Running thread, if you wish. My hope is to give others whose sons may be pro players soon...without getting too personal...an 'inside' look at our own sons' MiLB experiences. I'm thinking, 'not a brag thread' but more an 'as it is' thread. Experiences. As seen by parents. 
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I'll start.
Son was 'optioned' to Triple-A Syracuse about 2 1/2 weeks ago. So he spent the last 2 weeks of camp with the Triple-A team. Of course, this doesn't give me near as much 'insight' into how he's doing as those results aren't posted on line...that I know of.
Had to rely on what he was willing to tell us, which sometimes isn't a ton. Its ok, I understand.
Anyways, I see yesterday he arrived in NY and posted a picture of the area. SNOW! Raining/sleeting/icing...and SNOW! Then I saw a picture that the team had posted of their field...SNOW everywhere (except dirt on infield)! YIKES!
For a California boy...this is both probably unnerving (driving - double-YIKES!) and exciting. Season starts tomorrow. Hope they have good snowblowers. 
Son had a very good spring, pitched in AAA, assigned to AA Erie.
I know there are some folks that are disappointed with where their sons were placed, but keep in mind, it is not where you begin but where you end.
He arrived yesterday, Erie sits right on the lake and it is VERY cold. Today the team had first practice. DK sent a pic, woolen hat and a mask to guard against the cold, the manager allows this as it is so cold and the bull pen is unprotected. He is expecting a package of long underarmour and thermal underwear,
Not the best conditions for a florida boy!
Tomorrow is milb opening day, best of luck to all!
Son played spring in High A,assigned to extended.It is what it is and he will make the best of it as he always does..Son is aware of the climb and the obstacles.
I said previously I am very proud.He has done all he can do to be the best he can.Thats all he can ask of himself.
No regrets,no time to dwell,he made the cuts so far as a free agent so we will see.
I dont get much from him,the basics,he doesnt dwell,he moves forward.He is getting work at second and third,and first.
Still grateful for the opportunity. Its all good.
justbaseball,
Saw your son pitch in s a ST game that was televised.He looked really good.Such a stacked team
,hard to get to that level.He is going to be there sooner than later.Best of Luck to him,Ill be watching for sure.
I live about 1 and 1/2 hours west of Erie Pa TPM and also live along the shore of Lake Erie. Although it has been sunny for several days, it is absolutely bone-chilling cold. No weather for baseball although I see our high schools are finally playing. All the best to DK during these chilly times and beyond.
All the best to everyone else's son here too! Positive reinforcement is all we parents can do!
There are setbacks to continually deal with. Mine will have to battle his way off the bench this year. They've plugged in two first rounders at shortstop and 3rd base and they have three 2nd baseman on the roster. All I can do is encourage him like I always have. He came off the bench in high school and in college before he finally earned a position. Hopefully, that can happen for him here too.
Great point about Taylor Harbin. Great kid and teammate and he and Tyler get along really well. He will be the starting second baseman.
fanofgame - Thanks for the kind words.
I think we all feel a bit of anxiety as the season begins today. I know at this time last season, I believe my son was on the edge of the cutting board coming off of a tough season the year before. He turned it around pretty quickly and his MLB team was not slow to see it.
Anyone feeling discouraged right now...hang tough! I know from last year that it can change quickly. You all have tenacious sons and thats been proven time and time again. They will be 'all in' and we will all be proud.
proudhesmine - You'll probably get more helpful responses by starting another thread. You have a lot of questions...but I think we'll throw this thread off track if we try to answer them all.
Might be obvious to lots of parents out there, but...
If you've got an iPhone and AppleTV, you can now pump MiLB video broadcasts from your phone to your TV through the MiLB app.
Just in case. 
fanofgame,mine was in extended last year. He struggled mentally after a month or so and then got his mind in the right place before the short season started. He ended up getting moved up after 2 weeks into the short season. Then he went up to A+ for about 2 weeks then back to A. He ended up winning a league championship! It is not an easy road for anyone if you ask me. Hope your son has a great season and as was stated in earlier post, it is not where you start, but where you end up.
southernmom,
Thanks for sharing that.Two months is a long time.The good thing is all the senior signs that were with him in rookie ball,are with him in extended.They are a great group of guys.They just had some time off and had a lot of fun.
I am glad your son did so well.Hope he has a great season this year!!!
