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Gavin McGee's training session with pitching instructor Jay Lehr typically lasted well beyond the designated time block. More than an hour after the training ended, the education continued. McGee, a rising junior at Roncalli, and Lehr would remain at Pro X Athlete Development in Westfield talking about life, baseball everything in between.
A training session with Lehr wasn't a typical, one-sized-fits-all session. During a session with Lehr, athletes were going to get individually tailored guidance. They were going to laugh. They were going to have fun. And they were going to get better.
McGee started working with Lehr in November of his freshman season. After making some tweaks to McGee's mechanics, by January the right-handed pitcher added three miles per hour to his fastball. After pitching 25 innings for the Royals as a freshman, McGee's mechanics needed another tweak heading into the summer of his sophomore season.
"He just kept reminding me, 'Knees over toes, knees over toes, knees over toes,'" McGee said. "And then I fell back into rhythm."
During McGee's first outing of the summer, he was sitting 84 to 85 mph. At his second event, the Ultimate Baseball Championship in Florida, McGee was sitting 88 to 89 mph, with full control of his cutter and curveball.
"I texted Jay immediately after that," McGee said. "I was so happy. ... And every time I'd see him, I'd be like, 'Dude, when are you going to get me to 90 (mph)?' It was kind of our ongoing joke."
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McGee was just one of thousands of pitchers whose careers and lives were changed for the better after working with Lehr. Charles "Jay" Lehr passed away unexpectedly Friday. He was 58 years old.
"He wasn't just a teacher, he was more," McGee said. "He was like a role model, kind of like a dad. He knew when we were doing something bad, and he would let us know, but he would also be there to pick you up.
"He wasn't just gonna beat you down and leave you down. ... He was gonna tell you how to fix it, and then he expected you to put a little bit of effort into what he was teaching."
Tony Page's friendship with Lehr spans over 50 years. The two grew up together in Carmel, bonding over their shared love of baseball, quickly becoming best friends. The travel ball teammates loved baseball so much they'd hit balls in the snow. On rainy days, they'd play Intellivision Baseball together, mixing in some ping pong as late nights turned into sleepovers.
After Lehr's baseball career at St. Joseph's College in Rensselaer ended, he became an instructor at RoundTripper Academy in Westfield. Lehr worked as an instructor, coached youth baseball and joined Dan Roman's staff at Carmel in 2012. In 2016, Roman and Lehr helped the Greyhounds win their first sectional title in 16 years.
In 2013, Lehr left RoundTripper and started PowerAlley Baseball with Page. Lehr worked at every level of baseball, developing deep and lasting relationships at each stop along the way.
"It's just amazing how many families and kids he influenced through the years," Page said. "It's over thousands of families and kids that are just stunned by this loss. The amount of people that he helped, if you didn't have money, he would teach you for free. He was just that type of guy. He would work it out, and I was the same way. That's why we were two peas in a pod.
"He was such a good pitching coach, it was just unreal how the kids took to him and how much they improved with him. He would joke with them. He wasn't a strict kind of guy that some coaches are. He was your friend, but when we stepped on the baseball field, it was, 'Okay. It's time to get serious.'"
Before analytics and pitch data were all the rage, Jay Lehr was the first person to show Brownsburg grad, two-time MLB All-Star Lance Lynn that his fastball played well up in the strike zone.
After signing with the Chicago White Sox in 2021, Lynn credited Lehr with fueling a late-career resurgence that earned him Cy Young votes during his age 32 and 33 seasons with the Texas Rangers. Lehr helped Lynn regain his command by shifting his position on the mound from the first base side to the third base side. Lynn said Lehr's ability to convey information in a way that easily translates on the mound is what made him a great coach.
"He knew how to push my buttons, and that for me was great," Lynn said. "I wasn't one that needed a whole lot of coddling, I needed more directness, and also he knew that for me to do things they have to be my idea. He had this great way of giving me ideas that made sure they were things that I needed to work on.
"He knew how I ticked really well, and he knew the things I needed to do. He knew the way to help me understand the things that I needed to do before I did."
Lehr worked with a who's who of Central Indiana pitching greats, from Brownsburg stars Lynn and Drew Storen to Corey Wade (Broad Ripple), Tommy Hunter (Cathedral), Tom Mastny (Zionsville) and Eric Sabel (Harrison). In the offseason, these big leaguers would often go to Lehr for instruction before returning to their MLB ballclubs. But Lehr's lasting legacy can't be summed up in stats or fastball velocities. If you worked with Lehr, he quickly became a member of your family, known to those close to him as "Uncle Bubba" or "Biggin."
"He was a part of the family," Lynn said. "He coached my little brother; he coached guys that I grew up with. To my kids, he was 'Uncle Jay' or 'Uncle Bubba,' as they would call him. I think about him as a family member more so than a pitching coach. So that's the fondness and the closeness that we have. He was family."
As news of Lehr's passing spread throughout the baseball world, people took to social media to pay their respects to a man who was friends to so many. All of the people who spoke to the IndyStar had a similar reaction when first asked about Lehr - a quick chuckle - before going into what he meant to them.
