Future of getting a scholarship?

ABD spring leauge is not going to get you exposure, just the same as high school play is not going to get you exposure. (IMO)

It will keep him playing and staying sharp. Mike Spears is about as connected as anyone is SoCal and can help you out however. Contact him he will be straight forward about what it will and will not do for him.

BOF,

Thank you for your comment. My son tried out this past Saturday for the league but I did not get to talk to Mr. Spears myself. He did talk to my son he liked the way he caught and asked why he was leaving his high school team but that was about it. Mr. Spears was busy running the tryout so we never got to ask him any questions about the league or its success.
My son will be playing for the O’Keiki Warriors in the ABD Spring League. We will have to see how it plays out. Thanks again.

951Dad, why did your son leave his HS team?

To make a long story short it was due to politics. That’s all I can say without sounding like a complainer. The kid can play these are his stats
He is a catcher.
Height: 6’0
Weight: 195lbs
Last three years batting avg: .534, .525, and .547 He finished playing Connie Mack this winter batting over .600
POP time: 1.9 to 2.0
He won coaches award as a freshman and won the team MVP his junior year. His can call his own games and handles his pitchers well. Only thing he needs to work on is his power he hits doubles instead of home runs and maybe his speed on the bases could be a little better.

quote:

Originally posted by BOF:
...just the same as high school play is not going to get you exposure. (IMO)...

BOF - You are a poster I respect and we've enjoyed some informative PMs, so I am sorry to dissect a part of your post...just wanna say, that at least in our own son's case (currently in HS) that this is absolutely NOT true.

The exposure he got last year as a sophomore on varsity has been beyond measurable and his HS coach has been tremendously helpful in every way.

I don't wanna go much further than that at this time, but the above just isn't true as a general statement.

You are in great hands with Al and the guys at O'Keiki, super guys. (as well as ABD) You are making the best of a bad situation.

JB: Don't get me wrong given the choice a player should play HS baseball, however many uninformed parents (generally not here at HSBBW) think that is all you need to do is play HS ball and a college coach will find your son. It does happen, but not often. This site is all about what you need to do to reach this goal.

When Mike/ABD decided to do the spring league I was personally concerned it would develop into a vehicle for taking the best kids away from HS ball and damage the game. I now see that there are all kinds of reasons that kids can't or won't play for their HS teams and this allows them to keep playing. 951's son is a perfect example of this.

quote:

Last three years batting avg: .534, .525, and .547

At what level of ball? Can you describe the abilities of the catcher who beat him out? Can your son play other positions?

quote:

Originally posted by RJM:

quote:

Last three years batting avg: .534, .525, and .547

At what level of ball? Can you describe the abilities of the catcher who beat him out? Can your son play other positions?

JV and Varsity, in his last Tournament he went 2 for 3 against Bishop Gorman out of Las Vegas which is a very good team. He can hit! The Kid that beat him out is a good kid, and that is all I will say about that, but that is where the politics come in. That is all behind him now. He can Pitch and play outfield.
BOF, thank you for your comments, my son feels at ease now about the decision he made to leave the team and so do we.
Thanks again.

I don't understand a returning varsity player who hit .547 not playing somewhere even if it's DH.

951Dad,

Just throwing this idea in. Could this have been a life lesson for you son in dealing with some adversity? From what you stated, your son hit well and competed. Why would not the coach find a place for on the field or at least DH? What if the starting catcher gets hurt? A HS team can't go through an entire season with one catcher. When I coached HS a parent was upset his son was hitting lower in the lineup. Dad said it was costing him a chance at his scholarship. The kid was around .200. They kid transfered to another school which a lower level of competition. He did ok while he was there. He ended up at a lower D1 school as a walk on. He was upset he did get the chance to start his freshman year so he transfered. He attended three colleges before giving up on baseball. I am firm believer in working and competing through each situation. I hear where you are coming from as we had many players that wanted to leave their HS teams because certain agendas. I told them all to stick it out and deal with it. They became better for it. College guys know what HS coaches they need to watch out for.

