A group of young ballplayers were treated to some high-level training by Chicago Cubs hitting coach Anthony Iapoce on Saturday at the newly-renovated MaX Effort Baseball in Farmingdale, NY.
Iapoce is a New York native, who played his college ball at Division-I Lamar University in Beaumont, TX before playing 11 years of professional baseball. He was the minor league hitting coordinator for the Chicago Cubs from 2013-’15, where he played a role in developing many of their best hitters such as Kris Bryant, Javier Baez, Albert Almora Jr, Willson Contreras and Kyle Schwarber.
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) December 22, 2018
He became the hitting coach of the Texas Rangers right after, where he helped them become the first team in MLB history to have nine players hit at least 17 home runs.
He told a great story about getting a late-night FaceTime from Chicago Cubs President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein. He assumed it was an accidental call, but it was Epstein informing him that he would be receiving a World Series ring despite the fact that he was currently the hitting coach for the Texas Rangers (who were coming off a 95-win season). It speaks to the impact that he had on the organization that they feel some of their success was attributed to him.
He is back with the Cubs, now the hitting coach. He is excited for the challenge, noting that he has a group chat with the hitters and they are ready for the season.
We recorded a podcast as well, and you can listen to it tomorrow on our iTunes page.