Humor and the way he used it to connect to people is how those close to Lehr will remember him.
"It didn't matter if he was eight years old or 18 or 28, (Lehr) wanted to see each kid that he worked with thrive," Pro X executive director Mark Walther said. "He handled it with a huge sense of humor too. He had a knack of joking around with kids, but they would still understand it and be able to process the information and implement whatever he was teaching them.
"He had a very laid-back approach. He joked around with a lot of the athletes, and had a good time with it, but at the end of the day, each player continued to get better every time they worked with him as well."
Jenny Page, Tony Page's wife and longtime friend to Lehr and his wife, Cindy, gathered notes from several people whose lives were impacted by Lehr. There's her son, Dylan, who shared a story about spilling a milkshake in Lehr's new truck, and instead of yelling at the seven or eight-year-old kid, Lehr responded with understanding, kindness and his usual brand of humor.
There's former IU pitcher Tommy Sommer who credits Lehr with instilling confidence in him and becoming an advocate for him throughout his baseball career. Former Pittsburgh and UIC pitcher Ryan Campbell worked with Lehr through multiple changes in his delivery. He said Lehr helped him breakthrough every time he hit a plateau in his training.
"He was constantly learning, always searching for something new he could bring back to help the kids he coached," Campbell said via email. "And through all of it, he never lost his sense of humor. Jay had a way of lightening any room and making the hard work feel like something worth loving. He was and will always be my favorite coach, and the game of baseball is better because he gave so much of himself to it, and lesser with him gone."
Center Grove coach Keith Hatfield learned of Lehr's passing the day before the Trojans were set to play in the Class 4A regional championship game. The Trojans rolled to an 8-0 victory over Richmond, bringing them two wins away from a trip to Victory Field.
Hatfield has built Center Grove into a baseball powerhouse. The 2026 team has seven Division I commits, including Indiana Gatorade Player of the Year, Tennessee commit Gannon Grant. Even with all the success Hatfield's had in his career, his mind goes back to working with Lehr as a 15-year-old, watching the way he interacted with athletes and trying to mold his coaching style after his longtime mentor's.
"He is one of the most influential people in my baseball career," Hatfield said. "He is a great person, the biggest heart that you can imagine. He related to all different age groups and abilities better than anyone that I can remember or anybody that I knew. It's something that I still carry with me. I always wanted to be like Jay and try to relate to anybody and everybody that I could the way that he does.
"He's a giant in the baseball world, especially in Central Indiana, and there's a lot of kids that are hurting because they can’t talk to Jay anymore."
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IHSAA Baseball: Pitching instructor Jay Lehr touched many lives
Continue reading...
A training session with Lehr wasn't a typical, one-sized-fits-all session. During a session with Lehr, athletes were going to get individually tailored guidance. They were going to laugh. They were going to have fun. And they were going to get better.
McGee started working with Lehr in November of his freshman season. After making some tweaks to McGee's mechanics, by January the right-handed pitcher added three miles per hour to his fastball. After pitching 25 innings for the Royals as a freshman, McGee's mechanics needed another tweak heading into the summer of his sophomore season.
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"He just kept reminding me, 'Knees over toes, knees over toes, knees over toes,'" McGee said. "And then I fell back into rhythm."
During McGee's first outing of the summer, he was sitting 84 to 85 mph. At his second event, the Ultimate Baseball Championship in Florida, McGee was sitting 88 to 89 mph, with full control of his cutter and curveball.
"I texted Jay immediately after that," McGee said. "I was so happy. ... And every time I'd see him, I'd be like, 'Dude, when are you going to get me to 90 (mph)?' It was kind of our ongoing joke."
Download the IndyStar app
McGee was just one of thousands of pitchers whose careers and lives were changed for the better after working with Lehr. Charles "Jay" Lehr passed away unexpectedly Friday. He was 58 years old.
"He wasn't just a teacher, he was more," McGee said. "He was like a role model, kind of like a dad. He knew when we were doing something bad, and he would let us know, but he would also be there to pick you up.
"He wasn't just gonna beat you down and leave you down. ... He was gonna tell you how to fix it, and then he expected you to put a little bit of effort into what he was teaching."
'Amazing how many families and kids he influenced'
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Tony Page's friendship with Lehr spans over 50 years. The two grew up together in Carmel, bonding over their shared love of baseball, quickly becoming best friends. The travel ball teammates loved baseball so much they'd hit balls in the snow. On rainy days, they'd play Intellivision Baseball together, mixing in some ping pong as late nights turned into sleepovers.
After Lehr's baseball career at St. Joseph's College in Rensselaer ended, he became an instructor at RoundTripper Academy in Westfield. Lehr worked as an instructor, coached youth baseball and joined Dan Roman's staff at Carmel in 2012. In 2016, Roman and Lehr helped the Greyhounds win their first sectional title in 16 years.
In 2013, Lehr left RoundTripper and started PowerAlley Baseball with Page. Lehr worked at every level of baseball, developing deep and lasting relationships at each stop along the way.
