PORT CHARLOTTE — In the mornings, Rene Rivera worked on his hitting, worked on driving the ball the other way, worked on hitting the ball through certain holes in the infield.
In the afternoons, Rivera worked with the amateur players at the academy, the kids, as he called them. He showed the catchers how to frame a pitch and block a ball in the dirt, how to make a quick throw to second base.
“Great kids,” Rivera said. “They liked to learn.”
Rivera spent a month this year at the ELEV8 Sports Institute in Delray Beach working with former big-leaguer Luis Alicea.