You are right,it is not easy.I have a lot of admiration for minor league ball players
As a parent, the hardest part for me has been not being able to see him play. I was so much more settled when he was closer for part of his season and we got to go to quite a few games. Although we only saw him pitch 2 innings in one game, just seeing him in person gave me a connection emotionally. He is in California now and we live in Alabama and listening to the games is not as easy being we are 2 hours ahead and he is a relief pitcher. Makes for a long night trying to stay up for the whole game. But that is the way for most of us I am sure. Hard road for parents as well when it comes to being a part of the trials and tribulations of encouragement and support for our sons. As with all parents, I beam with pride as he continues to play and enjoy every moment as he does.
southernmom,
When I read your posts I feel so similar to your emotions and feelings.
All we can do is help however we can.For Easter,I didnt get it together to send him anything,we had just sent him cookies for his birthday.,I texted him and said please go and have a NICE dinner on us for Easter.Get yourself a steak,or something good.
He is so gracious about our help,always thanks us.Such a honorable young man like I am sure all these boys are.
The lessons he is learning go far and beyond baseball,I tell him all the time enjoy the moments,as they will be the memories down the road.
Great to see this thread…I’m looking forward to hearing many success stories throughout the year.
My son is starting out in High A again this year, while he was hoping he would be promoted to Double A (don’t they all), he was pretty realistic about his chances since he had an up and down year (more down than up). The good news is he had a good spring training so while he didn’t get promoted he knows he’s a least back on the radar (which is half of the battle).
A few things that I have learned over my sons 5 year journey… (Sorry for the long post in advance)
Level of play – Where your son ends up playing has many moving parts, most of those parts are out of your son’s control. While you may feel he has been pigeon holed where he starts the year, with injuries, promotions and other factors that affect rosters…if they perform well they can move up (sometimes pretty quickly). I have seen numerous players make 2 level moves in one season. As we keep telling ourselves…it’s not where you start, it’s where you finish.
Communication - This is a job now…I doubt that you share a lot of what goes on in your daily routine with your family. While baseball is a much cooler job, it’s not much different for the boys. Baseball is usually the last thing they want to talk about. Especially if they aren’t playing at their best. Don’t get too discouraged if they don’t share a lot with you about their game. This was probably the hardest thing for me to get used to. One of my favorite things was to talk baseball with my son. As difficult as it is, I have accepted that when we talk I’m probably not going to get a blow by blow on how he’s doing.
On the plus side we have discovered new things to talk about (current events, TV shows, movies, books…life). In reflection, I now realize how much of our past communication was centered around baseball, once I quit asking for the “baseball report” I found the frequency of our text/calls seemed to increase. It’s kind of nice to discover new things with him (and about him). And yes when he does throw in a few baseball related items, it’s just that much sweeter.
Groundhog Days - It’s an incredibly long and sometimes lonely season. Their hours are much different that most normal people so many of the things we take for granted are lacking for them (prime time TV, hanging with friends, etc). The best thing we did was get a Netflix and Kindle account for him. Our cable network also has a free online service that he can use to watch current shows. Armed with an ipad he has plenty of entertainment to get him through the groundhog days that make up a season. He just found out their buses have free Wi-Fi this year...huge bonus.
Another tedious part of the season is the daily routine of sometimes boring clubhouse food …every once in a while we will send him a gift card for Chipotle, Starbucks, or Chick-fil-a. I don’t care how much money he may have, free gift cards seem to make his day.
Find a support network (for yourself) - I have been VERY lucky to have developed a close relationship with a couple of other parents that have boys in the minor leagues. It’s so nice to be able to talk to people that get it. While my “normal” friends are very supportive, unless you have someone going through minor league baseball it’s just not the same. Having friends that “get it” have gotten me through a few anxious times…their friendship and council has become invaluable. The cool thing is I find myself rooting for their boys as much as I do my own. I can’t remember a day during the season where I didn’t check to see if they played and how they did. I don’t know what I would do without them. Much love to “The Crew”, you know who you are.
I guess that this is my long winded way of saying...don't fret, it's a long season and many things can happen. It’s a new year with new possibilities…It doesn’t matter how they did before (good or bad). It’s now time to “Reset to Zero”…and start it all over again.
Good luck to all our boys…some are close to their dream, some are just getting started and some are somewhere in between. As challenging as the milb may be, it’s still one of the best experiences they will ever have. They (we) may just not know it yet.