"It's just amazing how many families and kids he influenced through the years," Page said. "It's over thousands of families and kids that are just stunned by this loss. The amount of people that he helped, if you didn't have money, he would teach you for free. He was just that type of guy. He would work it out, and I was the same way. That's why we were two peas in a pod.
"He was such a good pitching coach, it was just unreal how the kids took to him and how much they improved with him. He would joke with them. He wasn't a strict kind of guy that some coaches are. He was your friend, but when we stepped on the baseball field, it was, 'Okay. It's time to get serious.'"
"He knew how to push my buttons"
Before analytics and pitch data were all the rage, Jay Lehr was the first person to show Brownsburg grad, two-time MLB All-Star Lance Lynn that his fastball played well up in the strike zone.
You must be registered for see images
After signing with the Chicago White Sox in 2021, Lynn credited Lehr with fueling a late-career resurgence that earned him Cy Young votes during his age 32 and 33 seasons with the Texas Rangers. Lehr helped Lynn regain his command by shifting his position on the mound from the first base side to the third base side. Lynn said Lehr's ability to convey information in a way that easily translates on the mound is what made him a great coach.
"He knew how to push my buttons, and that for me was great," Lynn said. "I wasn't one that needed a whole lot of coddling, I needed more directness, and also he knew that for me to do things they have to be my idea. He had this great way of giving me ideas that made sure they were things that I needed to work on.
"He knew how I ticked really well, and he knew the things I needed to do. He knew the way to help me understand the things that I needed to do before I did."
Lehr worked with a who's who of Central Indiana pitching greats, from Brownsburg stars Lynn and Drew Storen to Corey Wade (Broad Ripple), Tommy Hunter (Cathedral), Tom Mastny (Zionsville) and Eric Sabel (Harrison). In the offseason, these big leaguers would often go to Lehr for instruction before returning to their MLB ballclubs. But Lehr's lasting legacy can't be summed up in stats or fastball velocities. If you worked with Lehr, he quickly became a member of your family, known to those close to him as "Uncle Bubba" or "Biggin."
"He was a part of the family," Lynn said. "He coached my little brother; he coached guys that I grew up with. To my kids, he was 'Uncle Jay' or 'Uncle Bubba,' as they would call him. I think about him as a family member more so than a pitching coach. So that's the fondness and the closeness that we have. He was family."
"A giant in the baseball world"
As news of Lehr's passing spread throughout the baseball world, people took to social media to pay their respects to a man who was friends to so many. All of the people who spoke to the IndyStar had a similar reaction when first asked about Lehr - a quick chuckle - before going into what he meant to them.
Humor and the way he used it to connect to people is how those close to Lehr will remember him.
"It didn't matter if he was eight years old or 18 or 28, (Lehr) wanted to see each kid that he worked with thrive," Pro X executive director Mark Walther said. "He handled it with a huge sense of humor too. He had a knack of joking around with kids, but they would still understand it and be able to process the information and implement whatever he was teaching them.
"He had a very laid-back approach. He joked around with a lot of the athletes, and had a good time with it, but at the end of the day, each player continued to get better every time they worked with him as well."
Jenny Page, Tony Page's wife and longtime friend to Lehr and his wife, Cindy, gathered notes from several people whose lives were impacted by Lehr. There's her son, Dylan, who shared a story about spilling a milkshake in Lehr's new truck, and instead of yelling at the seven or eight-year-old kid, Lehr responded with understanding, kindness and his usual brand of humor.
There's former IU pitcher Tommy Sommer who credits Lehr with instilling confidence in him and becoming an advocate for him throughout his baseball career. Former Pittsburgh and UIC pitcher Ryan Campbell worked with Lehr through multiple changes in his delivery. He said Lehr helped him breakthrough every time he hit a plateau in his training.
"He was constantly learning, always searching for something new he could bring back to help the kids he coached," Campbell said via email. "And through all of it, he never lost his sense of humor. Jay had a way of lightening any room and making the hard work feel like something worth loving. He was and will always be my favorite coach, and the game of baseball is better because he gave so much of himself to it, and lesser with him gone."
Center Grove coach Keith Hatfield learned of Lehr's passing the day before the Trojans were set to play in the Class 4A regional championship game. The Trojans rolled to an 8-0 victory over Richmond, bringing them two wins away from a trip to Victory Field.
Hatfield has built Center Grove into a baseball powerhouse. The 2026 team has seven Division I commits, including Indiana Gatorade Player of the Year, Tennessee commit Gannon Grant. Even with all the success Hatfield's had in his career, his mind goes back to working with Lehr as a 15-year-old, watching the way he interacted with athletes and trying to mold his coaching style after his longtime mentor's.
"He is one of the most influential people in my baseball career," Hatfield said. "He is a great person, the biggest heart that you can imagine. He related to all different age groups and abilities better than anyone that I can remember or anybody that I knew. It's something that I still carry with me. I always wanted to be like Jay and try to relate to anybody and everybody that I could the way that he does.
"He's a giant in the baseball world, especially in Central Indiana, and there's a lot of kids that are hurting because they can’t talk to Jay anymore."
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IHSAA Baseball: Pitching instructor Jay Lehr touched many lives
Continue reading...
