At age 78, Dick Birmingham makes no bones about it.

“I still have a love of working with kids and teaching them the right fundamentals,” he said. “I still enjoy it.”

That said, it’s clear there’s less interest in gaining additional personal acclaim (Birmingham’s already been inducted into seven halls of fame) than there is in showing a youngster how to hold his hands properly on the bat while executing a sacrifice bunt or making the pivot at second base on a double play.

In 25 years of coaching prep and American Legion baseball at Springfield’s Hillcrest High School, added to another 25 years of teaching the game on his own through camps he organizes through Dick Birmingham Sports, the 1959 Missouri State graduate has enjoyed huge success doing nothing but stressing individual fundamentals in what is generally regarded as a team game.

“We call it a team game,” Birmingham said, “but baseball is a lot of individual stuff. It really isn’t that difficult an idea. Most high school coaches are centered on a total philosophy of winning. My philosophy was that my job was not to win games. My job was to develop players who were fundamentally sound. I figured that if I did that job well, the wins would take care of themselves.”

The numbers clearly prove that Birmingham’s approach was correct. In 25 high school seasons at Hillcrest and 16 Legion campaigns with most of the same players, his teams had a combined record of 855-413. The high school teams won 15 conference titles, 10 district crowns and one state championship. Hillcrest Legion claimed three state titles, with two state runners-up and three national regional runners-up.

He cited a key personal achievement he orchestrated in those years, along with Central Legion Coach Udell McConnell: the development of junior varsity and freshman teams in Legion play in Springfield. Those programs are still in existence half a century later.

“It seemed pointless to us to have 60 kids try out for a baseball team with only 18 varsity spots and not have a way to give the other kids a chance to play baseball,” Birmingham said. “Jayvee and freshmen teams gave those kids that chance.

“The other thing I’m proudest of is the 130 kids who played for me who either signed a professional contract or received a college scholarship to play baseball.”

Of his many professional signees, four of them — Phil Henderson, Bobby Deatherage, George Frazier and Keith Drumright — went on to play at the major league level.

Birmingham Sports, a baseball camp program he runs throughout the year, has been a platform for the continuance of teaching individual fundamentals. Birmingham’s camps have taken him to 16 states and half a dozen foreign countries. He’s lectured on baseball fundamentals in 40 states and has coached in Pan American, Junior Olympic and other international competitions.

A native of Hot Springs, Ark., Birmingham was a football quarterback and track sprinter in his undergrad days at MSU.

“Of the things that really helped me was my developmental period at SMS. People like Coach (Eddie) Matthews, Coach (Ed) Lechner and Coach (Aldo) Sebben were invaluable, as were many of the outstanding teachers during that time.

“My wife, Rosemary, asks me how much longer I’m going to do this,” Birmingham said, “and I tell her I don’t play golf, I don’t garden and I went to the lake one day and I memorized it. What else am I gonna do?”