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

justbaseball,
You've got one of the good ones. Other people don't. The same coaches place more kids in college "jobs" year in and year out in our league. One coach has few players move up except through the JC route. Guess which one discourages playing on outside teams?

The team which had placed quite a few guys came in last during the off season league because their guns were playing elsewhere. The team which doesn't was one of the top seeds because their players weren't playing elsewhere. Guess what happened when the kids who had been playing area codes, WWBA, etc., showed up for the playoffs?

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.

951dad, I'm so sorry to hear about your son's troubles. It's hard to know what caused them, but as you say, what's done is done and your family needs to move forward.

You would be wise to not run the scenario through your head multiple times, as I'm sure you'll be tempted. Most likely, any second-guessing you do will only add to the hurt and frustration and possibly bring on bitterness.

It sounds as if your son is working hard to maintain his skills and if he is as talented as you allude to, he most likely will be able to play college ball. I would encourage you to find a high-level summer team for him and let every college know about his schedule. My son had 2 or 3 summer teammates commit after graduation, so there are definitely coaches still looking to fill gaps at that time.

If you are unaware of teams in your area that can provide the needed exposure this coming summer, please send me a PM and I'll be more than happy to confidentially help you locate one.

Best wishes to you and your son. Please keep us updated on how his spring and summer go!

951dad son came out to a workout/tryout a few weeks ago. When he came out as many others that came out for the tryout to get on a Spring League team.

I saw a player that did stand out during the tryout and did ask him why he was wanting to play in the Spring League, because he appeared to be a very good player from what we could see.

There are many reasons why players don't want to play high school baseball. Many of the reasons are legitimate of why they do not. I don't understand why when a player wants to explore other options of not playing high school that alot of people and coaches assume that there is a problem with the player.

Why can we not look honestly at what is happening with high school baseball. There are many things that are happening that we need to really look at. The coaches that are coaching high school are different than when I was a player. I feel the blame is the NCAA, they have made many bad decisions over the years and they should really take the credit for the way baseball is going backwards.

Back in the 80's, the NCAA passed a rule that limited how many coaches could coach baseball. They gave them 2 full time and a part time along with the Head Coach. Much different than when you look at Football and even Basketball coaching staffs. The coaches that were created for high schools were from the colleges. The coaching staffs were larger during that time period and coaches eventually moved into the high school ranks when jobs opened up for teaching and coaching baseball.

Over a period of time there were fewer and fewer coaches that were being developed to move into the coaching ranks of high school. You have to look at where do the coaches develop to teach and coach. Many of the coaches that are coaching high school today did not receive any training to teach the game.

I was fortunate that I worked as a coach in the collegiate ranks for a couple of very good Head Coaches. John Noce from College of San Mateo and
Dennis Rogers from Riverside Community College. I firmly believe that I received very good training on how to coach from these 2 coaches. Without them, there is no way I would be in the position I am today with the ABD program. They are reponsible for me as a teacher and coach.

Before I went to work for them, I felt that I could coach baseball. I also felt that I needed to learn from good coaches so that I can learn how to teach. What I didn't expect was that I learned that I really didn't know how to teach or coach even though I felt I had good knowledge of the game.

This is something that just about every player asks. And I am sure many of you feel the same out there that when your son would play high school that they should be getting training and develop and move on to college. The problem that is now surfacing is that we all know that something is wrong with how baseball is with the development and so we go out and seek out knowledge and learn the game from baseball people. So when the player goes out and does this, he then get's in a situation that his coach is not happy with him and then try's to make his life miserable. So the player then looks for other options and then a few people like on this site say... "Oh you need to stick it out as a life lesson". I am a firm believer of if you make a commitment to something that you do stick it out.

But when it comes out that a player decides to not play high school that he needs to be loyal to the school. Why? What is the school really doing to develop players? What are truly doing? How many players do you know go back to their school after making it big in baseball? Ask yourself that one and I am sure the answer is not alot.

"Oh you need to stick it out as a life lesson". I am a firm believer of if you make a commitment to something that you do stick it out.

Sometimes as a player we need to make an adjustment and move on. Why is this such a problem with some people?

