traveling to inconvenient locations.”
But not every kid coming to Diamond is in pursuit of a college scholarship or a career in major league baseball. “Before we take any child’s registration, we try to talk to the parents and find out what they are hoping to get out of the program,” Cuthbert says. “For some, we realize that a group class is best way to go. For others, private instruction is better.”
There are also infrequent circumstances where a parent is more zealous about baseball than their child. “When we see that, we recommend they involve their child in a program that’s less expensive to try it out,” says Cuthbert. “If the child enjoys the program then they can renew, or upgrade.
“If there’s a case where we see a child in the middle of a program who wants no part of it, we talk the parent and try to move the child into a different type of program.”
Dreams are long-lasting in baseball. Cuthbert, for example, a lifelong New York Mets fan, chose retired Met Mookie Wilson as his celebrity guest at his grand opening. But, he says, “we never, ever, build up false hope. We have parents who underestimate and we have parents who overestimate their child’s ability. We have to put our professional reputations first. If our evaluations are credible, then the business will follow.”
Says Cuthbert: “It’s the only sport where the average size, average build, average athlete still has a shot if they have the heart and an unmatched work ethic.”
— Bill Sanservino
Diamond Player Development, 670 Route 33, Hamilton; 609-587-2373; fax, 609-588-9373. www.dpdacademy.com
