Post Your First-Ever Post

With the changes in the server hosts over the years my earliest posts dating back to over 10 years ago have been lost somewhere in cyber space. My first post went something like this.
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"Tennessee Stud"
I'm the father of a 14 year old boy that I think is a very good baseball player. At this point in time it looks as if he could go somewhere in baseball. I'm wondering what I should do and was looking on the internet and found this site. My first question is: Should take him to one of these showcases or maybe a camp. He throws in the upper 80s and has touched 90mph on occasion. He has excellent stats leading his high school varsity team as a freshman.
Thank you,
Fungo


My first reply came from TRHit .. he said something like this:

Get a life! Every new parent that comes on here claims they have a son that's a "VERY GOOD baseball player". I doubt that a kid 14yo can throw as hard as you claim. Calm down!

RE: Do you have a Pre-HS Player? (in Pre-High School) by Lefty's Dad
I've got a 10 year old LHP, OF, 1B. 4'11", 100 lbs....
Main Web Site > High School Baseball Web > High School Baseball Web > Pre-High School
March 16, 2004 03:08 PM
This is the earliest one I can find. Its kinda funny - that 10 year old will turn 17 on Tuesday. He's 6'1" 195 now and committed to his dream school this past July. Its worked out really well for him, so far. I've learned a lot by mostly lurking here and its helped both my sons.

From Destroying Arms back in June 2004:

http://hsbaseballweb.com/eve/f...=624103125#624103125


It really is scary to see what some coaches will do for today. Last week my son's Pony team (13-14 year olds) played against another team in the area. The starting pitcher for the other team was a 13 YO who had not pitched all year due to a sore elbow (according to their manager). He proceed to throw a complete game, 7 innings with 124 pitches (from my scorebook). I would guess that 40+ of the pitches were curveballs - essentially he threw one every time he was ahead in the count.

Their team (and ours) are both winding down sub .500 seasons - nothing about this game mattered from a playoffs or anything else perspective. The pitcher wasn't particularly effective, giving up 11 runs in a 11 - 4 loss.

I just don't get it...


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Looks like some things never change

Wow - 7 years ago

Posted November 22, 2003 10:02 AM

After reading this thread again - I think my last post was way too short LOL - and hopefully this will help explain my perspective more clearly.

The point I was attempting (poorly) to make was simply this:

A player needs to be in top shape when he attends premier events - such as PG's events. If a player is not in top shape and/or if a player gets a rating that he doesnt agree with - I would recommend that the player look at his own preparedness and relative skills.
I would not recommend that the player blame the rating organization or the "system". I also think that players today should be grateful that they have this type of service available to them.

I can understand why PG may get a bit touchy whenever this subject comes up. It is a very difficult endeavor IMO to rank players - and they do a remarkable (and IMO very accurate) job. I guess they also get a fair amount of criticism as well.

After having paid very close attention to this subject in NY State the last few years - and PG's continuing development of the rating system - my advice to the kids and the parents remains the same as in my first post.

Prepare yourself well, look at yourself objectively if you are not pleased with your results and dont blame a poor rating on others.
Just work hard to get better.

If you arent ready to do these things - then yes -ping pong may be the game for you. LOL

Found the earlier one:

Posted November 21, 2003 05:49 PM

Just remember, for every big time high ranked player - there are 100 "small" time low ranked players that have the same heart and desire. And then there are some guys that arent even on the radar screen. The top organizations - like PG - help you get there. That didnt exist for the most part 10 years ago. And definitely not 20 years ago.
You young guys should be grateful that organizations like PG exist.

But dont get too hung up on the rankings - unless you are a top rounder IMO. Just play the game, work hard and enjoy yourself. If you get ranked thats great. But it goes really fast for MOST - and then - its gone. Just like that.

Stay focused on the game and what you need to do to become a better player and a better role model for the younger guys behind you - regardless of what level you play at.

