Baseball Services, Bob Stevens

Camp Director Bob Stevens is a father of five home schooled children and the blessed husband of an extraordinary wife. He has been teaching freshmen and sophomore English at Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School in Scotch Plains, New Jersey since 1991, where he is also the advisor to Students Concerned for the Needy (www.scnonline.org), a service organization committed to helping those in the local community meet a variety of basic needs, and co-advisor to the Bible Club. He currently resides in Nazareth, Pennsylvania.

Stevens has coached baseball since 1984. His coaching career started after his senior year in high school when he was hired to instruct at the Princeton University Baseball Camp, a stint that lasted six years. That summer, he coached a Bob Feller team in Demarest, New Jersey while preparing to play college ball at Montclair State University. He coached at both the Princeton University Baseball Camp and the Mustang Baseball Camp in Clifton, New Jersey while playing college ball. He began giving private and group baseball lessons in 1986 and was hired as a full time Assistant Varsity Coach at Princeton University in 1988, the year he began Baseball Services, a training organization devoted to teaching the basic fundamentals of baseball skills year round and training young players to learn the proper mechanics the right way. He had been giving private baseball lessons when he decided to expand the lessons to include group lessons. Leaving Princeton University in the summer of 1988, he embarked on turning Baseball Services into a full time enterprise. This led to northern New Jersey’s first Fall Baseball League, conducted in both Clifton and Closter. The Winter Workouts were added in 1989, an after school program that focused on a different skill each week. Stevens conducted Spring Training clinics in Creskill and Teaneck, including coaches clinics.

The vision for an indoor facility was realized in the winter of 1990 when he opened batting cages in Hurfville, New Jersey, which also saw the premiere of Video Batting Cages, featured on the David Letterman show and recently duplicated by various companies and seen at many major league ballparks.

Stevens began his high school coaching career at Clifton High as the freshmen coach in 1989 and moved on to the JV job at Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School at the onset of his teaching career in 1991. He coached at Scotch Plains for 13 years at both the JV and varsity levels and complied a 161 – 72 record, winning two county championships.

Stevens has extensive playing experience as well. Having played through the ranks of the Closter Recreation Commission, he was the MVP of his varsity high school team, played on the USA High School All Star team as the only New Jersey representative versus the Taiwanese Nationals. He was recruited by over 20 teams to play college ball, including Princeton University and the United States Naval Academy, before he decided on Montclair State University, where he was a starting varsity pitcher for two seasons. He transferred his junior year and started two seasons for East Stroudsburg University. His semi-pro experience includes playing for the Saylorsburg Lakers in the Blue Mountain League (PA), Clifton Baskingers of the Metropolitan Baseball League (NJ) and for Parkway (DE). He was invited to five Major League tryouts in the summer of 1988, but his 84 mph fastball wasn’t fast enough to land a contract. He then retired from playing to devote his time to coaching.

About the Instructor, Bob Stevens

About the Instructor,
Bob Stevens