Rob Ducey has decades of experience in professional baseball as a player, scout and coach. Now, as a member of our advisory team, he believes players and coaches need to be using the Core Energy Baseball Belt. The Toronto native shares how he went from a baseball-indifferent teenager to an MLB-lifer. He explains what he learned in his many years of experience in pro ball. Furthermore, he details, how he can’t live without the Core Energy Belt now, even though his playing days are in the rearview mirror.
THE CORE ENERGY BASEBALL BELT & ROB DUCEY’S PATH TO BASEBALL
Rob Ducey declared baseball “boring” when he was 15 years old. Little did he know the rest of his life would be intertwined with it. He was born in Toronto, Canada. Just over a decade before the Blue Jays were founded. He was born four years before Canada got its first MLB team in the Montreal Expos.
DUCEY HAD NEVER CONSIDERED PLAYING BASEBALL AS A CHILD.
Baseball was somewhat an obscure sport in Canada at that time. On the other hand, fastpitch was a regional favorite. Ducey spent most of his summer nights playing for one of the youth teams. But one day, in the summer of 1980, Ducey received something in the post that changed everything.
“I got a letter in the mail to try out for a local travel baseball team. That was the first letter I ever got, addressed to me, so I thought it was pretty cool,” Ducey recalled.
That letter led to a tryout, and then to some playing time. Eventually Ducey was balancing between playing fastpitch and baseball every night in the summer. But when the season was over, he wasn’t sure that baseball was the sport for him.
“At the end of the summer, I thought ‘You know, this thing is too boring. It’s too slow,’” Ducey said. He explained that he was going to give baseball up altogether until his stepfather convinced him to give it one more summer.
BASEBALL 101
That following summer, at the age of 16, things in baseball started to pick up for Ducey. He was the catcher for the 15-to-16-year-old club. He also was the centerfielder for the 17-to-21-year-old team, as well as the backup catcher on the 21-and-up team.
“That was baseball 101 for me,” Ducey said. “I was playing baseball, all summer and every night.”
Just like he had never considered playing baseball in high school, because there was no high school team only summer league. Ducey hadn’t given his future in the sport a single thought. That was until he got an offer to work out for the Seminole State College of Florida. After only one season with the Raiders, Ducey got his shot at Professional Baseball: A free agent offer from his hometown team, Toronto Blue Jays.
A SHOT TO MAKE HIS BASEBALL CAREER WITH THE BLUE JAYS
The former fastpitch-loving, baseball-indifferent Toronto native was now getting a shot to make a career in baseball with his hometown Blue Jays.
Ducey’s first experience with professional baseball took him initially to Medicine Hat, Alberta and then to Florence, South Carolina, Knoxville, Tennessee and Syracuse, NY. But after three years in single and double-A baseball with the Blue Jays farm system, Ducey finally got his call up to The Show.
On May 1, 1987, almost exactly three years after signing his free agent contract with the Blue Jays, Ducey made his MLB debut. The Blue Jays were at home facing the Texas Rangers, and Ducey made the start in left field. By the end of the game he had collected his first MLB hit and RBI (a single in the bottom of the fifth inning with two outs) and his first stolen base.
Ducey is one of just two players in Blue Jays history with an RBI and a stolen base in his MLB debut. The other is Jesse Barfield who in 1981 would go on to win two Gold Glove awards and lead the AL in home runs in 1986. Coincidentally, Barfield played for the Blue Jays when Ducey made his debut. He happened to hit a home run in the same inning that Ducey earned his first career MLB hit.
TO LEAN ON THE OFT-USED MONEYBALL QUOTE, HOW CAN YOU NOT BE ROMANTIC ABOUT BASEBALL?
Ducey would go on to appear in over 700 games in his lengthy-MLB career. A career, spanning from 1987 until 2001. In between were many different stops. Six MLB teams, several stints in the minors, and a couple of years in Japan with the Nippon Ham Fighters. Between the MLB, minors and international leagues, Ducey appeared in nearly 2,000 professional baseball games during the course of his playing career.