2010 SPRING LEAGUE

This year we will have 16 to 18 teams in the league. We will have 10 to 12 in the older division (D1) and 6 to 8 in the younger division (D4). Last year we had 8 with 4 in the older and 4 in the younger. We are growing and getting some momentum with the league.

The league was started for a few reasons. When the decision to start the league was made last year, I felt that it was necessary for a few reasons. One of the reasons is similar to what 951dad situation is.

We had a player last year was demoted to the JV team because he went to a showcase. He went to the showcase after the coach had told him that he can't go. He was told that he couldn't go the Friday after a January practice with the event starting the next day. This player was a Junior and had committed to a DI school earlier in the year. He had not yet played a Varsity HS game.

Since he went to the Showcase he was demoted to the JV team. This is something that made me decide to finally do the Spring League. So we put it out there and let people make a decision. We just wanted to be a JV level type of league in the beginning. But what happened surprised me and the others. After we played the season, we had many of the players that were run off by their high school coach or made a decision to play in the Spring League move on to the collegiate ranks.

The 4 teams that were in the older division were better than the average high school team. Each team played about 35 or 36 games. We played 9 Inning games with wood.

This year some of the teams will play 50 plus games in the D1 level. The D1 level is for players who are Freshman in college and younger. This means that a player who is a redshirt or was cut from a college is able to play during the Spring. About 1/3 of the league will be made up of JC redshirts.

We are starting games this weekend with playing against some high school teams that wanted to play against some of our Spring League teams. We will be hitting with wood and they will be hitting with Aluminum. This should be interesting to see how it goes.

ABD will have 4 teams in the league.

*Bulldogs
*Mustangs
*Red Dogs
*Surfdogs

I will be coaching the Bulldogs. Here is the roster of the Bulldog team.


Aaron Camarillo - C/Cathedral City '10
Andrew King - RHP/Southland Christians '10
Brandon Espinoza - INF/Chino Hills '10
Buddy Traxler - C/1B/Ontario Christian '10
Calvin Ellis - C/1B/Chino Hills '10
Cory Davis - RHP/UT Chino Hills '10
Eric Telarroja - INF/Claremont '12
Grant Devlin - OF/RHP/Palm Desert '11
Johnny Drown - INF/Mission Hills '11
Justin Ybarra - OF/Chino Hills '10
Keaton Hernandez - RHP/Desert Chapel '10
Robbie Witt - OF/Chino Hills '10 Committed to UC Riverside
Tanner Rahier - RHP/INF/Palm Desert '12
Wallace Gonzales - OF/Bishop Amat '11 Committed to San Diego
Zack Bertolette - RHP/Great Oak '10


If you look at the roster of players that are listed, I would say that each one of these players will play college for sure. Some of them will be playing professional baseball. The interesting thing is that the only player that was cut was Robbie Witt and that is because he was the player that was dropped to the JV team. The other teams are similar.

There are a couple more players that will be added to this roster, but they can not be added yet until they let their high school coach know that they decided to look for another option.

We will be hosting tryouts for the next couple of weeks and if players are interested, they can get more information online at http://www.abcleague.org.

This kid obviously has an attitude problem. This is unheard of. I would be absolutley stunned if this isn't a case of the Dad being way too involved and having words with the high school coach and the son having a "Holier than thou attitude". Apples don't fall far from the tree.

That was not the case with the player. I didn't get that from him at all. He seemed to be a player that loves to play baseball and just wants to play.

Wow, am I reading that roster correctly?

Chino Hills has 5 players on it? If Chino Hills is their local HS, then the HS roster has lost its (arguably) top 5 kids?

Southern CA baseball may be very different than most parts of the nation. 5 players from Chino Hills playing for ABD during the hs season probably had NO impact on the team. It would be interesting to hear from people in that area as to how many players turned out for hs tryouts. Probably many more than the teams could accommodate.

So Cal has a huge population with tons of baseball players and those that don't make the hs team now have a place to play.

