Protecting Your Pitcher From A Mound Charger - Catching

Baseball should be played with passion and emotion. Sometimes however, guys can loose their composure because of this fire. Your job as the catcher is to prevent this from happening. Not only in yourself but also the other team. If there is ever a situation when the player up to bat decides to charge the mound, you must prevent him from getting to your pitcher. If that means you jump on his back before he can get out there, or you can walk in front of him if he is just cruising out there talking. No matter the situation, you can not let things get out of hand. If they do, you must put it to rest. Like I said before, if the guy is running out their full speed, you better be right behind him. You will be the only thing that can get between the batter and the pitcher if this goes down.

If the batter is ever hit by a pitch you should get his attention by saying his name. All you are trying to do is change his chain of thought even if it's for a second. If it's a situation where the batter thinks he was hit on purpose, you can tell him that he was not to calm him down (unless it was, then you better just be out there). Your first job is to difuse the situation and prevent it from happening, but once it does, your job then become more of a middle line backers position. Stay low, drive the legs, and stick the shoulder. Number one job, protect your pitcher.