‘Extra coaching and extra swings’
Becker Baseball L.L.C helps athletes reach full potential
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FAIRMONT - Everything looks ordinary on the outside. From the gravel driveway, it’s just another white barn sitting in rural southern Minnesota. However, taking a walk up the set of stairs on the west side of the structure prepares you for something more.
Beyond the door is a completely different world. Vibrant green turf spreads across every surface of the floor. Baseball and softball bats are leaned up against the wall. And a meshed, rectangular netting drapes down from the ceiling, separating a space to work on any number of drill variations for hitting, pitching or fielding.
This indoor hitting and performance center, also known as the New Barn, is the latest addition Luke Becker has made to Becker Baseball L.L.C, a business focusing on training baseball and softball players in individual, group and team settings.
The company's goal is simple. It's about people reaching their highest capability. Whether it's to make a spot on the varsity lineup, or prepare for a potential collegiate career, Becker Baseball L.L.C wants to see that ceiling reached.
Luke Becker carried this same headspace throughout his career from Fairmont High School to Major League Baseball's minor league system. A constant chase to see how far he could climb. That same commitment now motivates him, and other local coaches, to teach others.
"The number one thing I'm trying to help is players reaching their full potential," Luke Becker said. "No one knows that is. I didn't know what that was for me either. It took me millions and millions of swings to find that. That's the opportunity I want to give, and obviously with all my experience, I can teach from that too."
"I would've never reached the level that I did, or been a pretty average high school player not playing college, if I didn't take all the extra swings or had the extra coaching," he continued. "Here's what I know, and I have some other coaching helping me, which helps them reach their full potential."
Getting extra swings
Luke Becker didn't look like a future MLB draft pick, or even a college-level player, during his first two years of high school. He's the very first person to say that.
"In my ninth-grade year, I played C Squad. I was probably the third or fourth best player on the team," Luke Becker said. "Sophomore year I didn't even make the lineup when we went to state. I actually got benched. So I wasn't very good until I got the extra coaching and extra swings."
The extra swings came primarily from the first indoor training facility built on the farm he grew up on. Built in 2010, the Hayloft complex wasn't just a tool for Luke Becker. His dad and uncle, Lonny and Lynn, would use this spot to give individuals training opportunities.
"My freshman year of high school we started remodeling," Luke Becker said. "My dad and uncle, they were running stuff out of there. If you really want to roll the history back for Becker Baseball, those two would take their cars to the Northrop school and pick players up to take them there. ...Technically, they were the ones that got it rolling."
But this is what Luke Becker credits for his dramatic improvement during his final two high school seasons. It was hard to pull him away from the cages. Some nights, even after games had ended and homework was finished, he’d ask his father to wake up and throw him a few more pitches.
The results arrived quickly. By his senior season, Luke Becker was the area's most productive hitter. A .547 batting average was lifted by 10 home runs, 10 triples and nine doubles. He finished 2014 with 42 RBIs and a mind-warping on-base percentage of .613.
The effort and energy were paying off. It instilled a mindset of strong dedication that he would take through the rest of his career, leaning on extra swings and grounders to separate himself from other athletes.
"Finally, in my junior and senior year, I took off. That's why I do this. So I can help players," Luke Becker said. "And it took me a long time to reach that."
Reaching your ceiling
While chasing his own professional baseball dream, Luke Becker began building another avenue within the sport. Three strong years playing for the University of Kentucky Wildcats earned him the ability to get picked in the 2018 MLB Draft, falling to the San Diego Padres in the 9th round.
But during the offseason, Luke Becker was using his free time to begin training lessons for kids in the area, much like his father and uncle did before him.
"I started doing a little bit in the offseason trying to make a little bit of money," Luke Becker said. "I was working on the farm during the day. And at night, I was doing lessons. ...It started with Joey [Crissinger] and his friends. They were the first ones to come through. And there were probably 15 kids that winter."
Two seasons in the minor leagues, playing for the Fort Wayne TinCaps and the Tri-City Dust Devils, was all Luke Becker got to experience before being released. Continuing to teach the sport back in Fairmont, he never wavered from his own career. He didn't think he was near seeing his ceiling as a player.
"In order to do this for so long, you have to be a little bit crazy," Luke Becker said. "But I was down the path of wanting to see what my potential was. I wanted to figure out what the best of myself was. I truly felt, after getting released from the Padres, that this was not even close to what I could do."
From 2020 to 2022, Luke Becker dove deeper into hitting mechanics. He was focused not only on finding the best philosophy, but on what other great professional players were doing with their approach and swing pattern. This came from more after-hours sessions inside the batting cage along with his own independent research.
It simultaneously elevated his local offseason baseball training he provided. His lessons evolved into the business title of Becker Baseball L.L.C in 2021, making the brand official with a focused effort in growth.
"In 2018, 2019, and 2020, it was around 30 or 40 players. And then, it exploded," Luke Becker said. "I'd say in 2021 and 2022, it went from about 75 kids to about 300. That's when the business started."
The lessons weren't simply helping the players walk in and out of the facility. They were helping Luke Becker himself.
In 2022, Luke Becker had his best season in Independent baseball. He played for the Kentucky Wild Health Genomes, an organization in the Atlantic League. There, Luke Becker finished the year with professional career highs in a handful of statistics, including batting average (.308), RBIs (98) and home runs (23).
"I was noticing that my preaching it to the kids was helping my swing more," Luke Becker said. "Just the mental side. Helping these kids, preaching it, talking about it over and over and over. ...A big reason for that [success] was because I was spending about six hours talking about what I was learning."
A new path
The 2022 season was the last time Luke Becker found himself fully committed to the game he loves. His success garnered the attention of a handful of MLB organizations, such as the Dodgers, Pirates and Rangers. But another opportunity didn't come.
Instead, Luke Becker slowly realized his path in baseball was shifting gears. He recalled his third and final season playing Independent baseball as a sign that things should change. The sport wasn't leaving his life. It was simply changing shape.
"2023, when I was going into that season, but also during it, I saw myself enjoying the coaching more than the playing," Luke Becker said. "What I was doing was experimenting with my swing to then help my athletes. I was planning lessons all season, which was a good indicator that my playing days are over. I had more passion to coach and to help people."
Becker Baseball L.L.C has since continued to grow its identity. The individual and group work is still there through different programs such as Hitters Clubs, Gold Glove Clubs, Pitching Academies, etc. But the opportunities continued to grow.
This September is the third time the company will provide Fall Ball. Individuals from grades five through 12 participate in a weekly practice and scrimmage held at the Northrop fields. Becker Baseball L.L.C has also provided mini camps for teams in the area. Teams around Minnesota and even northern Iowa have participated.
With help from local coaches and former players, such as Spencer Chirpich, Derek Shoen, Eli Anderson, Tegan Livesay, Levi and Lance Becker, everyone is bought into the idea of maximizing an athlete’s talent.
"Our culture is number one: how can we work hard? Number two: how much can we learn? However many times a player comes in, they should leave learning one thing. Number three: enjoy that. Have fun doing that," Luke Becker said. "If you do those three things, I promise you will get better. ...I've had those three things since I've been running, and I'm not going to change. They work."
Luke Becker carries the same mentality into coaching that once drove his playing career. Now, he's putting as much time and effort into the next generation of athletes who had the same passion he did. The desire to seek extra coaching, take extra swings and find out how their potential can take them.
"If I can speak it or teach it into them a little bit, that's why I spend hours and hours out here training kids," Luke Becker said. "Because I know that was my mentality when I was their age.