Twelve-year-old Cody Jones has come to a warehouse on the east side of Lawrence on a Thursday morning to work on his baseball skills.

The walls of the warehouse are covered with pictures of professional and amateur baseball players, and scattered about are various tools and instruments unfamiliar to anyone without an intimate knowledge of the game.

While Jones takes left-handed swings in a batting cage fenced in by mesh wiring, he is being videotaped by a camera mounted next to the cage.

Pitching to Jones is Wilson Kilmer, former Kansas University pitching coach, a tenant of the warehouse and the owner of Home Plate Baseball, a company that offers Kilmer’s instructional services for groups and individuals.

“He’s just learning to switch-hit,” Kilmer explained. “This is his new side. Sometimes it looks good, sometimes it’s ugly.”

But in these humble surroundings, students have access to one of Lawrence’s great local baseball minds. Kilmer has worked with pitchers who’ve gone on to the major leagues, and his deceptively simple approach takes the game to a level that few little leaguers have the chance to experience.

“One of the philosophies I have is to use drills that give instant feedback,” Kilmer said.

He uses techniques that break down the mechanics of the game to its smallest components, like having players pitch or hit while balancing on a long piece of wood called a slide board, or setting up tees in awkward positions to make them more aware of their bat control.

For Kilmer, Home Plate Baseball is the next step in a long career built around the game.

Kilmer pitched for Emporia State and won the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics national championship there in 1978. He went on to coach at the junior college level before becoming the pitching coach at KU in 1988.

Wilson Kilmer at the warehouse headquarters of Home Plate baseball. The former Kansas University pitching coach offers group and individual instruction for baseball players of all ages.

He spent 15 years in that role, working with two head coaches, Dave Bingham and Bobby Randall. But when Ritch Price took over the head coaching position at KU, he brought his own staff with him, a move that Kilmer calls “a normal part of the business.”

“After 23 years, I was out of coaching, and there wasn’t really a situation that I liked out there,” Kilmer said. “We love Lawrence and we wanted to stay around here.”

So, he conceived of the idea of Home Plate Baseball. He rented the warehouse he shares with a T-shirt printing business, and set up shop.

#He had experience working with kids at KU’s baseball camps, but nothing quite like this.

“I wasn’t doing anything one-on-one,” Kilmer said. “Basically it was small groups, and you weren’t with kids for that long.”

But it didn’t take too long for the self-described “standup comedian,” and father of two, to relate to the younger players and start enjoying the next chapter in his life.

“Coaching and teaching baseball is something I love to do,” he said. “That’s the funnest part, seeing kids learn and grow.”

For players with the real chance of continuing to play baseball beyond their teenage years, Kilmer brings an understanding of just how difficult that is.

Sometimes this can be a necessary shock to kids who are used to dominating their little league games and who might be developing bad work habits.

“I’m not afraid to say, ‘Hey, as a college coach, if I see someone doing what you’re doing right now, I don’t want to recruit you,'” he said. “You don’t have to be loud or mean, but to me that’s part of my job here. They think it’s all talent, but it’s not.”

Wilson Kilmer, left, and Cody Jones, 12, watch a video of Cody's swing, July 1, at Home Plate baseball. Kilmer is Jones's personal baseball instructor.

Home Plate has become pretty successful in its third year of existence. Kilmer gives about 35 lessons a week and has had students as young as 7 and as old as 60.

And it may be different from his years of coaching, but that’s not a bad thing.

Kilmer’s developed a fondness for his warehouse. He likes the natural color of the wood and points out a fixture on the ceiling that he thinks used to be part of a grain elevator.

“It’s nothing fancy, it gets hot in the summer and cold in the winter,” he said.

The warehouse and job have somewhat fulfilled a lifelong goal for Kilmer, as well.

“I always wanted to be a professional pitcher, and I guess I am,” he said. “I always imagined being in the seventh game of the World Series, but I’m paid to pitch to people now.”