Diary of a Freshman at D1 P5 baseball Team

Concordia game tonight.

Settling into classes pretty well.

I love the mandatory tutoring for Freshmen. All Freshmen think the classes are pretty straight forward until they get the first quiz and ALL the answers look right.

Making good friends of upperclassmen and transfers.

Batting .380 for fall ball. Playing 2b and SS .

Practices stop in a couple of weeks and just lifting for the Winter?

Coaches already getting guys assigned to Summer teams in Northwoods League.

Will play at Waterloo with IOWAMOM son.

Good Knight,

great report! The summer team will equal two Spring seasons. Do you live near Waterloo?
Bob

Pretty much equal distance to either Waterloo or Rockford.

He was hoping to pitch only so he could drive there on playing days like IOWAMOM son. But coaches said he needed to be a 2 way  so will see.

Darn it. All parents weekend activities cancelled. Must be a Covid deal.

I understand but interesting.  Son has not had official practice yet.  Games are October 23 and 30.  Intersquad is the first week of November

Concordia game cancelled as well as all other Parents Weekend activities.

Most parents got together anyway and attended football game.

Still hoping for Pro-Alumni game this weekend.(CANCELLED1)

Hell week started for all vaccinated players. Lots of conditioning stuff. (DID 18 CHIN UPS TO LEAD TEAM!)

Hanging out and getting to know the other Freshmen.

Lifting twice a day! Fun.

Decided against Northwoods team for next Summer.

Will play for Clinton Lumberkings of the Prospect League. Closer to home so he can live at home and we get to all the games.

Son wrapped up Northwoods summer with 49.2 innings pitched and 53 strikeouts. 3.26 ERA. Last outing was 110 pitches into the eighth inning, which was great, but it came a week before he went back to Iowa. Within a week he was wiped out, went to coaches and is now taking the fall off. Between fall ball, spring season, etc., he pretty much had been pitching for a year straight without a significant break.

He said his arm doesn't hurt, but he's just wiped out. He hasn't touched a baseball in almost two weeks now, and already sounds way more like himself.

Sorry Seth won't be at Waterloo. Interested to see where Duncan ends up.

I'm surprised they did not have him on an inning count.  Son went to Coastal Plains after Omaha and a school leadership trip to Belize and had an inning count and game pitch count.  He did not reach it but got pretty close to it which was low due to his number of innings in the spring.  He then took off last week of July and all of August.

Game with TWINS scheduled for 25 Feb at Spring training! Can't wait.

Hell week fun continues.

Got cool new Minnesota backpacks for travel.

Golfing with upperclassmen. (Hope I see my clubs again)

Hell week over!

Fall practices are done.

Will have to make up a Winter workout/study plan soon.

Eating better/gaining weight/lifting/running.

Very quick. Was the Fall practice 5 weeks?

Bob

Yes about 5 weeks and with Covid cancelling 3 games/scrimmages.

And it is a little different as some other Big Ten schools have practice/games thru October.

Talked to Clinton Lumberkings coach and anxious to play.

Looks like a few guys he knows will also play there.

Lifting 2 times a day.

Emphasis on classes for right now.

Other team schedules are out so hoping  for ours soon!

Very cool new backpacks.

Wear your "fur coat" next March or April. will you go South?

BOB

I think they go to Florida for 2 weeks in Feb. But the do not take everyone.If he goes , we go.

Usually go to San Diego or Phoenix, but we will suck it up. And I an not wearing a mask in Cali!

Chances are the first three weeks will be on the road. Maybe four for a team from MSP. Looking at 2018 they didn’t play at home until 3/25. It was three non conference road trips followed by a conference road trip.

Also hoping for a Late Feb Cambria classic inside the US Bank!

Looks like it is on Illinois schedule already.

Good Knight;

we have "golden" masks in California.

Bob

Private meetings with pitching coach for each pitcher.

Discuss Winter workout program for each pitcher.

Talk about where u are and what to work.

Very cool.

Interested to see if POS coach has a separate regimen.

Held out of throwing this Fall since he threw 66 innings this Summer.

Worked all Fall at MIF.

Hit well.

FB is at 94, CB at 86 (with 21 inch movement).

CU is 85 but will spend Winter on CU control.

Starts throwing 18th.

I love that the PC does really care about arm health here!

College is getting real with tests this. week. Welcome Freshmen!

Lifting twice a day.

Cannot wait to see the schedule.

College is getting real with tests this week.

It gets more real when grades come out and they’re not as good as expected. This happened to my son and me. We both got 2.7’s the first semester. Then we cranked it up. My daughter was so paranoid about grades the first semester she studied her brains out and got a 4.0. She graduated PBK. I think she was proving she was smarter than her brother who has a 10% higher IQ. She was a studier. He mastered falling out of trees and landing on his feet scoring a perfect ten. It drove me nuts watching my son grow up being like me. Talk about God’s revenge.

I consider it my job before college to scare the hell out of them and tell them how impossible it is.

Then when they come back later and tell me I oversold I know I did it again!

I am lucky though. He is a serious student and he is lucky. Every thing he tries just comes up roses. But it is easier if you work like hell while you wait.

One of the most serious conversations son and I ever had was in his senior year of HS when I told him that I worried he had been running on talent throughout high school and never learned to work. When he started college, he started dating a girl — usually the kiss of death for a lot of things.

Over the last three years, he became her study partner as she went to nursing school. In the process he learned to budget — she was on food assistance, worked and went to school full time and had no support from family — and to study. She just graduated and swears he could pass the nursing boards. But he got a history degree in three years, has been all academic Big 10 for the last two years, and now is working on a teaching certification.

