Cut all fours year in high school but went on to a big league career

Great message. I hope all our youngsters can see this. Focus on those things under your control. A high school coach's decision is not one of them. Things can be overcome with the right attitude and effort.

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Both of you...

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He is also proof that it only takes one scout to like you.

It always amazed me that someone could become an excellent Major League shortstop without his HS coach noticing some special abilities.

Bowa couldn't hit his weight when he came up with the Phillies. An old school great glove, no bat SS. Like dad43 stated had all those hits and batted .300 once or twice.

He certainly played with the passion he talked about. That passion came with an attitude and a temper, all three made him a very good major leaguer who was fun to watch. This kid who couldn't make his high school team was on the HOF ballot for one year.

Larry talked about the 72 Phils when they only won 59 wins and Carlton won 27 games that season. He won 27 games with a team that was not very good and was really a bunch of young players. He said that Carlton would come in the locker room on his start days and tell everyone "it is win day today's boys" Larry said no one want to make him mad so they found ways to make sure they won those days

quote:

Originally posted by PGStaff:
It always amazed me that someone could become an excellent Major League shortstop without his HS coach noticing some special abilities.

Makes you wonder about the HS coach's ability.

A great message. I remember as a coach cutting a kid for 3 years. Kept coming back and he got a little better each year. As a senior I could have cut him. He was not going to crack the lineup. a senior sitting the bench? i thought long and hard and I had to reward his persistence. I told him his playing time would be sparse but he just wanted to be part of the team. When I gave him his uniform it was like he won the lottery. He worked hard in practice and it was noticed by the rest of the team .Well to make a long story short there was an extra inning game where I played a hunch and pinched hit him and he got the game winning hit in the bottom of the inning. A great moment for him but it would have never happened without his persistence.

Wow what great advice!

I am in a quandary of what to do? We moved into a community with a great high school educational reputation only to find out that the baseball program has super opinionated parents, political gaming boosters who seem to run the show, huge fund raising obligation and no real coaching (he’s new to the district; 2nd season is just beginning). Rumor has it the boosters hired the coach; and it appears as if they picked the varsity team last season and this season as well).

There are several good senior players who have played together since they were little kids; many will go on to play in college. But there are several of the other sr's and jr's who have no plans to play in college and will sit all season long. But they made the varsity.

Tryouts were all of one day with the majority of decisions made during the “not school related” fall ball. Fall ball is not officially required; but good luck if you don’t play during the fall. There was so much pressure on my son to perform during the fall season that the coaches notice he was pressing early on; then he got sick, a virus that lasted 3 weeks. He missed 8 days of school. We tried to keep him home on game days but he said the coach would cut him from the team if he was not there to play.

Player background – He can’t imagine himself not in baseball; when he’s finished as a player he’ll do something else in baseball his whole life. He’s been a travel ball player since age 9 – In 2012 he was player of the game during Perfect Game East Cobb Invitational with a write up on their web site. He was player of the game twice during local scout league the same year.

He’ll play in college - small D1, D2 maybe JUCO ------ but It seems there’s no room on the varsity for the new kid… When he ask the coach why he did not make the varsity; coaches reply was “you did not perform during fall ball”.

Kinda hate to see this topic get hijacked down this road.....there have been many posts about this subject of parents running the team or coaches that are swayed by boosters..but I undertand your pain.

I will try to answer this the way i think Larry Bowa would answer it ( kinda of egotistical of me to think I could do this based off hearing him speak for 30 minutes but what the heck)

Tell your son to continue to practice and continue to get better so that coach (and I guess the parents) have no choice to put him on the team. Do not let his passion for the game die. Find a good summer team for him to play on. Get him working with good trainers. Do whatever it takes to keep evelating his game.

The point you made about Baseball being part of his life is exactly what Larry talked about...he said Baseball is such a great sport and now there are some many opportunties to stay in the sport after the career is over....front office, minor league operations even mention Sabermetrics! So there are ways to stay connected to the sport.

Sounds like your son is a good ball player....Larry told the players that were in attendance that night that he bet many of them in that room were better ball players than he was back when he was 18-20 years old.....he just never gave up, never gave in and kept chasing his dream.

Good luck to your son.

Dad, great story, thanks for sharing. Obviously the point to made isn't about coaches or parents, but the heart and commitment of the player. A great reminder.