In keeping with my thread about used car salesman tactics, I'd like to ask this follow up question. What are some of the trickiest and toughest questions that you have faced, or heard of others having to face, and how do you suggest navigating them? (Notice, I did not ask how you DID navigate them. As Pat Dye said, "Hind-sight is 50/50.") 
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From what I have learned from the Baseball Recruiting Elders here, it's the questions you ask them that are tough, not the other way around.
Back when I was recruiting players, this was my only trick question...
Would you cheat to win a game?
It didn't make any real difference to me how they answered the question. The perfect answer in my mind was when they would ask... What do you mean coach?
For some reason it always bothered me when they would answer immediately without even thinking and say NO.
Without getting into the reasons for asking that question, here is my all time favorite answer I ever received.... Yes and I wouldn't even want to play on a team with players who wouldn't.
Before anyone goes bonkers over this, we should define cheating as it relates to the game of baseball. There are things that some would consider cheating while others would claim as strategy. Then there are other things that everyone would call low class cheating.
here is another question... Is there a penalty for everything people might consider cheating in baseball? Example, we know there is a penalty for foreign substance on the ball or using an illegal bat.
That's very interesting.
I have a strong feeling that my son would immediately answer, "No." And I don't think he would cheat. Will he throw up and in? Yeah! Has he plunked a guy for being a cocky P.I.T.A. or leaning into curveballs? Yep! But that's not cheating!
I see where PG is coming from. I don't see intentionally getting hit by a pitch as cheating. Or in the neighbor at second base. Or getting the glove up quickly on a trap hop catch in the outfield. Or stealing signs. I've never seen a player say, "Stop, blue. You're wrong. I didn't make the play."
In my experience, one of the toughest questions asked by interested recruiters was "what other schools are recruiting you and why are you considering their program". Clearly this question was designed to challenge a young 16, 17, or 18 year old by a recruiter who is genuinely interested in the answer. This addresses goals, logic, trust level, and let's the program know who the competition is and where they stand. I would be very clear and concise with this answer because you want to answer it but you don't want to volunteer too much information. I've seen this question asked numerous times, and I think it has the potential to give a recruit a leg up in the coaches eyes but also sink a recruit if he clearly doesn't articulate his goals and reasoning.
fenway gave a great example of a question that absolutely comes up in the recruiting process. And his advice of 'clear and concise' without giving up too much information is perfect in my opinion.
I'll give an example of a totally different type of question that I thought was interesting. With our younger son a pitching coach visited our home with the head coach. Normal chitter-chatter/get-to-know-ya stuff and then the pitching coach began to ask our son to demonstrate how he holds his fastball, curve ball and changeup. And then he asked him questions about the grips and why he used grip-A vs. grip-B. It ended up being somewhat of a 'technical' conversation that I found pretty intriguing.
Same coach also asked him, "Which feeling is stronger for your - loving to win or hating to lose?"
fenwaysouth posted:In my experience, one of the toughest questions asked by interested recruiters was "what other schools are recruiting you and why are you considering their program". Clearly this question was designed to challenge a young 16, 17, or 18 year old by a recruiter who is genuinely interested in the answer. This addresses goals, logic, trust level, and let's the program know who the competition is and where they stand. I would be very clear and concise with this answer because you want to answer it but you don't want to volunteer too much information. I've seen this question asked numerous times, and I think it has the potential to give a recruit a leg up in the coaches eyes but also sink a recruit if he clearly doesn't articulate his goals and reasoning.
I conduct interviews of applicants for my college (not baseball-related, just normal applicants) and I always use a version of the question posed by fenwaysouth: "where else are you applying and what attracted you to those schools?" As fenwaysouth says, it gets directly to goals and logic. I once had a high school senior tell me that he really, really wanted to go to school in an urban setting -- this in an interview for a school in a rural setting!
2019, remember for the applicant, your definition of urban may be different than his. I grew up in a town of 12,000. Even in this town there were the kids that lived miles out of town on the farm. To them, anything with a stoplight is an urban setting. As my years in school progressed I went from this small town to Modesto, then Fresno, then LA. Each step was a huge cultural step. There are a lot of people in LA that would consider Fresno, a rural, farm-type town, even though it is the fifth largest city in the state, even larger than the capitol Sacramento.
Speaking of tough questions for an interview. An attending at our program would ask prospective residents if they would please open the window in the room. There was no window. Their response, body language and logic on the question would weigh heavily on their interview.