Posted April 10, 2004 08:52 AM

"I'm a dad but can't imagine it making a difference whether a mom or dad goes along; in our family, we both are equally unable to be totally objective when it comes to watching our guys play ball.

When the recruiting trips happen, different story as I suspect coaches put some stock in their perception of the parents as they're trying to get a read on your son.

Enjoy the showcase-some great bonding time is coming your way. I'll be at Ft. Myers as well with my 06."


Wow, it's been a fast 6.5 years..my "06" has now finished his college career, graduated, working, engaged to be married. He grew 3 inches and about 60 pounds after that post.

I haven't posted much but below is my first post. My son found a team that fall and has been on the same team with the same coach all through high school. He's a senior now. It's been a great journey, he signed his NLI a couple weeks ago.

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Posted July 25, 2006 10:49 PM
My son's looking for a competitive quality team/organization in the Dallas/Ft Worth area for fall '06 and summer '07. Good bat, good speed, good defense. He's looking forward to trying out. Please let me know if any teams are looking.

____________________________________________________

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It's somewhere in here. Seems like a long time ago!

EDIT After being accused by some of wasting so much bandwidth I went back and started to erase my posts from the beginning. I remember the initial posts were different from these. I must have tired from erasing by the time I hit October!

Come to think of it my very first post may have been a casualty of the War of the Web: TRhit vs. Dibble. I think Dibble and his posts was completely obliterated. Those many, many skirmishes were fun times!



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I think he is retired now and residing in Spring Creek,TN.



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Fungo, to be given the Moe Howard two-fingered eye poke by TR after your first post......classic, especially in hindsight!

Posted November 07, 2007 09:40 AM Hide Post
Sounds like the coach is giving him a chance to be on the team because he worked hard and was into it and all but lacked the skills to make the player roster so he kept him on to help out with the scorebook, doing stats for the newspaper, getting water or whatever the team needs. At the end of the season, they're usually recognized at award nights and get a varsity letter and if that's what he wants to do, then there shouldn't be a problem.

Personally, if I couldn't cut it as a player, I wouldn't hang around the team as a gofer and I'd probably ask the kid why bother but If he were to be that adamant on wanting to be team manager, then I guess I'd be ok with it. There's a lot worse things these kids could be doing after school.

Posted January 30, 2006

Anyone know any great 13 year old teams or players in the Midwest?

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Fairly boring other than ticking off a couple of people who wanted this to be a high school-only site.

My most memorable (but can't find it) was one where I said something stupid and Coach May said he'd never want my kid to play for him...thanks to me.

Geez, I've learned a lot since then and sure hope that thought would be different today!

June 25, 2005


Hello itsrosy, My prayers are with you and let me share a story with you and your son that hopefully inspires him. Last year one month before the draft my son heard that pop. He was 17 at the time and projected to go very high. He was drafted much later and had the surgery on June 17th 2004. Last Friday he was released from rehab on the 1 year anniversary. He's back throwing in simulated games and makes his first minor league start this Sunday. It was a long year and the key was that he was diligent with his rehab. Three hours a day, three times a week for 52 weeks. He missed one day, because of the flu. He also took the time to correct some mechanical flaws in his delivery and learn alot about pitching. Your son has the right attitude and tell him there are alot of guys out there like him and on the bad days remind him of that statement and seek out those who have been down this road. My son rehabbed with guys in his position and said it was invaluable. best of luck and God bless.



Wow. Going back and reading some of the stupid things I posted was very humbling. It is amazing how much I THOUGHT I knew.

biggerpapi I remember that thread. And I also remember feeling like a complete a** later for saying it. Especially after I had the chance to read several of your posts over the years. It would be my honor to coach your son I can tell you that.

I went back and looked at my old posts. I had a few thousand from Jan 03 till I got my new laptop. Any of you remember when all the posts got deleted? Or at least the post count for all the posters? One day I had a couple of thousand and the next I was back to 1. I thought it was quite funny the reaction of some of the posters.

