A Gorgeous Colonial Awaits You

Bleecker fell in love with baseball at a young age playing at all levels on Long Island through college, starting in the Williston Park Little League. A Wheatley School graduate, Bleecker spent a decade at the New York Institute of Technology’s baseball academy on top of multiple travel teams before playing in college.

“I had a very good background growing up here in baseball,” Bleecker, who moved to Roslyn Heights when he was a teenager, said. “I learned to love it at New York Tech.”

Bleecker got his start in coaching when he was splitting his time between training players in California and pursuing a professional contract as a free agent after college.

It’s an endeavor that has crossed Bleecker’s path with Major league players, teams and opening his third facility, two previous ones in California and his current one in Knoxville. Bleecker also hosts a yearly event in the winter called “Bridge the Gap” that includes workouts in front of Major-League coaching and a forum among baseball minds to discuss the latest advancements in the game.

“The game told me where I was going to end up and I’m very thankful,” Bleecker said.

America’s pastime was born on the Elysian Fields in Hoboken, NJ, on Oct. 6, 1845. Almost exactly 177 years later Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge hit his 62nd home run of the season in Toronto, breaking Roger Maris’ singleseason American League home run record.

Between then and now, the game has been played through every level with many schools of thought, including a more modern emphasis on analytics. Bleecker, who sports an old-school handlebar mustache that would give Rollie Fingers -– he last pitched 38 years ago -– a run for his money, said he believes the right approach to coaching and player development comes from an appropriate balance between old and new and teaching with a purpose.

“As coaches use data and technology to use collect information, their eyes should also be a part of it,” Bleecker said. “You can’t just blindly trust what the data says.”

Training can look like breaking down film or properly learning how to transfer force in pitching mechanics using water-based products that help emulate a whip-like motion, Bleecker said.

When asked if there are any stars he tells his players to emulate, Bleeck-

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