New to site

Welcome aboard!

I think I still count as a newbie but welcome!! Shouldn’t be scary at all! 😁🤪

I stumbled upon this site just like so many before and after me. There is a ton of information from years and years of people posting questions and getting good answers. Some things have changed but basically the process is the same, interrupted by Covid, but I think that within a short period of time things will return to normal.

Welcome.  Lots of baseball experience and knowledge in these electronic pages.

BTW...It only gets scary for old-timers and newbies when the topic turns away from baseball.

Welcome. I stumbled across it too and continue to learn from the experts around here.

I'll never forget those early, clueless days. Thank goodness for this site.

Welcome!!!

This is a very cool place with tons of information.  It has been awesome to see some other posters kids play and follow their baseball careers as well.  I still do searches all the time and there is almost always information that I didn't know.  Welcome!

I read old threads for fun and relaxation, there are so many.  Welcome!

Welcome aboard!  I, too, stumbled on this site and then finally joined a year or two later when son was in 8th grade.  There was a very active middle school thread at the time.  It has guided me through middle school, high school, switching travel teams, recruiting, college, the draft, and milb.  I still come back.   

Lots of very good information here that I have found to be tremendously helpful.   very good group of people.  I really enjoy it.

I personally do not know of a better example of a community that "pays it forward" like this one. I have started lurking when my oldest was in middle school just to get basic Intel for HS and recruiting. I do have family recruited in other collegiate sports, although there are a lot more similarities than differences, the differences are significant. I too hedged a bit before engaging the community, but now it is a daily habit for me, it is great escape for me or maybe I really do suffer from a social disorder. There is a lot of information here and people will truly empathize with your angst and it is sooo therapeutic. Enjoy your time here and when you do share, I will be here to laugh, cry and rage with you

Wow!! What a fantastic welcome! This group really is awesome. Currently on a road trip hoping to see baseball in action even though the weather forecast is bleak and what a great way to pass the time. Purusing the thread history for pearls of wisdom. Thank you all for being here!

@2024HopefulsSupport posted:

Wow!! What a fantastic welcome! This group really is awesome. Currently on a road trip hoping to see baseball in action even though the weather forecast is bleak and what a great way to pass the time. Purusing the thread history for pearls of wisdom. Thank you all for being here!

Do a search for Coach May.

Welcome to a great community that ranges from "newbies" to those who have been there and done that.  I'm still learning.  Someday, if you share your thoughts and questions, you'll appreciate this place even more than you do now.  Again, welcome. 

Just watch out for Francis7.

Oh, wait, I'm Francis7.

Never mind. And, welcome.

Francis7 dives deep for sure, kept us going  before baseball got started. I’m more of a cheerleader here, def here for the community and try to offer advice that may help while learning about the next generation. This site was invaluable to me while son was on recruiting trail and although his was not completely normal, I still think that journey offers insight for HighSchoolers who inspire to play college ball. I’ve met several folks on here and all have been incredibly kind. I hope to continue here for a while.

Yep, welcome to the fray.

I just looked at my profile to see that I've been on here over 10 years, but it never gets old.  The past threads are a great way to get up to speed and get some background on many of the long-time members who still post regularly.  I feel like I know all these guys, even though I have met few in person.

@2024HopefulsSupport posted:

Wow!! What a fantastic welcome! This group really is awesome. Currently on a road trip hoping to see baseball in action even though the weather forecast is bleak and what a great way to pass the time. Purusing the thread history for pearls of wisdom. Thank you all for being here!

I have a suggestion for you. When you see a post that you like check out the bio of the person that posted it. You may be surprised at the amount of experience that some people on this board have. I think it sometimes takes a while for new people on this board to realize that there are truly some incredible people that post on HSBBW - and they are happy to share their experiences with you.

@adbono posted:

I have a suggestion for you. When you see a post that you like check out the bio of the person that posted it. You may be surprised at the amount of experience that some people on this board have. I think it sometimes takes a while for new people on this board to realize that there are truly some incredible people that post on HSBBW - and they are happy to share their experiences with you.

I joined fourteen years ago. I had already been through softball recruiting with my daughter. It was a blind faith experience clinging to a high school teammate’s dad with older girls and a former Big Ten player travel head coach for direction.

I played.the game. I figured all I was going to get from this site was “where” in terms of exposure. I was floored by the depth of knowledge and experience. Talk about not knowing what you don’t know!

Some of the advice is very good for anyone in any circumstance. If Coach May hadn’t been a baseball coach he could have been a pastor. Maybe baseball is all about learning life’s lessons.

@RJM posted:

. If Coach May hadn’t been a baseball coach he could have been a pastor. Maybe baseball is all about learning life’s lessons.

https://community.hsbaseballwe...ic/the-old-oak-stump

I love newbie posts like this.  What I don't like are the newbie post where the parent has an attitude that their player should be playing over someone else or the coach is a jerk.

JMO

Well, you know, even those posts are from parents who are hurting for their sons, and maybe don't have anyone in their own community to talk to about it.  So I don't mind those, because this group represents so many different experiences that someone can usually get through to them.

@TPM posted:

I love newbie posts like this.  What I don't like are the newbie post where the parent has an attitude that their player should be playing over someone else or the coach is a jerk.

JMO

Fun fact: The correlation is 1 to 1 with respect to parents who think HS baseball doesn't matter and/or just 100% BS politics to parents of players who are not getting playing time on the HS team.

I've never met the parent of a starting HS Varsity player who thought HS baseball was 100% politics.

