{"id":43411,"date":"2011-08-17T08:16:42","date_gmt":"2011-08-17T12:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=43411"},"modified":"2011-08-22T08:31:35","modified_gmt":"2011-08-22T12:31:35","slug":"the-view-behind-the-catcher%e2%80%99s-mask","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2011\/08\/the-view-behind-the-catcher%e2%80%99s-mask\/","title":{"rendered":"The View Behind the Catcher\u2019s Mask"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Doug<\/a>
Doug Elliot \u201910 (BUS), \u201911 MBA, a redshirt senior catcher for the baseball team this past spring, and Andrea Huelsenbeck \u201914 (CLAS), now a sophomore catcher for the softball team. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Doug Elliot \u201910 (BUS), \u201911 MBA was a redshirt senior catcher for the baseball team this past spring. He was drafted in June by the Milwaukee Brewers. Andrea Huelsenbeck \u201914 (CLAS) is now a sophomore catcher for the softball team. She previously led Kimberly Academy to two New Jersey state championships. They discuss life behind home plate for the Huskies.
\n
\nWhy did you decide to be a catcher?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Huelsenbeck: <\/em>It was decided for me. When I was 9, I was the youngest on our travel team. Our catcher got hurt. I was the one on the bench with the strongest arm.<\/p>\n

Elliot: <\/em>It was decided for me, too. My dad [Doug \u201982 (BUS)] was a catcher at UConn. It was an easy road to follow.<\/p>\n


\nWhat are the behind-the-scenes things that most people don\u2019t \u00a0know about catching?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Huelsenbeck: <\/em>In order for the pitcher to have a perfect game, the catcher also has to have a perfect game.<\/p>\n

Elliot: <\/em>All pitchers are different. They have tendencies to throw the ball different ways. You\u2019ve got to be in tune with them. It\u2019s very easy to just not catch a ball right, and then it\u2019s a ball instead of a strike. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n


\nHow much do you get to control what\u2019s going on with the pitcher during the game?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Elliot: <\/em>Every time I come into the dugout, the coaches ask what he\u2019s looking like. It\u2019s tough for a coach to see [what\u2019s happening], being off at a 90-degree angle. I\u2019m looking straight on and see everything. I always have the freedom to call a pitch.<\/p>\n

Huelsenbeck: <\/em> have less freedom as a freshman. If something goes wrong with your pitching, it\u2019s the other team\u2019s game. I have to calm them down and deal with it between innings with the coaches.<\/p>\n


\nIf you were not a catcher, what position \u00a0would you play?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Huelsenbeck: <\/em>I was always also a third baseman. I played outfield in a non-conference game this year when we switched it up.<\/p>\n

Elliot: <\/em>First base or third base. I don\u2019t have a lot of speed. In the summer league, I played first base a lot. I haven\u2019t seen the field in college.<\/p>\n


\nOf all the parts of being a catcher, what do you think your best trait is?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Huelsenbeck: <\/em>Throwing. I\u2019ve always had a good arm.<\/p>\n

Elliot: <\/em>I\u2019ve always been a good defensive catcher. It\u2019s a good excuse to say you don\u2019t hit as good as other people. I\u2019ve always taken pride in catching and calling a good game.<\/p>\n


\n<\/em>What makes you crazy about being a catcher?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Elliot: <\/em>I\u2019m not calling out our outfielders, but they show up, take a couple of fly balls and hit the batting cage. Infielders take a couple of balls and throw. Catchers have to work on receiving, blocking [balls], and then you might get to work on your hitting.<\/p>\n

Huelsenbeck: <\/em>I\u2019m going to agree with that. There are some days I don\u2019t even get to hit. Hitting is one of my favorite parts of the game.<\/p>\n

Elliot: <\/em>She\u2019s fortunate to be playing. When I was a freshman, I redshirted, so there were weeks when I didn\u2019t get to hit in batting practice because you\u2019re always catching bullpen with the number of pitchers we have.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two catchers describe life behind the home plate for the Huskies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":43692,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[55],"class_list":["post-43411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-20 06:21:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43411"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44873,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43411\/revisions\/44873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/43692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43411"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=43411"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=43411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}