CaBB,
Some of these kids have profiles on PG and most of them look like the kind of kid who would make most any HS team even in SoCal. One of the kids from Palm Desert looks, from the numbers, to be the kind of kid who could turn a good team into a championship team once he gets a bit more experience. I'd be very surprised if it had no impact at Chino Hills. I'd be surprised if they were the top 5 from the team. I'd also be surprised if none of them were from the top 5.

I think it is pretty clear that the players listed could compete as a team in any HS league in SoCal and would dominate in most leagues.

quote:

Originally posted by switchitter:
This kid obviously has an attitude problem. This is unheard of. I would be absolutley stunned if this isn't a case of the Dad being way too involved and having words with the high school coach and the son having a "Holier than thou attitude". Apples don't fall far from the tree.

Switchitter,
You could not be more wrong, my son has always been respectful to every coach he has ever had. And he has always worked hard. You do not earn Coaches awards and MVP’s awards if you have attitude problems. In fact last year’s MVP award was voted by the team and coaches and my son won that award, he was also team captain which was voted for by the team. Now as far as having words with the coach, you are wrong once again. The most I ever said to the coach was hi and bye in fact my wife and I would watch the games from the visitor side so that we would not have to mix with the parents who complained about the coach and we did not want to be associated with them. So your comments are totally off base.

ABD Bulldogs,
I would like to thank you for your league, it is a god send. My son played in his first game yesterday with O’Keiki and did well and really enjoyed being out there again. You are right about who he is, he told me you talked to him during the tryout. I had a few dads ask me about him yesterday and why he was not playing high school baseball I told him he was not happy with his high school coach that’s all I would say, and then they started to share their stories about their son’s high school coaches WOW we have a problem out there.
Once again I thank you. I know when this season is over I will have good news to share about this league.
I saw your roster and yes there are very talented players on it, example Keaton Hernandez is a stud I remember him when my son played against him when Keaton was on that super team the “SoCal Redwings” who won everything when they were playing 13u and beating teams older than them and beating the nation’s best teams at that age.

I am assuming all is true and there were no issues with coach relative to attitude, behavior, or hustle, that said then the why is “some coaches just see it a certain way and nothing will change their minds, not even better stats”.

I know of a HS coach that likes/favors a certain high gpa guy that’s been in the program from day one. And why not the kid is an all American do the right thing kind of kid. He goes out of his way to make sure the kid plays and makes excuses as to why he does bad, and the baseball gods find him whenever he plays. He will pick on or find ways to dog the other players that play his position. And folks this player does not impact my son at all. This stuff happens. What do you do then??? Wait until 2/3 of season is over and then the coach has to win or else?? All the while the other kid could be playing the game he loves. Hmm not a tough choice for me.

I hope that all the contrary posters have kids that have gone thru or are going thru high school baseball. And fyi, I can teach my son life lessons and have him play baseball at the same time. And not be one of “those kind of dads”.

My life lesson for my son to learn is never take no for an answer. That’s life if you want to be successful. To sit and wait wait wait for his opportunity to play high school baseball and have a coach in your way when you have given it your best shot, see ya. Follow your dreams and figure out how to make your dreams come true. And if you love PLAYING baseball and your grades are 3.2 or better, and your behavior is exemplary, and you have learned how to deal with teachers and keep your grades up when you can not change a teacher and can not stand them and still get great grades, then start the line here and I will take you to the baseball games where you can play without the BS. That my friends is not quitting and that is learning the life lesson, and guess what, the kid now gets to play baseball too. Wow how cool. At the end of the day CA baseball is way different from across the country except for FL TX and maybe GA, NC. Our schools have many kids of high caliber talent and so the coaches are very spoiled. They have way to much power over the kids, here in socal they now have year round coaching which if this was not in play the chino hills kid would not have had to make a tough choice in January for petes sake.

I originally did not like the abd idea, a spring league the same time as high school . Why because I am old school, loyal , etc etc and thought it could hurt high school baseball. What is sad is the comments about the “types of players the league gets” which in part might have some truth but for other good kids it’s a way to play and not sit the bench. A scout once said at the parent meeting for the ca hs north south tryout “I can not scout you on the bench, go to a place where you can play” . Now he was referring to college while still emphasizing high school baseball to the parents. He also gave a negative review on the abd league but, how profound a statement when you look at it and how true.