What a great post.
Thanks so much for that and so true every word.
What a great thread - thanks to all of you for contributing....
Jeresey, great post and so on point in every regard!
Son and a few others rented a house this year and just got the keys Wednesday night. They left for a week long road trip Thursday, so they will have lots of moving in to do when they get back. This year my son said he did not care how much a bedframe cost, he did not want his bed on the floor. He said if he could just have his bed like a normal bed, that would be so comforting since he wasn't going to have much else in his room/house. I shipped his bedding and a few other things to him and they will be there when he gets back. Now, if I could only figure out how to economically ship him some of mom's cooking! I think that was one of the things he missed most, other than his dog.
My son has a former college teammate who is in the majors. Spending time with him and his family, you realize that even though they have "made" it, there is always the stress of continuing to perform at that level and they too, have the long days away from home and their loved ones. But all in all, as said, it is the best experience they will ever have and as far as I am concerned, as a parent, it is pretty special as well.
I am so glad the milb finally has the gametracker on all games. You can get a better sense of what is going on. Sometimes the radio announcer has a different take on things and now I don't have to ask my son anything about his outing. Of course, if it is a good one, he is calling as soon as he is in the clubhouse. Its those games when you don't get a call that make for a long night as a parent.
Good luck to all the players!!!!!!!!!!
Awesome post by jerseydad!
Whoever came up with reset to zero is a genius!
Good idea for a t-shirt?
Simply a fabulous post jerseydad!
You too southernmom!
He is in California now and we live in Alabama and listening to the games is not as easy being we are 2 hours ahead and he is a relief pitcher. Makes for a long night trying to stay up for the whole game.
Southernmom I can relate to the life a of a relief pitcher's parent always being on standby. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried it however if you have a Windows computer there is a sound recorder built in that allows you to record streaming audio. It’s not a perfect solution however it will work in a pinch. The down side is that the Sound Recorder has to be manually turned on and off so you have to be around to get things going.
Typically I will start recording and then leave the room, if I see that my guy went into the game I can just find that part of the recording and pick it up from there. This also gives you the option to delete it without listening if things don’t go well.
If you're not familiar with Sound Recorder here is a link that shows how to use the recorder as well as save files.
I think that jerseydad made a very important point about the conversations that we should have with our players not being all be about baseball. My son pointed out once that he doesn't ask us about performance of our jobs on a day to day basis, but he does understand that we take an interest after each outing. Trust me we are no different than perhaps the big super stars moms or dads. No doubt that the game of baseball is a very important part of the families life, but don't make that the center of conversation, at any level.
mi leaguers don't get paid much money, and those in extended don't get any, so the gift cards are a great idea. Mine likes walmart, where he can spend it on household necessities. If you subscribe to HBO or Showtime they can access it on phone or ipad. Mine gets to watch Dexter that way! And no way could he live without Neflix.
The worst part is being on a different time zone, but now we are in sync with the time zone and it's very much appreciated, which means normal bedtime!
If you subscribe to the games on Milb they are archieved. It's worth the price.
Again, a really good response jd!
jd, thanks for the info and link. I will be giving that a try. And yes, I like the part about you can delete it if things don't go well! Opening day there was the gameday application and since then I have yet to find it on any games. I hope that it will become a regular for all games. The audio at his game Friday and Saturday was out but Sunday finally stayed on. He might come in tonight, so we will see how the audio goes.
I think he understands how disconnected we feel with him being so far away and he seems to be a bit more sharing, or at least for the moment. Unfortunately, most of his day is about baseball so it gets hard to not bring some aspect of it into a conversation (who went to eat, who is your roommate this trip, how is the field, how's the hotel, etc.). Although I don't start any conversation about his baseball outing/performance, I just stop whatever I am doing when he calls to chat about baseball and let him take the lead on the conversation, even when it is 12:30 a.m. my time!
I subscribe to milb.tv, but he only has about 4 games a month milb.tv, so it will be internet/audio for us. TPM, enjoy the regular bedtime this season! This is just our third season, but I know you have had many more than me and will truly appreciate the same time zone.
southernmom,
gameday is on all the games (or should be) and found on milb under scoreboard.
I go to the page on milb where you can see all the teams in the organization and their scores for that day.
