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Reply to "Future of getting a scholarship?"

quote:
Originally posted by TRhit:
To me there has to be more to this than meets the eye---the BA numbers are excellent---what went one behind the scenes?---what level of competition did the BA's come against?

lots more here to be told


I have been going crazy the two weeks since my son told me he was thinking he was going to quit his high school baseball team. I tried to talk him out of it, and he kept saying that he was not happy there anymore; I have asked him the same questions that many of you have asked me. This is what he said.

I asked him if can ask to play another position? Coach said no even though my son can pitch, play OF and 1b.

I asked maybe he could DH since that is what he did his freshman year? Again coach said no.

Did you say something wrong or act disrespectfully to the coach? Again no!

Why are you not happy? Just because, he gave no real answer.

I have always taught my kids to tell the truth, so mostly I always believe them, but this time I wanted to make sure that I was not being one of those parents who thinks that their kids could do no wrong so I started making calls to all of his teammates that I could get a hold of and asked them what there thoughts were. Most of the players said that they could not believe that he quit when he did and that he did not quit sooner because the coaches had been riding him pretty hard for about a month, the coaches were calling him out after games in front of the team, blaming him for throws to the bag at second that got through because the shortstop was late getting there, for players being out of position, strikes not being called. He had a little batting slump were he went 0 for 8 and was being told he could not hit. I asked them did he say anything back to them when they called him out, once again they all said no he would just say “yes coach” and kept doing his work. I even started receiving calls from parents asking why he had quit and how much of a good player he was and they could not understand why this was happening. I tried to talk to the coach but have not received a call back yet I do not think I ever will. Or do i really care to hear back from him now.

I hate to say this and I hope it is not true but this all started by what I have been able to gather from the time line that the kids and parents gave me, around the time that a fundraiser was due and we could not hit the minimum donation level they wanted, and this is when they started to harass him. Also we had asked the coach around the same time, if we could pay the sprit pack fee of $450.00 dollars this season in installments since we were scraped for money. My bad! They said sure no problem by the way!
The Monday before he quit, he hit one out to dead center field at the 390’ spot for a homerun and hit one off the left field fence in his second at bat and this was against his own team’s number one lefty. They scrimmage on Mondays! The next day he went to the coach and asked if he could talk to him in private, coach said sure. He had his private meeting with the coach on the mound while his teammates were in the dugout watching after practice. So much for a private meeting! He was told that he was not the starter because he was not hitting. what the hell !!!!, my son said ok coach and walked away, he then called me on the phone and told me what he had said, I got angry and told my son on the phone to get his gear and to come home. We talked about it for about an hour and I told my son to call the coach and to quit, my son no that he wanted to do it face to face in person. The next day he went to the coach’s office before practice and asked to talk to the coach again in private but there was a parent in the office when he went in and he had to quit in front of the parent because the coach told the parent he could stay. This I verified by calling this parent and asking him if this was true. My son said exactly this to the his coach “thank you for the opportunity, thank for everything he taught him and good luck in the season and that he hopes they go far in the playoffs, but that he was choosing to leave the program to keep playing baseball’ his coach made no eye contact with him he just kept writing on a sheet of paper, and then all he said was “ok”. My son turned and walked out of the office.

Now as far as adversity my son has faced many adversities in his baseball career and has always overcome them, when he was thirteen he went about six months without a hit and he worked his butt off in the cage to overcome that and I think that is why is such a good hitter now because he can fix his own swing himself through hard work, around this same time he fractured his throwing elbow in what we think in a bike accident but he was also pitching a lot for his travel team and catching on his PONY team so it could have been that too. i hope the later was not the case. The doctors never could really tell us. He worked through that and built his arm back up to were he has a pretty strong arm now. This all started the summer before his freshman year. He was recruited yes I said “recruited’ as a pitcher but had to DH his freshman year while his arm healed. In the mean time he decides that he liked catching better then pitching and stuck with catching full time. I think that hurt him too because he choose to catch instead of pitch for the team. I do not know if we will ever find out why this happened but we are putting that behind us. By the way my son has been working harder then ever in the cage. The cage is at a buddy house, backyard type. He has been throwing long toss with a friend in a lighted park parking lot at night, he has to do this late at night because his friend is playing on the high school team and it is dark when they workout. he is just doing this until he can start practicing with his new spring team. The rain has delayed that.

As far as justifying his numbers and how he achieved them, I really should not have to but I will try by saying this. He has competed against the Colton Nighthawks, So Cal Angels, the So Cal Redwings and played on Trombly as a fifteen year old in a 18 u league, he recently had two doubles in the same game and drove in the two only runs for his team to win the game against a lefty pitcher that has been committed to Cal State Fullerton as a Sophomore. Later that weekend he drove in the winning run to win the championship game and he caught the whole game. In fact in the seventh when they brought in their ace a very high prospect out of Yucaipa he made some pretty good blocks when the pitcher could not find the strike zone and the tie run on third, and had many meeting on the mound to calm him down. We do not have money to fly him around the country to get seen at these showcases that cost $150.00 to $450.00 dollars, so many of you do not know him like you would Bryce Harper, Dante Bichette Jr and Travis Harrison but hopefully someday you will.

Anyways the decision is made good or bad only time will tell how it will play out. This will be my last response to this topic because my son still has to finish out his last year at this school and he does not need any trouble at school if someone figures out who he is from this post. I learned that the High School baseball system is not perfect and sometimes you have to just move on.

Hopefully in a couple of years I can update you guys with good news that he is fulfilling his dreams of playing in college.

Good luck to all and thank you for your comments.
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