NOT BAD FOR SOMEONE WHO HAD DECLARED BASEBALL “BORING” AT THE AGE OF 15
But little did he know at that point that his baseball life was just beginning. After his playing days came to an end, he returned to baseball again in 2004. However, this time in a new role.
“All I had ever done for 20 years was play baseball. I knew baseball. So, I got into coaching. I was in player development with the Montreal Expos, Yankees, Phillies and Taiwan. Scouted with the Blue Jays and Rays and ran player development in the Dominican Republic and Mexico. “I’ve done a lot of different things, because this is really the only lifestyle I’ve known.”
Not mentioned were two stints with the Canadian National team in the Olympics in 2004 as a player and in 2008 as a coach. Furthermore, one in the World Baseball Classic as a coach in 2006. Ducey’s baseball life has taken him all over the globe.
HOW A FORMER MLB-LIFER HAS TRANSITIONED TO COACHING HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL
But recently, Ducey has (mostly) left the world of professional baseball. He followed a new path, coaching high school baseball at Bishop McLaughlin Catholic High School.
Ducey has been in this role for two years and said the biggest reward for him has been the growth his players have made from last year to this year.
“You see the lightbulb go on and it’s like ‘Oh okay, they get it.’ They’re at such an early age … it’s no longer travel ball, it’s not little league, we are playing for real. Now as a freshman you’re playing against kids four years older than you were and seven inches shorter than everybody. It is exciting, just watching them grow as a student athlete. You can see it in their eyes when they trust what you tell them,” Ducey said.
After spending decades in professional baseball, where it is a zero-sum game -- win or lose -- Ducey said the transition to high school ball has been rewarding.
“I try to put all our kids in a position where they can succeed,” Ducey said, recalling a time he moved his third baseman to center field. “That player had been a third baseman his whole amateur career, little league, travel ball, he was always a third baseman. I said ‘No, you’re going to be my centerfielder.’ He didn’t like me one bit for the position change. Now, he loves playing center field. He struggled at the plate and hit fifth every game. I said ‘Dude, you’re going to play no matter what the results are.”
Part of this mantra extends to open competition, something that Ducey holds as a core tenement of his coaching style.
“You allow all the players to play, that builds competition. Every player has a chance to win a job or have a role. Suddenly, you have freshmen challenging seniors for playing time with a legitimate chance to play. Ducey said. “I’m okay with that. Everyone’s going to play, everyone’s going to get an opportunity. Everybody period.”
HOW AN ATHLETE CAN REACH THEIR FULL POTENTIAL IN BASEBALL
Part of a coach’s role is to push their athletes to focus on the parts of their game that make them uncomfortable. For Ducey, this is the most important impact a coach can have on helping an athlete reach their full potential.
“For me as a coach, to recognize deficiencies is super important,” Ducey said. “‘Hey, you need to get faster.’ Not just tell them they’ve got to get faster but show them how and help them achieve it. Providing them that information is huge. Now it’s on them.”
While a coach can help their athletes identify the parts of their game that need improvement, Ducey said, their success in the sport depends on what they’re willing to put into it.
FOR DUCEY AND HIS TEAM, IT EXTENDS BEYOND THE FIELD
“First and foremost, you’ve got to do your schoolwork. You’ve got to do what you have to do to do what you want to do. Number one is to make sure your schoolwork is taken care of. You can be late for practice, you can miss days, it’s okay as long as you’re getting tutoring. That’s number one, your grades are most important,” Ducey said.
For his athletes who go on to play baseball in college and beyond, he has a simple piece of advice:
“When you do go to college … you must help that college coach win. His job depends on winning, and if you can’t help that college coach win … he doesn’t have a whole lot of use for you. And that’s the reality of it. I tell kids exactly what I think the reality of this game is,” Ducey explained.
THE IMPORTANCE OF INJURY PREVENTION
Ducey knows a thing or two about injuries in sport. Over the course of his career he had eight major surgeries - seven on his knees, and a final surgery on his career-ending ruptured Achilles.
“That was the end of it. In 2001 I ruptured my Achilles. I tried to come back in 2002 and I just couldn’t run anymore,” Ducey said.
But that career-ending injury was the beginning of his post-playing career, and led him to where he is today.
Now as a coach, Ducey can share some of his experience in dealing with injuries with his team.
