The 'glamorous" life of a baseball player at a mid-major

I say it many times, if you don't love Baseball, playing in college is not worth the work & time commitment!  

There are several kids from around here who are Juniors or Seniors in High School who I can tell have no clue what they are getting into as they've stopped working as hard now that they have a college commitment, thinking they "made it".

I've always said that playing in college is like having 2 full-time jobs...These kids have to learn to manage their sleep time as best they can, in addition to classes, studying, workouts/conditioning/ practices, & games! It's pressure filled! 

 He'll make it!!

baseballmom posted:

I've always said that playing in college is like having 2 full-time jobs...These kids have to learn to manage their sleep time as best they can, in addition to classes, studying, workouts/conditioning/ practices, & games! It's pressure filled! 

 He'll make it!!

Lol....he's a junior, he's got this schedule stuff handled now.....but trust me, the first couple road trips of his freshman year, he wasn't a happy kid come Monday

Buckeye,

This week FAU traveled 5 hours within the state, 4 hours of baseball than got in the bus for the ride home. That was 14 hours in 24  of travel and baseball.  

This Wednesday night team plays at home at 630pm and leave at 6am for the airport to fly to Oregon on Thursday for a 4 game series. Its in the 80s here, 30s there.

What is the benefit of traveling? Teams pay nice money to programs to travel and also split gate fees. Some will even pay your room fees. So as tough as it is, it provides some revenue to many baseball programs. This may not be the case but in many times it is. Also teams need to play other teams that will impact their RPI positively. 

For those that wish to play professional ball, this is your life. In the lower levels you don't fly. When son was in the Texas league, it was 14, 15 hour bus rides. Depending on the team you get drafted by, could be better or worse than when you were in college. 

FWIW, Monday is usually the day off, so after class your son probably will play catch up on sleep.

While we often feel sorry for players that are asked to play elsewhere, coaches pick up on who can handle the load and who cant.

Ask questions about travel when you are being recruited, many make choices based on location.

JMO

Yes, Ma'am! Tpm is correct! Son just thought fresh-soph yrs were tough till he was drafted!...Now, mind you, some pro teams are better than others, have better budgets, play closer together...but still 5-7 hr bus rides...Yankees was a piece of cake, imo! But Rockies, Rangers & west coast minors teams are all spread out. 

TPM....no kidding....he knew about the travel, but I don't think he thought getting home Monday's at 4-5am would be a regular occurence.  Heck, his freshman year, they played at Seattle...they left Seattle Sunday night at 10pm Ohio time....and got into Detroit somewhere around 4am (with a 1 1/2 hour bus ride still to come)....guess what....no bus lol.  They ended up getting back to school around 9:30am on Monday morning lol

Their spring trip starts tomorrow....and lasts thru Sunday the 11th....by the end of the trip, I figured that they'll have spent 60+ hours on a bus for the seasonup to that point.   The rest of the season will only be about 40 hours of bus rides total so things calm down quite a bit once the weather warms up and they can play some games here in Ohio.

Team played South Carolina. Game ended around 4 on a Sunday (years ago). 16 hour bus ride; arrived back at campus 8:00 am on Monday. Son got off bus and went straight into a mid-term.

Gotta love the game, and the job. If not, the grind isnt worth it.

What is the difference in travel between D1 and D2?

Baseballcomesthird posted:

What is the difference in travel between D1 and D2?

D2 programs do travel but not as far as most D1 programs within or without in conference.

You can check out the sunshine state conference. Their travel is within state for conference with a trip to neighboring GA for non conference. Also most D2 play double headers to cut back on costs. Not sure about other conferences especially out west.

Baseballcomesthird posted:

What is the difference in travel between D1 and D2?

I guess I should add that this crazy travel schedule (at least for my son's team) only lasts thru the end of the spring trip.  Unfortunately that's life for a team from Northern Ohio....if you want to play in February you have to go south.  Once they get thru the Spring Trip, their remaining weekend road trips are:

67 miles (each way) last non-conference weekend series, actually kind of surprised they are staying in a hotel....last year they drove back and forth each day

171 miles

171 miles (yep, back to back weekends...2 schools in different states exactly 171 miles each)

197 miles

136 miles

26 miles....obviously gonna drive this one each day

.....oh, and believe it or not, they have a mid-week away game against an in state non-conference school that's also exactly 171 miles away

As I said, once they get thru the first month, things calm down as far as the amount of bus time they have to put up with

#Glamorous for sure.