I can only locate posts starting around 05 for me. Maybe I am an idiot and can't do a proper search. I think this is a great thread and I am enjoying reading these posts.

Great topic Krak. You could expand on this and do one with your favorite post, your most stupid post, etal.

He ended up playing two years of basketball and then dropped it. I also found that coaches don't give a rats behind if you played multiple sports, all they want is good baseball players. He will commit to a D1 most likely in a few weeks.

I also noticed that I did a mini HSBBW Dad - 7 velo thing.....he was actually a blazing 78 as a Freshmen. I did not have a gun back then... hey it looked 80 to me.

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Oct 8 2007

What is the experience of some of the parents or athletes regarding playing multiple sports in HS while still trying to maintain peak baseball performance.

My son is a HS Freshman who has aspirations to play D1 college baseball. He is blessed with the size and ability to potentially achieve this objective (14U R/R Pitcher 6'2'' 165lbs - just now touching 80) I recognize that he will have to continue to work hard to continue to develop, but we have been getting different input as to whether he should only focus on baseball or play other sports. (he is currently playing for the basketball team)

He has been told that some programs prefer to see the diversity and success in other sports and others who have told him to focus only on baseball.

For background he is working out 1 day per week with the off season baseball team and plays one Fall Ball game per week while still playing for the basketball team.

Input from others with personal experience in this area is appreciated.

January 18, 2008

Moneyball/Sabermetrics

Due to a recent surgery I just finished rereading Moneyball and noticed this interesting topic. If you follow the book closely you will notice that it appears to be mostly an ode to Billy Beane's "genius" by the author. Most of the players used as an example of the sabermetric approach outside of Swisher, Bradford, and Teahan haven't panned out since the book was written. While I think it is true too many scouts get hooked on pure "tools" and too many sabermetric guys on stats, the best baseball players are somewhere in between. Too much money is at stake to project players wrong by the old subjective methods. You don't pass on drafting players like the Upton brothers just because they are high school players. By the same token you don't pass on a John Kruk or Kirby Pucket because they don't "look " like a BB player should look. So there needs to be newer methods to evaluate players with so much at stake especially for small market teams. By the way, I insisted both my sons be deep count yet aggressive hitters from a very young age. I also love stolen bases but agree that stats show if you don't steal 75% or better you are hurting your team's run production. Neither outlook is an endall in itself.


Same old stat guy!

I do want to say finding this site was one of my lucky days as I have enjoyed exchanging ideas, arguments, learning about your sons, learning so much from posters all over the place. Thanks, Julie for having such a great site!

quote:

Originally posted by Coach_May:
It would be my honor to coach your son I can tell you that.

Coach May, you just made my day. I can tell you for certain that my boy is ten times the boy I was when I was his age. He would most certainly earn your respect both on and off the field...

...in spite of me.

Thank you and thank you Krak for starting this thread!

papi, anything to help us all survive the next 8-10 weeks!!

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"I can tell you for certain that my boy is ten times the boy I was when I was his age."

Gee thanks papi for that insight. I was scratching my head silly trying to figure out what to get you for Christmas.



I'll bet if you study hard enough you'll learn that your boy was actually 12 times the boy you were at his age.




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This was mine:

I've been reading the information on this site for a while and I hope someone can give me some good advice. My son is a senior getting attention from some good in state D3 programs. Problem is, after a while they all start to sound the same. His HS coach isn't helping much - he keeps throwing more schools into the mix. We have been to visit 3 schools, and he has overnight visits scheduled for 2. My question is - what questions should we be asking that would help clear up the fog? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Son is now a freshman at Heidelberg University. He is thriving in the college environment. He had a good fall season and will be competing for a spot in the starting rotation in the winter. His grades are great (better than high school), and he is looking forward to his second semester in college.

This was mine. Not surprisingly, it involved Coach May:

"A quick story about what Coach May did for my son who was at the "Boot Camp."