When my son was a freshman starter on varsity, the best advice I ever got was from a father of a starting junior: "Don't sit with the other parents of the team. Five to ten of them think their kid should be playing and they sit there and moan and complain about it through the whole game. It's a cancer for the team and I recommend staying away from it."

My son is now a junior and his advice stands true 3 years in a row.

@Francis7 posted:

Fun fact: The correlation is 1 to 1 with respect to parents who think HS baseball doesn't matter and/or just 100% BS politics to parents of players who are not getting playing time on the HS team.

I've never met the parent of a starting HS Varsity player whose parent thought HS baseball was 100% politics.

When my son was a freshman starter on varsity, the best advice I ever got was from a father of a starting junior: "Don't sit with the other parents of the team. Five to ten of them think their kid should be playing and they sit there and moan and complain about it through the whole game. It's a cancer for the team and I recommend staying away from it."

My son is now a junior and his advice stands true 3 years in a row.

Wait for college, it changes pretty dramatically in my experience. Parents of kids who are moaning about the program seldom stay more then a year. They get weeded out pretty quick, plus every other parent is a veteran by this point and quite honestly don't care to listen.

I agree old_school.  Being in my second time with college baseball, the parents either leave with their kid or they are pretty to greatly supportive of each other, especially the higher the level of ball.  I think by then most of them realize that it is not a coach holding their son back or politics but the player just not taking advantage of the opportunities given.  Would they want more opportunities?  Absolutely.  But I think they realize that playing time comes with opportunities and they admire the players who succeed even when their son is not.  The parents become a small family in the stands as their sons do in the dugout.  We check up on each other, build relationships, talk about life, the guys and their girlfriends.  I don't hear a lot of grumbling about the coaches in the stands from parents.  We, as dads, may still question a few I would have done moments but that is just baseball talk to me.  I'm sitting 100 feet away and my job does not depend on a bunch of 18-23 year olds hitting, pitching, or catching a ball so we can speculate all day long.

@PitchingFan posted:

I agree old_school.  Being in my second time with college baseball, the parents either leave with their kid or they are pretty to greatly supportive of each other, especially the higher the level of ball.  I think by then most of them realize that it is not a coach holding their son back or politics but the player just not taking advantage of the opportunities given.  Would they want more opportunities?  Absolutely.  But I think they realize that playing time comes with opportunities and they admire the players who succeed even when their son is not.  The parents become a small family in the stands as their sons do in the dugout.  We check up on each other, build relationships, talk about life, the guys and their girlfriends.  I don't hear a lot of grumbling about the coaches in the stands from parents.  We, as dads, may still question a few I would have done moments but that is just baseball talk to me.  I'm sitting 100 feet away and my job does not depend on a bunch of 18-23 year olds hitting, pitching, or catching a ball so we can speculate all day long.

Well said

I guess I was lucky.  I like to sit in the stands so I spent 4 years of HS varsity ball there and never heard a peep* about my son, and really hardly anything negative about the coach or other players.  I mean there were a few people who had their issues but they didn't broadcast them in the stands.

Basketball was different.  Our team was not very good for most of my son's four years there; in fact, they sucked the last two. The coach was not super popular with his parents or players, and there was some chirping, and by some, I mean a hell of a lot of it, and when people start chirping indoors, everyone can hear it.  I can still hear one mother's voice in my head to this day.  Her son was athletic and a good shooter, but for some reason he usually did not start, though he was one of the first guys off the bench.  Every game, usually 5 or 6 minutes in, as our guys started to fall behind, she would begin yelling at the top of her voice "PUT KEVIN IN!  PUT KEVIN IN! PUT KEVIN IN!"  I can't recall exactly what happened, but Kevin did not finish the season.

*This doesn't count because it was a fall ball game, which is not technically HS baseball.  A parent of a pitcher who failed to cover 1st on a GB to F3 loudly remarked that F4 (my kid) was supposed to get there.

I agree with the college view above. The bitter don’t last. Their kids transfer. In high school we had The Jury. It was four rec ball coaches who thought they knew more baseball than a former D2 All American coach. They wanted everyone to hear what they were saying. I had to walk away before being tempted to call out “bullsheet.”

I usually watched the game away from the parents with a friend/also travel teammate dad. We were far enough away where we can analyze the game without being heard and accused of being critical. “He could improve if he did ....” often gets twisted into criticism when heard.

Some of the parents would get upset if I spent an inning on the other side talking to the dad of an opponent who was a travel teammate of my son.

@RJM posted:

Some of the parents would get upset if I spent an inning on the other side talking to the dad of an opponent who was a travel teammate of my son.

I get that now. But I don't care. Sometimes I have more fun talking to the parents from the visiting team, as long as they are civil.

@Francis7 posted:

I get that now. But I don't care. Sometimes I have more fun talking to the parents from the visiting team, as long as they are civil.

We were playing the rival high school. My son had two travel teammates on that team. The parents knew who my son was. They knew who I was. The first time up with the score 0-0 my son whiffed on a letter high fastball with a runner on second facing the kid of the dad I was chatting. The parents had a good time razzing me. The dad just gave me a soft punch on the arm. The second time my son went deep. They all looked for my reaction. I told the dad it was time for me to leave. I walked behind all their fans. I didn’t want to strut in front of them.

In travel ball while coaching third I had a great time talking to the opposing fans while their pitcher was warming up.

It's much easier to be the "anti-social" parent that sits way off the outfield, the drama free zone. I think this is a good forum for those complaining new parents, it gives them an opportunity to gain some perspective and hopefully they too can grow from it....even if it is just one of those parents saved, it still makes a difference