Eat, Sleep, Practice, Play, Study, Classes

Wash, rinse, repeat

Jim Leyland spoke at the Clemson Baseball banquet a few weeks ago and aside from him being very funny, he told all who would listen that night that the facilities at Clemson are better than they would ever see once they get to MiLB. I think he said you will take a big step backwards. 

D2 Rocky Mountain Conference will typically play 1 game Friday, doubleheader Saturday and 1 on Sunday within conference and most trips are in the 2 to 2.5 hour range I believe.

TPM posted:

Baseballcomesthird posted:

What is the difference in travel between D1 and D2?

D2 programs do travel but not as far as most D1 programs within or without in conference.

You can check out the sunshine state conference. Their travel is within state for conference with a trip to neighboring GA for non conference. Also most D2 play double headers to cut back on costs. Not sure about other conferences especially out west.

Yep.   Son's D2 was in the CIAA.   Most travel was within the state (NC), but a few were out of state (TN).   Longest trip they had was traveling to Erie, PA for the regional playoffs.  As the regionals were over 500 miles from the school, the NCAA picked up the tab for travel, food and lodging.   For that trip they actually were flown to and from the tournament.

In comparison, the D2 JuCo he played for had longer trips - all by bus including the Regional playoffs in  Mooreshead, NC.

TPM posted:

Baseballcomesthird posted:

What is the difference in travel between D1 and D2?

D2 programs do travel but not as far as most D1 programs within or without in conference.

You can check out the sunshine state conference. Their travel is within state for conference with a trip to neighboring GA for non conference. Also most D2 play double headers to cut back on costs. Not sure about other conferences especially out west.

I ran D2 track in college.  Way back in the late 80s.  Depending on the school and the program, not much difference in travel.  Our program was pretty highly ranked back then.  We had weekend trips from mid-MI to Kentucky, Tennessee, Central OH, etc.  Average trip time was about 3 or 4 hours.  But we took bus trips up to 12 hours at times.  

The only time we saw a plane was for those who qualified for the national championship meets.  

TPM posted:

Baseballcomesthird posted:

What is the difference in travel between D1 and D2?

D2 programs do travel but not as far as most D1 programs within or without in conference.

You can check out the sunshine state conference. Their travel is within state for conference with a trip to neighboring GA for non conference. Also most D2 play double headers to cut back on costs. Not sure about other conferences especially out west.

My son’s D2 just returned from a trip to Myrtle, via bus, and is busing down to the Tampa/Orlando area for their spring break in 2 weeks. Other than that, most games are within 2 hours. 

I guess when the coach doesn’t like to fly you learn to appreciate the bus. 😳😁

3and2Fastball posted:

I say it many times, if you don't love Baseball, playing in college is not worth the work & time commitment!  

There are several kids from around here who are Juniors or Seniors in High School who I can tell have no clue what they are getting into as they've stopped working as hard now that they have a college commitment, thinking they "made it".

They don’t understand they’ve only passed through one gate. They’ve only earned the right to prove they belong and earn playing time. When they arrive on campus there will likely be five players better than everyone else. There will be five scrappers less talented than everyone else. For most player they will be one of twenty-five players the middle fighting for playing time at thirteen to fifteen positions. And next year another group of recruits will come in attempting to take away their playing time and kick them off the roster. It’s Baseball Survivor for four years for most players. The coaching staff can vote you off the island at any time.

The hard workers and mentally tough survive. Even some of them don’t just by circumstances. It’s not a game anymore. It’s how the coaching staff feeds their family and pays the mortgage. It’s real life.

A mid week game a couple of hours away is no picnic either. It’s four hours of travel, and about five hours of pregame, the game and stopping for fast food after having gone to classes in the morning. You don’t want to have homework that night.

Someone mentioned the minors. A friend’s son was drafted by the Mets and assigned to short season in Brooklyn. He had to live in a college dorm (it was summer) to afford a place to live.

When some players and he had a free night they decided to head into Manhattan to meet women who like ball players. They had been big men on campus in college. They discovered the women interested in ball players like Yankees and Mets not minor leaguers making 1,000 per month. They were also willing to settle for Wall Street investment bankers..

Buckeye 2015 posted:

Just an FYI to all those HS kids who want to play baseball in college...not trying to discourage you.....but....

Last Sunday/Monday.....son's team played in Alabama.....after Sunday's game and the bus ride home (yes, bus, not a plane)....he hit his pillow Monday mroning at 5:03am

This morning....after a trip home from Missouri.....it was 4:49am

Lucky for him he doesn't have class until 9:30am....not 8:00 like a lot of the guys lol

I don't know how he does it....but he still love every minute of it

Don't forget... while a bunch of your non-teammate friends are off to Cancun for Spring Break, you'll be home (or away) playing games.

