I'm new and need some showcase info

Welcome!
Personally, I preferred Perfect Game for my son. (bigger bang for my buck) They are very well respected & have a strong presence in Ca. Also, contact Trombly Baseball, one of our posters, or lots of others from the Ca. forum
RE: funds...nothing wrong with explaining your situation or asking for a little help. There are "sponsorship opportunities, fundraising opportunities" out there. You just have to be a little creative...garage sales; print up a flyer listing simple odd jobs that son could perform in exchange for donations.
Good luck.

Southercalbbmom,
One thing that makes this recruiting ride so “bumpy” is the decisions we parents are faced with along the way! Oh, I almost forgot, I see this is your first post so welcome to the HSBBW. Glad you’re here. You are right, exposure is the name of the game but exposure doesn’t have to be overwhelmingly expensive. The first thing I see in your “dilemma” is great material for a letter from YOU to a baseball coach. You could start the letter ---

Dear Coach Smith,
“You have already gotten a letter from my son requesting information about your baseball program. I want to add that my son has not gotten a lot of exposure simply because I’m a single parent with little extra money to spare on showcases and camps. Those that have seen my son play say he has the talent to play division I baseball. Enclosed are his baseball schedule and a list of contact people that would be more than happy to give you their evaluation of my son. ----
ALSO. . . . .
As baseballmom suggest you can get creative in generating funds too. I would DEFINITLEY contact the showcase promoters for their best “value” in a showcase. You never know what might happen. Pro tryouts are free and are also fall under the description of “exposure”. Thank goodness your son has you ---- and you are here.
Fungo

Hi,

Thanks so much for the warm welcome. I should have known I'd get warm fuzzies from Texas and Tennessee. I've lived in both places and found some of the nicest people I ever met in both states. Anyway, thank you for your responses too. They were VERY helpful and I'm already taking action here. I ended up calling the man who spoke to my son yesterday about the results of the showcase he was in, told him about my financial situation, and just asked him to be frank about my son's abilities and chances of playing college baseball so I wouldn't be wasting time and money. This man has now taken me under his wing (I think because I got kind of emotional, teared up, voice cracking, etc.) and even sent me a fundraising letter already printed with my son's information on it to give to friends and family who might want to help him get to the showcase. We are shooting for the September 15th showcase rather than the July 2nd showcase to give us more time to raise the money and to give my son time to work on what needs to be improved.

I'm also going to use the garage sale idea since it is a great one and since I am a pack rat I need to clean the house and sell, sell, sell! As you can see it doesn't take too much to get me excited.

I also love the examples of letters to send to coaches (now that I know I will be having to send letters to coaches--I was clueless about this until now.

Perfect Game is another option. They have several local showcases that I'm going to look into. I also looked at Trombly Baseball's website but they may be busy with the JO's and other tournaments so I just may try to post a message on the California board to get into contact with them.

Again, thank you, thank you, thank you, and I just hope that somewhere down the line I can return the favor by answering a question you have, give encouragement, etc., as you have done for me.

Marci

Welcome to the HSBBW, socalbbmom. I know you will learn a lot on this site. Feel free to ask away, read away, and take away all the info you can find.

Ref Trombley ... I would suggest you go ahead and send Steve an e-mail directly. He is very good at responding to queries and then you won't have to rely on his reading the message board here.

Another option, if you haven't found the site, is BaseballResource.com. The gentleman who owns that site (unfortunately I can't remember his name at the moment) is a big promoter of baseball in So Cal, and has a pretty good presence in Orange County. He does not personally coach or do anything of that nature, but he is a fan of baseball and enjoys promoting it, especially at the high school level in an attempt to help players get to the next level through exposure. I believe he holds some showcase type events as well throughout the year. Their website is: Baseball Resource

Good luck to your son. And congrats on being so involved in his life ... it will make all the difference in the world for him.

Thanks for all the info, FutureBack. I've learned and done so much today based on what I read here. So many wheels were put in motion and I was all excited. Then I got an e-mail that final grades were posted online for Algebra. Unfortunately, most of the other final grades were posted as well and I saw that unless my son gets an A in English, which IS a possibility, he will not have a 3.0 GPA, which I understand is required in order to go to a Cal State college. Oh well. Guess I've got to take the good with the bad, eh?

I would check my sources on the Cal State minimum GPA because it sounds high to me. I thought, except for students who may be trying to go out of their area to an 'impacted' campus (Fullerton, San Diego, etc) that the GPA was lower ... like 2.5? Can't honestly say for sure because our son went to a UC and the standards were different. Remember, too, tho I hate to admit it, that some schools do make adjustments (within reason) for their athletes' academic minimum requirements.

Good luck.