AUBURN - Do your homework, clean your room and eat your carrots - just some of the great advice that 30 kids received in the Auburn Doubledays clubhouse at Falcon Park on Thursday night.

It was the first night of the Doubledays winter baseball clinic, instructed by manager Dennis Holmberg. Kids were treated to a pre-clinic pep talk in the clubhouse, in lockers with their own names at the top. Afterwards, it was on to the indoor batting tunnel behind the home clubhouse, where three groups rotated hitting and throwing.

The Doubledays manager has helped put on the clinic every season that he's been with the team, but in his seventh one, he was a bit more limited than he would have liked.

Fresh from rotator cuff surgery to his right shoulder on Dec. 13, Holmberg might not have been able to throw the ball hard or take a full swing, but he could still teach.

“Don't throw bats and don't throw helmets,” he advised the 20 children that attended the first clinic, from 5 to 7 p.m. “Don't whine, don't cuss and don't cry. Just like in the movie, there's no crying in baseball.”

Kids ranging in ages from 8 to 15 years hung on Holmberg's every word, especially when it came time for their turn in the cage. After Holmberg helped fix stances, bat-handling and swing technique, several children who weren't able to hit the ball off the tee on their first turn were able to do so by the end of the session.

“He taught me not to be afraid of the ball,” said Emily Harding, 8, of Weedsport. The only girl in attendance on the first night had played baseball for a few years in the Boys and Girls League.

Aric Lapp, 11, attended the Doubledays summer clinic this year and also said that Holmberg has helped him hit the ball better.

“I learn a lot when I come here, he's helped me out with my swing a lot,” Lapp said.

Although the focus of the clinic is clearly on the fundamentals of baseball and the game in general, Holmberg didn't waste the opportunity to advise the kids to do good things in life.

“I've seen a lot of good players not make it in baseball,” Holmberg told the second group. “I've also seen a lot of players struggle, but they had the heart, desire and the determination. No one was going to tell them ‘no,' and they made it. That's what you need in baseball.”

Despite the nearly freezing temperatures outside, it could have been a sunny, 70-degree day for all the baseball talk going around. Kids decked out in Mets, Yankees and Doubledays gear came together to tweak their fundamentals as well as to talk about little league and their favorite major league players.

“Every year, this is about bringing baseball into a winter atmosphere,” Holmberg said. “I like to encourage the kids to get out there. It's a tough atmosphere outside, but like I told them earlier, right now my son (Kenny, who plays in the Brewers system) is working with a team down in Florida, in 70-degree weather. Here, you can't even go out to the ballpark. So they have to find a different place, it might be a garage or a gym, and set up a little something and created an environment for baseball. You can't just shut it down for six to eight months.”

All of the kids were able to walk away from the first day of the clinic with more than a Doubledays hat. With a second session on Saturday morning, the man that has managed over 2,000 professional baseball games and has over 1,000 wins to his name has instilled priceless advice in elementary and middle school aged children.

“He told us that we can be anything we want in life,” Lapp said. “I'll always remember that.”