I honestly had no idea how much my son loved baseball until he went to college. I would never have imagined that he was willing to sacrifice so much to play D3 baseball.

This year, the small college son is coaching at... all bus... IN, OH, PA, WV, NC, KY, GA, FL  

My son just came rolling in at 2am from his bus ride.

RJM posted:

A mid week game a couple of hours away is no picnic either. It’s four hours of travel, and about five hours of pregame, the game and stopping for fast food after having gone to classes in the morning. You don’t want to have homework that night.

That's the 171 mile (one way) trip I mentioned....that's 3 hours each way on the bus.  Itinerary says they are leaving at 11:30am for a 6pm game....which puts them back home around midnight

Fortunately my son is at a mid major D-1 in the south with really nice facilities.  They don't have any problems getting teams from "Up North"  to come down and play.  They will play 16 of their first 17 games at home and the one road game is only a 35 minute drive from campus.  Their farthest midweek trip will be about 2 hours away and they will do that twice. They will make a trip up to Ohio State in May, but that will be after classes end and they will fly.  They have 5 conference road trips and the longest bus ride will be about 5-6 hours (one way).

Buckeye 2015,   Are you are making the trip down to Buies Creek this weekend?

Goin_yard posted:

Fortunately my son is at a mid major D-1 in the south with really nice facilities.  They don't have any problems getting teams from "Up North"  to come down and play.  They will play 16 of their first 17 games at home and the one road game is only a 35 minute drive from campus.  Their farthest midweek trip will be about 2 hours away and they will do that twice. They will make a trip up to Ohio State in May, but that will be after classes end and they will fly.  They have 5 conference road trips and the longest bus ride will be about 5-6 hours (one way).

Buckeye 2015,   Are you are making the trip down to Buies Creek this weekend?

 

Unfortunately I'm not....it's our busy season at work.  I took off a couple weeks in January when things were slow.  I'll get to a lot of the games up here once they are back from their trip. 

Goin_yard posted:

Fortunately my son is at a mid major D-1 in the south with really nice facilities.  They don't have any problems getting teams from "Up North"  to come down and play.  They will play 16 of their first 17 games at home and the one road game is only a 35 minute drive from campus.  Their farthest midweek trip will be about 2 hours away and they will do that twice. They will make a trip up to Ohio State in May, but that will be after classes end and they will fly.  They have 5 conference road trips and the longest bus ride will be about 5-6 hours (one way).

Buckeye 2015,   Are you are making the trip down to Buies Creek this weekend?

 

I dont think that its entirely about location for the mid D1s but rather what teams you play against to help your RPI.  

Being located in the NC, SC area is an excellent location with many schools within short distances. Unfortunetly here in Fl with teams located in Gainesville, Orlando, Daytona Beach, Miami, ft myers that you have to play is tough travel for a midweek non conference game. Also CUSA conference schools are located in different states and as far away as Texas.

Goosegg posted:

Team played South Carolina. Game ended around 4 on a Sunday (years ago). 16 hour bus ride; arrived back at campus 8:00 am on Monday. Son got off bus and went straight into a mid-term.

Gotta love the game, and the job. If not, the grind isnt worth it.

Along those same lines, my freshman son's bus was headed out for their 2011 Spring Break trip.  Coach wanted to leave a day earlier than scheduled and arranged for my son and a couple freshmen teammates to take a Physics test on the bus to be proctored by a Coach.   My son was less than pleased with this arrangement. 

I agree with others.   This has to be something you love to do and be a part of.  Simple as that.   There are so many sacrifices along the way.

My son just got home from a 10 day, yes 10 day, road trip.  They flew to LA for a 4 games series, left straight from LA to Hawaii for another 4 games series. Took a red eye (that ended up being 4 hours late) back home.  He got back to his apartment around 1:30 Sunday afternoon.  Yesterday he was wiped out, but still had 3 assignments to get turned in by the end of day.

No matter where you play the time requirements are enormous.  The internet and and online classes have made it much easier to keep up with class work.

Hawaii is one of the best venues to play at!

Baseballcomesthird posted:

Hawaii is one of the best venues to play at!

and they can't make you take a 5 hour bus ride to get to your away games.

2020txcatch posted:

Baseballcomesthird posted:

Hawaii is one of the best venues to play at!

and they can't make you take a 5 hour bus ride to get to your away games.

Here’s your paddle. We have a non con against Maui U later today. 

(Hawaii 5-0 theme playing in background)