The X's held a baseball clinic Saturday at Lewis & Clark Park.SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KTIV) -
The Sioux City Explorers baseball clinic was rained out two weeks ago, but the X's were back on the diamond Saturday teaching youngsters from the Siouxland area the ins-and-outs of baseball.
60 kids ages five to 14 from all over Siouxland were on the field at Lewis & Clark Park.
From fielding drills, to hitting and running the bases, it was all about learning the fundamentals of America's past time.
But aside from the basics, the X's passed down life lessons.
"With the pitches, how to hold them," Onawa native Gage Rotnicke said. "And, just to get good grades."
"Learning new things that I didn't know. Like, how to field an outfield ball," brother Scout Rotnicke added. "Put your left foot first, then your right, then left and then throw."
Explorers Manager Stan Cliburn has seen every level of baseball, from little leagues to the Majors.
He remembers the experience of attending camps as a kid, such as the one the X's had Saturday.
"You know I remember one of the instructors, I remember him telling me 'Son, if you get good at this game, you have a chance to be a major league ball player,'" Cliburn said. "And, that dream happened for me. The day I stepped into a Major League ball park at 23 years old, I look back at when I was 6 or 7 or 8, when I attended that clinic 15 years earlier and said 'hey, that instructor was right.' I believed what he told me."
