Rigorous camp builds better ballplayers

Little has changed at the baseball camp in Miller since 1960 – its first full year of operation – when Rizzo was one of the young players there to improve his game.

“The lights are metal Halide now instead of incandescent, we use aluminum bats, and we have computers and video tape. But the program is the same,” Rizzo said.

While some of the fields have been expanded to accommodate the force of aluminum bats, the environment of the camp has remained essentially unchanged.

“What we do is focus on the individual player and how he transforms himself into a better baseball player, a better citizen and a better person,” he said.

Rizzo is the primary stockholder of Mickey Owen Baseball School, as well as its president.

“My father got involved when I was a young player. He and Mickey became partners. And then when Mickey became sheriff in the late 1960s, he divested his interests and my father owned it all,” he said.

Rizzo attended the camp as a boy and, after a stint in the Army, he returned as a coach. He’s worked at the camp since 1971.

Building better players

Mickey Owen Baseball School is “basically the original Field of Dreams,” Rizzo said. “It was built as a baseball camp for kids with the aspiration of playing baseball beyond the level that they are playing at when they come here.”

The program focuses on individual improvement, not scoring.

“Playing at a high level of competition at an early age is not always the best thing for the individual development of the player,” Rizzo said. “If an athlete doesn’t have the impunity to make mistakes, they don’t have the opportunity to get better. Keeping records of scores is the least of our concerns. Our concern is ‘Does the player get better?’ and how does he get better.”

Mickey Owen Baseball School operates day and weekend sessions in communities in the United States and Canada, but Rizzo cites the residential program as the school’s mainstay.

The residential program serves five age groups – ages 8–10, 11–12, 13–14, 15–16, and 17–19 – with each group playing on their own lighted field.

“We start at about 9:30 in the morning and go until about 9:30 at night. A typical day is broken into three parts. In the morning we focus on instruction. We work on drills – skill fundamentals like throwing, running and hitting.”

Afternoon sessions focus on team-oriented practice and squad games, and in the evening, the players take on local area teams.

“It’s pretty rigorous,” Rizzo said, but that doesn’t seem to deter campers.

“We have had young men from probably 30 foreign countries – Japan, Singapore, Belgium, and all over the U.S. and Canada,” Rizzo said.

Also, about 50 percent of baseball school campers return for a second week in the same summer.

The cost of a week at Mickey Owen Baseball School is $525, and two weeks cost $825. The price includes meals, lodging, and a cap and T-shirt. The camp can accommodate 125 to 140 students at one time. Sessions began May 22 and run through mid-August.

The school also offers winter programs in Florida and Arizona.

“This is the 15th year we have operated residential camps in Florida and the eighth year in Arizona,” Rizzo said.

The Florida and Arizona programs utilize spring training facilities used by major league teams such as the Phillies, Royals and Pirates.