This just got me going. I need to take a break.

not a long break,

ABD please keep the folks updated on the league and how it is doing. I for one see it as a nice alternative to high school for those that need an alternative.

Also, I would like to hear of the winning stories about kids that received opportunities from the league.

Thanks,

I wanted to give everyone an update on how my son is doing in the ABD Spring League so far.

So far he has played in 22 games which consist of a 9 inning and a 7 inning game on Saturday s and the same routine on Sundays.

He usually catches the 9 inning games and DH’s the 7 inning games. They practice on Tuesdays and Thursday s where they do drills to improve their positions and to learn other positions as well. His coach is a great coach he actually instructs the players when they make a mistake instead of yelling and benching them.

He has had 83 plate appearances, 60 At bats, has 25 hits, 10 doubles, 2 triples, 0 homeruns, 19 walks and only 6 strikeouts. All this with a wood bat which I feel is harder to hit with then using metal. Wood is less forgiving. His average is .417 at this time of this post. Of the 10 doubles and 2 triples if he was using metal they would be homeruns for sure most have been off the fence.

He has faced pitchers throwing low to mid 90’s to pitchers who throw maybe mid 80’s and has done fairly well against them.

Some of you might be asking about the competition in this league. Right now I would put the top four teams in this league against any High School Varsity team and they would give them a game. Are there some weak players sure but there are some really good players playing in this league as well.

All of his pitchers love him behind the plate because he keeps the ball in front of him and calls a good game. He has been throwing out base runners at about an 80% clip.

He has some interest from a local JC which he is excited about and so are we.
Best thing is he has his smile back and love of the game back.

I will let you guys know how it ends up.

951DAD

Awesome report. Reading about his smile and love of the game coming back warms my heart!

Please keep those updates coming!

Update Number 2

30 games Played
114 plate appearances
80 at bats
37 hits
.463 Avg
13 doubles
3 triples
30 walks
7 strike outs

Three Junior colleges asking him to take tours of their Campuses, one tour completed, Orange Coast College leading the pack and one pro scout called to talk to him. His team is moving on to the second round of playoffs after beating a team with Junior College red shirts yesterday 4 to 3 in 9 innings. He had two RBI’s in that game to even up the score 3 to 3 in the 4th inning and he threw out 2 of 4 base stealers.

Best of all he has made a bunch of new friends both from his team and from opposing teams.

He went from losing his best friend in November his “ Grandpa” his girlfriend in February, His High School Coach pulling the rug out from under his feet two weeks before league started, and giving the reason of “you can not hit” to having the best time of his life playing baseball. His outside life has rebounded too, new girlfriend, he found out who his true friends were and that there is a life in baseball without playing high school ball as far as he is concerned.

Here is an update on how his High School team did:

They finished second to last in league losing the last six games in league and not making playoffs. Last year they won league and went deep into the playoffs. This year they did not have two players that were drafted by the major leagues to bail them out of games and had to rely more on coaching skills, and it showed! They could have done better because they had good players still on that team.

The starting catcher position was given to the kid of a teacher in the District and drinking buddy of the head coach and that is all I am going to say about that.

One more note he got the academic Principles award last week from his school for the month of April. His GPA is 4.0

Your update was great.

FWIW, the stuff you posted in the last paragraph (about previous high school's record and starting catcher) may all be true but bitterness will only detract from what your son is trying to do as he advances in his career imho.

You cannot control what coaches do (or have done). You can control your positive outlook for the future and that will provide a constructive force for your son to build on as opposed to being weighed down by negativity, disappointment, and bitterness of the past.

I thought long and hard about posting the status of his old high school team and I did not want it to come across as bitterness but I guess I did not do a very good job of wording it.

I just wanted to show the posters who were saying that something had to be wrong with my son, that he must have attitude or he did not get to start so he quit. That was far from the truth.

If it came across as bitterness then I am sorry, I just wanted to express that sometimes it is a coach who is the problem not the player.

