As Rick Honeycutt reaches the age of 65, the Los Angeles Dodgers are thankful for the 14 seasons of coaching from the legendary pitching coach. Over those 14 seasons, the Dodgers have had the best ERA two of those years, been in the Top 10 times and the Top 10 in thirteen of those fourteen seasons.
You don’t get that kind of success without an underlying philosophy in coaching and with pitching, Honeycutt was able to lean on the presence of probably the greatest pitcher ever, Sandy Koufax.
“When you look at a golfer, they’re creating 400 pounds of ground force to swing a golf club. Their balance and stability is that strong. That’s really what Sandy and this organization leaned on was angling the foot on the rubber and how you create maximum leverage with your lower half to produce that force and how do you become balanced,” Honeycutt says.
“All those gentlemen showed me a different world in what they presented to pitchers,” Honeycutt recalls. “I always leaned on Sandy being the main guy, the guy you always respect so much.”
Honeycutt took this philosophy to help create a laundry list of amazing pitchers from Broxton to Grienke, Kershaw, Kenley, Ted Lilly and Walker Buehler. His effects will still be felt with the future with Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May and with his new role as special assistant to players like Josiah Gray.
Check out the rest of an amazing article at Dodgers Insider to see the full effect that both Rick Honeycutt and Sandy Koufax has had on the Dodgers organization.
Who do you think has been Cutt’s biggest reclamation project?