TPM, there must be some problem/issue with the gameday application in his league. I looked back for the last three days where you suggested and his game Thursday was the only game with gameday. The audio feed has been really hit or miss (mainly miss) so maybe there is some technical issue they are working on. I was so excited thinking every game was going to have gameday. Thanks for the information!
TPM, not that it is important to anyone other than me, but I contacted the team and was advised that only 2 teams in his league had the gameday application. Maybe in the future, it will be a milb standard.
The coverage gets much better...almost exponentially...at the higher levels. Audio, video...pitch-by-pitch gameday app for your iPhone.
Thats all good...right? Well, sorta. Unfortunately it seems to cause me to check my phone many times over the course of a game. Not sure thats the best thing...day after day.
Ihave noticed when I have checked on some games that not every single game in the lower levels have game day.
Some have video but not every game,some you can listen to.
It will be nice when gameday is on for all the minor league levels.
Fabulous thread! I'll be copying many of your posts for future reference. This is my son's first full season (2012 draftee) and we both have much to learn. Here I thought the HSBBWEB was primarily for HS kids, but it is definitely the site that just keeps on giving.
southernmom- My son is in the Cal League...it sounds like yours may be as well. Not a great place for pitchers and defense due to the high altitude, winds, and rough infields. As an infielder, I know my son is adjusting to the fast infields and wind conditions, but hopefully it will help out his BA a little
Good luck to all ...unless your son is pitching against mine
Chris and southernmon - Our son played in the California League a few years ago...Lake Elsinore. Thats a good league...and a league that really has some advantages for hitters. Wind blows out in many parks. So southernmom...don't get too discouraged if there's some big scores in some of those games.
I think we were at a game at High Desert one night and the ball was freakin' flying all over (and out) of the place. Was hard to watch as a pitcher's parent. 
Anyways...we sometimes go to San Jose Giants games...about 20 minutes south of us. Not the greatest ballpark, but they definitely draw well and Turkey Mike's BBQ down the left field line is a classic. Make sure to stop there for lunch/dinner if you're ever at that ballpark. Stockton was the nicest ballpark I saw in that league...Bakersfield probably the strangest.
Chris Taylor, yes he is in the California League with the Modesto Nuts. It has been a bit windy where he is playing now. He has called a couple of times while he was outside soon to realize the wind was too much for us to hear each other. He was there for a couple of weeks last year, so hopefully he knows and understands the elements and how they can contribute to his pitching. Hope he keeps his balls down and not up and away this season, especially if he faces your son!
Justbaseball, I wish I could say I would be going to visit him this season and take in a game or two, but just does not seem to be in the plans for lots of reasons. I did go to as many games last year when he was closer as I was hoping he would move up this season knowing we could not make a trip to see him at this point.
My son (also Chris) is in High Desert. They have not played Modesto yet, but I'm sure they'll see each other soon. I plan to take a trip out there sometime in June, but I'm holding out hope for a midseason call up to Jackson, TN (closest affiliate to the east coast)
justbaseball- A good friend's son, Beamer Weems, played in Lake Elsnore a few years ago...he may have been on the team with your son.
ChrisTaylor, from the looks of things so far, good reason for you to hold out for a midseason call up! Just got off the phone with my son. They were at a mall eating and killing time since they are traveling tonight and it was check out of the hotel day.
Hope your son gets to Jackson this season! We live about 25 miles from Huntsville, AL and we go to the Huntsville Stars (Southern League) games on a regular basis. We just might get to see him too.
justbaseball- A good friend's son, Beamer Weems, played in Lake Elsnore a few years ago...he may have been on the team with your son.
They were teammates in Eugene (short season) and again in San Antonio a couple years later. Don't think they were in Lake Elsinore together...but my memory is fading. 
I was wrong in assuming that all high A had gameday. Double A for your son will be the Texas league. Tough, but nothing is worse than AAA Pacific Coast League for pitchers.
Our flights are booked. We'll be in Las Vegas from May 28th to June 1st for some vacationing, gambling (for my wife), and some baseball. Looking forward to it!
I don't think she'll be upset with me for posting this, but I received a wonderful call at work today.
fanofgame let me know that her son has been assigned to Hagerstown in the South Atlantic League. All those worries and wonderings replaced by joyful excitement.
She told me, she does not know what the future holds and I said that was irrelevant. For now, her son's baseball dream has been extended and he has done his part - control those things under his control. Well done!