After the long day in the cold (which my son didn't mind a bit because he got to hit all he wanted and watch some of the best high school players in North Carolina take BP), we went up to thank Coach May. I casually mentioned that my son was anxious to find a good showcase team for the summer/fall where he could face quality pitching on a regular basis. Coach May said not to worry that he would make some calls.

Two days later we received a call from the coach of a respected showcase team offering my son a spot. Had he ever seen my son play? No. Was his roster already full? Yes. But the coach said if Kenny May was recommending my son that was all he needed to hear. Talk about a great Christmas gift. My boy hasn't stopped smiling since.

I love baseball and the thrill it gives my son when he steps between the lines. But my greatest joy is that this game is introducing him to people of great character and generosity. Coach May is at the top of that list in our house. Thanks, coach, for modeling virtues that my kid will remember long after he is finished playing this great game."

My son had just turned 15 when we met Coach May on that cold December day in 2007. Now he is finishing his first semester of Fall ball in college. To this day we are both glad we got out of bed early to attend Coach May's bootcamp.

I've only been on this board about a year now, but this was my first post in "Ask About Colleges":

Posted September 23, 2009 09:29 AM
The first coach that showed interest in our son was Coach Parrington. He seemed like a very nice guy from his emails and later was very honest and upfront when he found out that our son's grades were probably not good enough to get into Macalester.

Its also still the last post on that thread

My first post archived here was on 11/13/2004 but that was not my actual first post as I went by another name (registered in 2003) and then changed it (Tigerpawmom later shortened to TPM) when son went off to college in 2004.

This is a unique topic and fun reading first posts.

Fungo that was funny.

Interestingly enough, take a guess who followed with a post right after mine.

Six years folks, since looooooong years (just under TPM).

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"Interestingly enough, take a guess who followed with a post right after mine."

I'll take a shot at it...



Six long years...like a boat out of water. High and dry.


Now look at him...



Hanging out on the left field fence with his parched buddy, Groundskeeper.

Looking out for number one...and a clod to soak.

Chasing his dream....HSBBW domination!

Hoping the ball bounces his way...always.

Keeping the barbs at bay.

Wishing it would all go away...yet she remains.

Staying ahead of the game...one post at a time.

Racking up the points...and they are sharp.

Watching the grass grow...and finally knowing it isn't greener on the other side.

Seldom keeping it under his hat.

Alone with his thoughts...ha!

Stirring the pot...with both hands, vigorously.

Putting his best foot forward...watch out for the other.

Keeping it real...don't try to appeal.

Thinking of how things might have been...if only Welcome Wagon© had let him in.

Uttering dryly, "My kingdom for a Slurpee© Super 44oz." and then grasping at straws.

Putting the mud in curmudgeon.

Rain on my parade? No! Duh! Does it look like it ever?

Forever wondering why "THE KIDS TODAY DO NOT THROW ENOUGH !!!!!?"





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Member




This was my first post. Leaned some great stuff from this site since then and found it to be invaluable.

Just looking for some feedback regarding the exposure level for my 2011 player.
6'-4", 195lb, R/R, 7.3 60, tops out currently @ 84 FB.
He will be starting first baseman and pitcher for his high school team.
He is a part of a 16U travel team that will play in east coast tournaments ( Bellfonte PA, Delaware SATB, Temple Team Showcase, Blue Chip Prospects Flemington NJ,) and others total of approx 40 games +-.
He is also a part of a National Travel team that will play in 3 major tournaments ( NorCal Invitational California, WWBA 16U Nationals Georgia, and WWBA Underclassmen Team Showcase, Florida) Among others.
He is not signed up for any individual showcase tournaments.
We were considering the PG Sunshine Northeast Underclassman showcase and the Blue Grey Summer showcase.
I would appreciate anyone's input as to whether you feel he will get adequate exposure without the last two listed individual events or do you think they are a good idea to attend.