Too Hot at Showcase

Sounds like a typical mom and dad in many ways.  Keep doing what you are doing.

Was this at a specific college or just a general "cattle call" showcase?  If it was a general showcase, no harm no foul.  Most won't even realize he sat down.

 

If its at a specific school I would guess they have dealt with Heat Exhaustion before and know that it happens to kids from time to time.  In the end he may need to go to another showcase there but I would guess this wont hurt him.

 

 

^^^^^^^^^This^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

You need to give him room.  If he wants to play college ball it needs to be his choice not yours.  I know its hard to get to that mindset but it has helped my son and my relationship when it comes to baseball.  We talk about the games and what happened but more in the way we would talk about a Cubs game and not in a "you need to do this to get better way", or "boy you really screwed up there".  

 

Its hard to get to this point, but when you come to the realization that as the parent of a HS player your job is to sit back and watch the games then things improve.  Its your sons job to play the game and if he wants to play in college, to get motivated enough to put in the work to play in college.  

 

Summer between Junior and Senior year my son had a prospective recruiting coordinator come out to see him pitch in a PG tournament.  It was probably 96 degrees out with high humidity.  My son was only able to go 4 innings with about 60 pitches before he told his summer team coach he was done.  

 

Guess what?  College recruiter didn't care.  He said he saw enough from what he had already done and completely understood the heat issue.  I wouldn't really worry about having to take a break because of the heat.

Oh yeah, that school wound up giving him an offer he accepted.  He is going into his senior year there now.

Dad better take a chill pill. Baseball is a game of failure - so what if he got overheated, what does that have to do with performance on the field? 

 

Just so you know (probably more important dad!) recruiters are looking at "tools" not actually statistical results. A player can rope 4 line drives and go 0 - 4 as a result and knowledgeable baseball coaches will see the skills if they are there. 

 

If he is susceptible to heat just make sure he drinks plenty of liquids prior to the event and takes a wet towel with him to cool off between innings. 

 

He will be fine and I would not worry about one outing. Remember it is a marathon not a sprint.

 

Good Luck! 

MomofA -- I just looked up your profile to double check something.  You wrote that your son was a 2015 -- which would mean that he graduated this past Spring.  If that were right, it would have made little sense for him to be out there at this late date trying to find a place -- at least not a place for this coming  fall.  So I double checked.  I think your son is 15 years old right and not a 2015 graduate.   If that's right, then your husband definitely needs to take a chill pill -- a huge and powerful one.   On the other hand, if he really were a 2015 and hasn't found a place to play by now,  it would indeed be time to move on to other plans pretty quickly.  

 

UPDATE:

 

Then I checked again and found out from other posts of yours that your son really is a 2015 and still hasn't found a place to play.  I assume that explains your husband's feeling of desperation and lack of chill.  I also saw from another post of your that your son has been accepted at various schools for academics.   I think you said on another post that he is a straight A student and good guy.    Seems like your family ought to have a heart to heart over the possibility of letting go of the baseball dream and  moving on.  It doesn't seem as though you are all even close to being on the same page about this.  And you need to be.  Plus you have to face the reality that there just may not be a place for him right now.   Is it your son refusing to let the dream die?  Your husband?  Doesn't sound like it's you, but it does sound like you are in pain over this whole thing.   Really, there is a lot more to life than baseball.  I know dreams die hard. And it's especially hard to watch one's child's dreams die.   But sometimes you have to  face reality and move on.   Is there a club team at one of the schools he has been admitted to for the fall  ( I assume by now he has to have committed to a school)

If son is 2015 and not recruited for baseball, has he at least made plans to attend a college? If so he's only options are to try to walk on their team, or continue on a club team if they have one. 

If this is wrong and son is still in HS the best advice is for dad not to take him when he goes to showcases. He sounds too involved and negative which doesn't help in process.

Just guessing since OP hasn't responded, but she lists her son as 14 and she joined the site in 2012. My guess is her son is a 2015. It is very late in the process to still be looking for a spot to play, but who knows?  If he's still going to showcases, someone may pick him up as a late fill in walk-on. Hopefully the player and family are fishing in the right pond at this point.

Fall?  College begins in August.
Sorry, but all the signs are there from whatever happened the other day. Time to move on, it just isnt for everyone.
Maybe  you need to explain further.

Wow. I feel for you. Same thing happened to my son in July on a Tuesday. Maybe they were sitting down together at the same camp. I'm not kidding. Mine got overheated on a Tuesday morning after flying into town at midnight the night before after an 11 day tourney trip with his summer team. He was tired, dehydrated, hadn't eaten right the day before from the travel schedule and was also really nervous. I have never seen him sweat that much - even his pants were dripping wet.

 

He bounced back on day two and got himself noticed during the scrimmage, but the testing done on day one yielded some really pathetic results and we have video proof to boot that we will NEVER release to the public! I think it hurt his chances of any D1 opportunity though. Plenty of contacts from D3s though after the fact. But if I was a D1 coach, my son made a HORRIBLE first impression. There were no D2s there.

 

It was clear to us that our son was about to fall down - he kept squatting down which made him look lazy and disinterested to those who don't know him. 60 time was off (7.1 is normal and I think he ran a 7.5), arm strength was horrible because he couldn't feel his legs (from 85 down to 73-76) and his accuracy was NOWHERE to be found. He still hit pretty good after spending some time in the AC. I mostly blamed myself for not seeing this coming and being more of a hard ass about him taking the proper precautions, but all summer we've been preached at to let the kid do his own thing.

 

If the OP is out there, is your son taking a gap year? I am not as up to date on your history here as a poster. If he's taking a year, then there may be hope still if he continues to work on things. If he's going to college somewhere this month and truly loves baseball, maybe he can walk on. Maybe not. As others said, the writing may be on the wall. I know it stinks to hear it. I'm personally exhausted from the chase. I am still hopeful that the right academic school with a D3 baseball team will still be interested and that he can qualify academically to get in if the coaches want him. But if not, we are prepared to drop it and move on.

 

It's also nice to hear some of the responses here and being able to see it through the coach's eyes. My first reaction is that everybody there that day has seen this before and it shouldn't hurt him if he still performs at some point. Another thing good to hear (and this is due to his performance at other camps/showcases) is that the swing and approach is what counts more than the number of hits. Lord knows he's had his ups and downs there this summer.

 

I wish the best for your son and you too.

Had a similar issue and discussion with my wife this weekend. My 15yo 2018 son has been bothered by a glute muscle issue for about a month. Chiropractor seemed to have helped quite a bit and he threw a good full-strength bullpen two days before with no pain. He was scheduled to pitch 2 innings on Sunday. Started strong enough but was obviously in pain toward the end of the first inning - limping, wincing, etc. However, in the first inning, he had hit 84 consistently (topped out at 85) and the few recruiters/scouts in front of us were talking and frantically comparing notes as one whipped out his radar gun and got his own readings. In the second - at least to the wife and I - he was in worse pain, but soldiering through. I was trying to get his attention to tell him to pull himself out of the game, but my wife was trying to get me to sit down, worried that doing so would hurt him with recruiters. My point was he is a 2015 that hit 85 with a glute pull. he didn't have anything else to prove today and no one was going to worry about it if he came out. There are no points at these things for being "tough."