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SPEAKER 1: All right. Are you ready? All right, everybody in the position I'm in.

JIM BICKEL: About 100 kids between 6 and 16 are lined up in rows on the Hudson High School practice football field, dressed in an away Twin's uniform. Glenn Gostick is leading them in a drill on how to properly field a batted ball.

SPEAKER 1: The left foot is forward, the left foot is forward. The left. The left. You mean the left? Just reverse it. There you go. Now to the left. It'll be a crossover with--

JIM BICKEL: Gostick as the clinic director, he played Minor League Baseball in the 1950s, and he's been involved with clinics with the Twins and the University of Minnesota for 20 years. He's a man who clearly loves the game of baseball.

SPEAKER 1: Who was it? George Bernard Shaw said about the English language. On the face, it's easy. And it's maddeningly difficult when you delve into it. And so it is with baseball. Baseball is a very simple game, basically. And now you delve into it and your subtleties to the games that are massive.

JIM BICKEL: The clinic takes about 90 minutes. The kids are kept active as they practice the eight basics of baseball-- throwing, Fielding, base running, sliding, catching, pitching, hitting, and bunting. The clinics today are basically the same as they were 27 years ago, when Saint Paul native Angelo Giuliani convinced Twins owner Calvin Griffith to sponsor them.

As of last year, Giuliani stopped participating in the clinics himself, but he's still the coordinator. Giuliani says teams in other sports and the baseball commissioner's office have contacted him for advice on how to set up similar programs elsewhere.

SPEAKER 1: In every respect, at half a century in 24, have enjoyed it immensely. And this is my contribution, perhaps, to baseball. That has been a wonderful thing for me for the last 55 years professionally.

JIM BICKEL: The clinics are a valuable promotional tool for the Twins. They estimate that over a half million kids have participated over the years. And although the clinics are just for fun, several participants have gone on to play in the major leagues. Twins first baseman Kent Hrbek grew up in Bloomington and remembers going to a Twins clinic with some friends.

KENT HRBEK: We just happened to see that they were. We didn't even know. I don't even remember if there was-- we knew what was going on. We just happened to see a bunch of people on there and going over there, and it was a clinic. And so we went to it, and had a good time.

SPEAKER 2: Do you remember any particular skills? Anything that you know right now?

KENT HRBEK: I remember we were all lined up in line in rows and stuff, and we were doing kind of a stretching exercise or something. I think at that time or learning how to throw properly or something. That was all I can remember.

JIM BICKEL: Kostic and his assistants, Mike Casey and Bobby Johnson, realized that, like Hrbek, most kids won't remember much of what went on at the clinics. But Kostic says the clinics helped the kids understand the game a little better.

SPEAKER 3: Realizing that they've been hit with some insights as to the game, is a little bit more than what they thought it was on the playgrounds. And so if they can go away with a little bit of a pearl here and there that one of us can throw out so they can enjoy the game, if not in playing it and viewing it.

JIM BICKEL: At the clinic, Kostic stressed what he calls the 11th commandment of baseball never leave the base until you know where the ball is. After the clinic, the kids were asked if they had a good time.

SPEAKER 4: Yes

SPEAKER 2: How about you? What have you learned today?

SPEAKER 4: I learned about my pitching and hitting.

SPEAKER 2: What's the 11th commandment?

SPEAKER 4: 11th commandment. Stepping?

SPEAKER 2: No. You heard what he said?

SPEAKER 4: Don't move until you know where the ball is.

SPEAKER 2: That's right.

JIM BICKEL: Tomorrow's clinic at the dome will be a demonstration only. But the kids who attend will see the game that night for free. They've got to be there by 4:30. I'm Jim Bickel, reporting.

SPEAKER 1: I step and I pivot. Hitting is nothing more than pivoting. It's pivoting on your back foot. It's throwing my belly button at the pitcher. That's how you should look at it. You got to be quick. Throw your belly button at the pitcher. When you do that, your arms come through, your hands, and you throw the barrel of the bat at the ball. You have to attack the ball. You just don't go up there and swing like that. You don't go up there and say to yourself, well, I'm going to go up and I hope I don't strikeout.