In truth, I skated by for years on the ability to read fast and ace multiple choice tests. He's learned to work and I'm really proud of him.

What's the nutrition program been like? Is there a prescribed calorie intake? Macros assigned? Curious as to how much the program puts into this.

Senna Interesting question. Have not done anything yet, but he is a self starter. He has adopted the habits already of a Senior player. Has gone from his " 43 chicken nugget meal" he brought home one day to a lot of salad and vegetables.

Lost 3 lbs and is still getting stronger.

They never put my son on a particular diet.  Their strength and conditioning coach just told him if he wanted to get where he said he did he would change his eating habits.  Son began to ask questions and coach gave him substitutes that would decrease fat and increase muscle.  I think their logic was we can force it or we can encourage it and the encouragement worked strongly for my son.

They do Bod Pods on a regular basis which measures almost every level of human fitness.  He went from 23% body fat, which sounds really bad but he was not in horrible shape, could run 3 miles easily, to less than 10% now.  He lost over 30 pounds and is now putting it back on slowly with muscle.  The words of the coach ring true.  If you want to get to where you say you want to be, you will change some things.  Probably to everyone in several areas of our lives.

Ours was similar.  They do the pod and then they must eat at training table every day for dinner.  The food is color coded and they tell them they should have x blue, x green, etc. but it is up to them to do it.  They don't monitor it.  They also have proteins smoothies after weights each day that they can add shots of different nutrients to if they choose.

Interesting Fall.

Gophers added 5 pitchers from the transfer portal.

Aidan Maldonado from Illinois

Richie Holetz from Nebraska Omaha

Joe Hauser from Arizona State

Will Semb from IOWA

Randon Daumon from St Louis

Looks like maybe guys Minnesota was interested in out of HS?

Roster looks like 15 from Minnesota, 7 Wisconsin, 6 Illinois, 3 Colorado, and 2  IOWA.

20 pitchers out of a 37 man roster.

Pretty balanced class of 8 SR, 10 JR, 9 SO, and 10 Fr.

@Good Knight posted:

I think they go to Florida for 2 weeks in Feb. But the do not take everyone.If he goes , we go.

Usually go to San Diego or Phoenix, but we will suck it up. And I an not wearing a mask in Cali!

So let’s understand

Your son may travel on an airline to CA. He must wear a mask! When his team gets to CA., masks may be required at the hotel, on busses, in restaurants, even at the park. He will have an entire list of team rules and expectations

Similar expectations may exist for family and fans but the focus is the team and players.

My view is this is all about your son!

@infielddad posted:

So let’s understand

Your son may travel on an airline to CA. He must wear a mask! When his team gets to CA., masks may be required at the hotel, on busses, in restaurants, even at the park. He will have an entire list of team rules and expectations

Similar expectations may exist for family and fans but the focus is the team and players.

My view is this is all about your son!

WTF is that supposed to mean ?!?

@infielddad posted:

So let’s understand

Your son may travel on an airline to CA. He must wear a mask! When his team gets to CA., masks may be required at the hotel, on busses, in restaurants, even at the park. He will have an entire list of team rules and expectations

Similar expectations may exist for family and fans but the focus is the team and players.

My view is this is all about your son!

Ugh what?

@infielddad posted:

So let’s understand

Your son may travel on an airline to CA. He must wear a mask! When his team gets to CA., masks may be required at the hotel, on busses, in restaurants, even at the park. He will have an entire list of team rules and expectations

Similar expectations may exist for family and fans but the focus is the team and players.

My view is this is all about your son!

Booooo.  Lets go Brandon

Wait, I'm lost...

Who's Brandon?  :-)

Oh no…,abort mission!!! This will only go downhill.

Living in Texas, I actually forgot that some places were still locked down. And now I hope we don’t play in California

@baseballhs posted:

Oh no…,abort mission!!! This will only go downhill.

Living in Texas, I actually forgot that some places were still locked down. And now I hope we don’t play in California

You have no worries, any day now the raging pandemic is gonna wipe out all of the states who are back to living…we are sure of it. I heard on CNN.

This was one of my favorite threads until now.

Paula;

This is a educational page for the young player to learn from others.

Maybe you can list 5 statements that your son learned from his first experience in Pro Baseball.

For example: How did he adjust to the increase of speed of the pitcher, the base runner, the defense and the Coaches?

Bob

Kind of a slow week except for exams.

Catalytic convertor gone from car.

Acting as a tour guide for new recruits official visits (because of covid he did not get one).

Start new throwing program tomorrow! Can't wait.

Hoping for a fun trip to Florida in February (and get to see TPM!)

Twins expo  game in FT Meyers woohoo.

OK Bob I'll try. He's not the chattiest of children but here's what I've got so far:

1. Each level you go up, the pitchers miss less and less so you have to be ready when you get that "mistake" or you have to learn to take the pitches you get where they are pitched. In other words, no more pulling every fast ball for HRs (he's a lefty and his HRs were LCF or LF).

2. There is no room for extras in your swing (quiet your hands, shorten your swing, get your base strong [and use it], get rid of the waggles, twitches, bells and whistles)

3. Pay attention in Spanish class. Just like the pitching, it's a lot faster in the pros LOL (plus if you look like you could be from the DR they WILL come up and speak to you in Spanish...poor guy he's SOL on this one).

4. Sometimes you're just going to get beat. Don't be a baby about it. It's a very long season.

5. Be coachable but know enough about your swing and your game to understand the coaching and ask questions if needed so that you are not just making blind adjustments that don't make sense to you.

Good stuff Paula!!

Hope exams went/go well!