My son went to every home game to support his friends and I went to a couple of games too. you should of heard the crowd complain about the coach,they were complaining about batting orders,plays, sending runners home on easy put outs, leaving pitchers in when they were out of gas and getting hit hard.

Some of the players would call my son quitter when they would see him at school but his real friends were there to pick him up when he needed them, that is what I meant by finding out who his real friends were!

Did we join in on the bashing? No we just sat there and listened and tried to support our friends who were on the team. Trust me my son has put this behind him and knows this has made him a better person.

He learned that if you work hard and forget what friends and people say about you and your decisions and that you follow your dreams positive things will come.

The piece about the starting catchers mom being friends with the coach and being a teacher I know it sounds like bitterness but I would of not of mentioned it if it was not told to me by the mom herself because see did not know who I was, she was bragging about it to me during one game I was at. Boy was that hard to sit through.

Believe it or not we were saddened to see the team finish as they did, we have friends that were left on the team it would have been nice to see them succeed and reach playoffs.

Hopefully this clears things up about being bitter or negative.

oh yeah, one more thought. My son had a coach who had coached him in the past and called him when he found out that he had left the high school team and told him this "let the game tell you it is over that anyone else" how right is that statement?

Interesting. I ran into the parent of a player who graduated a year before mine the other day. His son has done fairly well at the D1 level. Neither of us is nuts about our son's ex HS coach. He was kind of rooting against the team a bit and surprised that I wasn't. I think the difference was that I still know and coached a lot of the kids who are on the team and seeing them have what could turn out to be a spectacular season is far more important. At some point you've got to move on and look to the future.

Finale Update,

My Son’s Team won the ABCL championship last night in 12 innings. He had the game winning RBI.

He finished with the following Stats including playoffs:

35 games started
139 Plate Appearances
96 At Bats
42 hits
.438 Avg
15 Doubles
4 Triples
34 Walks
10 Strike outs

He got three phone calls from three JUCO’s here in So Cal during the season and one call from a MLB scout.

The best thing to come out of this is that he played in the spring and had a great time and made new friends.

Was it a good decision to quit his High School team? Who knows, all I know is he is still playing and playing with passion. It could have gone differently if not for the ABCL league and giving kids like him an option other then High School.

Glad to see he put up such good numbers, and that he still enjoys playing the game. No question that in some situations, the game just isn't any fun anymore, and that's a shame.

Although I only skimmed through all of the posts here, I didn't see any mention of his academic numbers. Is he a high achiever in the classroom? How well did he do on the SAT/ACT?

951dad- you don't have to justify your decision to some one on a message board. It's no one's business what your son's academic stats are unless it is a coach recruiting him. Would your son want his academic stats listed here where everyone could see them?



Obviously he has a good gpa and that's all that needs to be said. Good luck to him with his future in baseball. Sounds like he had a great season and really enjoyed it.

951dad - It certainly wasn't my intention to pry, and in providing his academic numbers, it sounds like you took it that way. Your posts don't reveal who your son is in any respect, so I don't see how anything said here could hurt him.

That said, to think that academics don't play a role in the recruiting process is pretty naive. Even if a student-athlete is the second coming of A-Rod, a coach could have a tough time recruiting him if he were truly abysmal in the classroom. Thankfully, that doesn't sound like the issue with your son.

Hope everything turns out for the best.

951dad - your boy is gonna find a place to play, this year my sons team went 12-22 and he was the only one to get a hit a few of those games, he was INTENTIONALLY walked 12 times and walked 36 times in those 34 games, his hitting was simliar to that of your sons, Im gonna be honest with you though team MVP means nothing, YakJr won it his sophomore and junior year and is a surefire winner for it his senior year, just keep playin and go to some tryouts and his name will be out there (we were worried about it too but it worked itself out)
Best of luck to him

Update,

My son has been playing summer ball with his spring ball ABCL team, and has had a great summer. A local NAIA school asked him to play in a game so that they could see him in a game situation environment. He caught a couple of innings and did well; he went 2 for 2 with a triple, grand slam and 6 RBI’S. He is playing in a 7 day tournament in San Diego this weekend and he hopes to get some looks down there.
Things are looking up for him.