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Former pitcher gives players--and business folks--mental edge.

Article Excerpt
CLEVELAND -- When Walter Herbison was growing up on a farm in the Delta, the son of sharecroppers spent many afternoons pretending to play baseball. With an imaginary ball on a make-believe mound, he spent hours throwing toward a pie plate strategically placed where a pitcher's mitt would be located. By mastering mind control of the movements with his left brain, he was able to consistently hit the strike zone with his right brain.

Herbison's mind games paid off. After playing baseball at Shaw High School, Herbison was a 90-mph-plus pitcher for Delta State University and a semi-pro team. When he ventured into business, he applied the same principles as a builder, insurance salesman, minister and sports performance consultant. Now 63, the onetime Milwaukee Brewer scout devotes his time primarily to Head Games, the company he founded in his hometown of Cleveland in 1980.

"It all started back on the farm," said Herbison. "Our family was very poor. We had one baseball, one baseball glove. I didn't have anyone to throw to, so I'd get in the yard and put on my little uniform and visualize the pitching game. I'd go through the physical motions without throwing the ball and I'd pretend to throw at a mitt, which wasn't there. Through that exercise, I gained incredible control. In high school, I was throwing nine different pitches. Baseball people might say that nine pitches don't exist, but they do. A good pitcher only needs two or three good pitches, but I could locate any of those pitches anywhere I...

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