When asked what the most important parts of injury prevention are, Ducey said “I think nutrition has a big part to it. But understanding your body type is important. If I’m a tightly wound muscle fiber guy, quick twitch, my muscles aren’t as elastic as some of these other guys, then now it’s yoga, it’s stretching, it’s that type of preparation. Whereas if I’m softer and I’m not really that super strong … then maybe I need to tighten up. Everyone’s going to be a little bit different based on their muscle type and their body tone, so I think that’s where it’s individualized. I think that professional sports has really done a good job as far as zeroing in on individualized programs for athletes to make them as good as they can be.”
BUT, AS DUCEY KNOWS ALL TOO WELL, INJURIES ARE A PART OF THE GAME.
“I know you can’t avoid it altogether. I think you go out there and you play as long as you can and as hard as you can, hopefully something doesn’t break,” Ducey said. “But I don’t think you can truly avoid injury. And if you are trying to avoid injury, then you are playing cautiously and you’re not playing all out.”
One thing that wasn’t available when he was playing baseball, but something he now wishes he had when he was suiting up, is the Core Energy Baseball Belt.
CORE ENERGY, THE BEST BASEBALL BELT FOR SALE
Ducey was skeptical of how much of a difference a belt can make in baseball. Now he doesn’t go anywhere without it.
“I wore a belt when playing because it was part of the uniform,” Ducey said, explaining that he never put much thought into the purpose a belt served. “It’s a belt, it holds up your pants.”
But now? Ducey wears the Core Energy belt nearly every day.
“I was skeptical at first, but then I put it on, I wore it and it was like I couldn’t imagine doing some of the things I do without the support the belt gives. My quality of life is significantly better,” Ducey added.
AT THAT POINT, DUCEY REVEALED HE WAS WEARING THE CORE ENERGY BELT DURING THE INTERVIEW.
“Right now I have on a pair of gym shorts and a T-shirt, and I’m wearing my belt underneath,” Ducey said. “For me, the support the belt provides is something that I feel gives me the ability to keep on working, keep on going … I don’t get tired nearly as easily as I would have in the past. I shoveled clay, moved stones and do a ton of physical labor on our field at the high school. There’s absolutely no way I could have done that not wearing the belt.”
So while he may not have had the Core Energy belt available in his playing days, Ducey has found a way to wear it in his current baseball life. From building the field at his local high school to running practices in the winter and coaching games in the spring. Ducey has relied on the belt to keep him feeling fresh and fit.
DUCEY SAID HE HAS NO DOUBT THE CORE ENERGY BELT WILL GROW IN POPULARITY WITH MLB PLAYERS.
“Guys are going to wear things and use products at the major league level if it’s going to help their game, and the Core Energy belt is going to help their game, no doubt,” Ducey said.
But he doesn’t see the Core Energy Belt just as a product for baseball players to wear.
One example Ducey gave is how third base coaches have started to wear the Core Energy belt.
While third base coaches are best known for waiving home runners making the turn around third base, Ducey explains how they have a significant physical workload as a part of their duty. From throwing batting practice to hitting grounders before the game. They have an active job. Tack on a six or seven-hour flight cross country every three or four days and it’s easy to imagine the fatigue this job entails.
Ducey says the belt has made a large impact on the coaches and players he has spoken with who are already using it.
BUT THE CORE ENERGY BELT ISN’T JUST FOR BASEBALL, OR SPORTS ALTOGETHER, DUCEY SAYS.
“This is not just an athletic belt, it’s not just for baseball and softball. This is for anyone that would like to have more support for their core or pelvis area. I wear my baseball belt while playing golf. We have casual belts for the guy in the office sitting down all day, for long-distance truck drivers, pilots,” Ducey said. “The uses, as far as jobs, it’s unlimited. Truly unlimited.”
While he never had the opportunity to wear the belt as a player, his current role as an Advisor with Core Energy allows Ducey the opportunity to share the advantages of the Core Energy Belt to players who are still in the game today.
And for Ducey it’s just another way to stay involved with the game he accidentally fell in love with. Back at a time, when he was just a kid trying to play fastpitch all summer long.