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Reply to "True Walk-ons"

I walked on at an SEC team back in the 80's after seeing an article in the student newspaper that a catcher had gone down to injury.  I had a chance to play ball at smaller schools, but decided the opportunity to go to this school was too good to pass up.  Didn't even bring any baseball gear with me to school.  So I showed up late to the tryout and they were already taking infield.  I found an assistant coach and said I'd like to give this a try and that I found out late about the tryout.  They let me throw a few to warm up and asked me to join the infield workout.  I didn't even have a catcher's mitt, so I asked one of the other catchers trying out to use his.  The head coach gave me a strange look, he may have even said something like why don't you have your own glove.  Truth is I never owned my own catcher's mitt.  Always used the HS-provided glove when I was in high school.

Anyway, my arm was feeling pretty good as I hadn't played in a few weeks.  I made my first throw to second and it seemed like everyone in the entire place stopped to watch after that.  I remember having to field a bunt down the 3B line and did a spin move to throw to first and it felt like I threw it 100 MPH.  It was a perfect throw but the 1B totally whiffed on it.  The head coach said, boy you almost killed that kid and gave me this huge smile.  It was then that I knew I made the team.

They had me come out for a second day and there was a MLB scout there with a radar gun.  They had me make throws to the bags and field bunts.  I never thought anything of it until much later when someone told me they clocked me at 88 MPH on a few of my throws.  Coach came up to me and started interrogating me after the second day wondering what I was doing there, why wasn't I playing somewhere.  I just told him that I came from a nowhere town in the midwest.  Nobody helped us get noticed, and I really had no idea if I was good enough to play at a high level.  He said, well you're going to get your shot, and so I made the team.  I played some my freshman year, but unfortunately got injured playing summer ball and re-injured it the fall of my sophomore season.  Decided to take the year off to rest, but never ended up playing again.  Got my degree in four years and never looked back.

Not sure why I share this story.  I've never even told my kids these details.  I guess the thought that kids can't really even walk on in this day and age prompted me to do so.  Good news is that today our kids have ample resources to be seen and understand where they fit in the baseball landscape.  Good luck to all of the young men who take the walk-on path.  It's not easy, but I certainly have a ton of admiration for those who choose to take that journey.

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