By Merv Moore
Sports Director & Head Baseball Coach
They told me the art was lost. In an age where every swing tries to launch a satellite, where strikeouts are an afterthought and batting average is an antique, they said you couldn’t build an offense around line drives and hard grounders. They said discipline and contact were relics. To them, I say this: watch the Bohol Coconuts hit.
My philosophy is non-negotiable. A pop-up is a surrender. A lazy fly ball is a gift to the defense. As I will tell our players daily, these are BIG INNING KILLERS! My satisfaction, the purest joy I know in this game, comes from taking an unconfident young boy, his swing a question mark, and watching the transformation. Day by day, rep by rep, you see the doubt replaced by a quiet certainty. You see him step into the box knowing he has the fundamentals and discipline to hit the ball hard. That journey—from unsure to undeniable—is why I coach.
And here in Bohol, that journey has a new chapter. The potential I see in the young athletes of Cambanac, Baclayon, and across this island excites me. With proper, daily training, the Filipino player has every tool to compete with the renowned hitters coming from Japan and South Korea. The quick feet, the hand-speed, the natural coordination, the competitive spirit—it’s all here, waiting to be sharpened.
We are sharpening it with a time-tested method: the Jim Brock style of hitting I learned in 1986. This isn’t a new-age theory. It’s the foundational truth that built Arizona State University into a dynasty and produced hitters like Barry Bonds.
This is the art we are mastering. We will be the team that never gives away at-bats. We will hit .300 as a unit. We will strike out less than any team you’ve seen. Our offense will be a relentless pressure campaign, built on the simple, profound idea that the bat must meet the ball, and meet it with malice.
This mission is inseparable from the dream my wife, Lerma, and I are building for this community. Just as her soup kitchen and food store fuel the body, we are here to fuel a baseball revolution. We are not just teaching swings; we are forging a mindset. We are proving that the smartest, most disciplined hitters on the diamond can come from right here.
They can keep chasing launch angle. We’ll be hitting .320 and circling the bases. They can accept strikeouts as part of the game. We will treat them as a failing. The world has forgotten what a relentless, line-drive offense can do to a pitcher’s soul. We are here to remind them.
The fields of Bohol will be our classroom. The Jim Brock principles are our curriculum. And the incredible raw talent of the Filipino youth is our inspiration. We are building something beautiful here, something fundamental and fierce.
So, to the doubters, to the modern-day sluggers, to everyone who thinks old-school hitting is a museum piece: pay attention. We’re about to show you how art wins ballgames.
See you at the yard,
Coach Merv
Coach Merv Moore is a former award-winning sports writer, former Swiss national team coach, and a former development officer for baseball and softball in Bhutan. He and his wife, Lerma, now reside permanently in Bohol, building the Coconuts into a beacon of player development.
