When did your son go baseball only?

My 2017 just gave up football and basketball this year.  Its tough not playing but he is putting his extra time into baseball hoping something good comes out of it.  Totally his choice.  What I will say is your son will know when its time.  Others used to tell me that and I didn't believe them but its true.  When he does make that decision your job is to support them in that decision.  It was tough on me as I am a big football person.  In addition my son is probably a better football player then baseball player.  Im not saying he is a bad baseball player, in fact he has a pretty decent chance to play after high school, just that IMO he is a better football player.  When he told the football coach and basketball coaches this past summer that he was concentrating on baseball they both sat him down and talked with him.  Both tried to talk him out of it but both also respected his decision.  Thing is he does not "love" those other sports like he "loves" baseball.  He knew it was time to give them up based on that.

Summer before 10th grade.  Agree with comment that "he will know."  Played football 9th grade and loved it, got to play TE (vs. interior line only due to weight restrictions in youth football) for first time.  But, the feedback from baseball and the kicker was the invite he got to play in Fall for excellent travel org that got him a ton of exposure.

After his a Sophomore year of high school he stopped playing football.  

Going baseball only.  Then he decided to play basketball as well and played on the basketball team along with baseball his Junior and Senior year.  

Play multiple sports until the competition tells you otherwise...

The one thing that nobody has mentioned is that playing 3 sports in HS means 9 straight months of practice....which cuts into study/homework time. My son played soccer (fall) and baseball (spring).  He could have played basketball but we just thought that he needed a break from practicing til 6 4 nights/week, games 2 or 3...sometimes til 11pm....and then trying to get homework in.   Soccer games were done by 8:30....and baseball done by 6:15....so homework/studying wasn't an issue.   I'm almost certain he wouldn't have gotten the academic money that he did had he played basketball too.  He did all he could to keep his GPA at 3.5 playing 2 sports....not sure it happens if he had thrown basketball in too.

Agree big time.  The other thing playing 3 sports does is is cut into hard core training which is required.  Bucsfanson has a HS teammate who is a 3-sport stud, all around athlete (will graduate with 11 varsity letters and he was good enough to play V football as a 9th grader but they didn't need him..so he easily could have 12..he has been to and started in state finals or semis in all 3 sports).  Love the kid. Am one of his biggest fans; he is committed to a very solid D1 for baseball (he is one of the "special ones" that could pull it off).  He does it mostly with just pure athleticism, natural strength and the "it" factor (instincts, leadership, etc.).  I asked him last spring when he has a chance to train, lift, etc. given the seasons overlapping. He said, "I don't". Then again, maybe that is one reason coaches like players like him so much; they have the upside after they get on campus and focus on just baseball.

Agree 100%.  My 2016 that gave up baseball had never once in his high school career been able to come home right after school until last spring.  And even then it was just a couple of days because they have lifting after school for football.  It took a toll on him, it did affect his grades, and it certainly affected his ability to improve in each of his sports.  But, you only get once chance to play all of these sports so I'm glad he has been able to do it.  Not sure how well he'll do in wrestling this year.  He got hurt midway through the season last year and hasn't been on the mat but once since. 

It's tough these days to play multiple sports at a high level.  Almost every college coach my son spoke with said they like multi sport athletes, and I get it, for a number of reasons- but, at least in our area, the HS coaches aren't on the same page.  My son (2017) played football through his sophomore year.  Last summer - between his freshman and soph year) was brutal for him.  He was going to football every morning  for the "optional" workout- optional is a myth, LOL- them playing baseball for his travel team three times a week and on weekends.  He missed a couple of 7 on 7 football competitions (he was our 2nd Qb), due to showcase baseball tournaments-  which really upset the football coach.  On top of all that, by the end of the summer he was physically fried- his arm was dead- throwing footballs 4 days a week and playing baseball at the same time drained him.  He chose to hang up the football cleats this year and it has made a world of difference in his performance and attitude. 

Not implying this is the right route for everyone- it became apparent to him, and he made the right choice at the right time for his situation.

Our baseball and football coach hate each other.  Like seriously hate each other.  Football coach hates baseball in general and baseball coach is tired of the pressure on the kids to give up baseball.  I think part of the issue is that here everyone plays summer legion for their high school.  So the baseball coach is the same for both spring and summer and he treats both seasons as equally important.  When it isn't baseball season he tells the kids playing other sports to do their other sport.  Don't come to baseball workouts.  He will send them home if they try.  Other coaches give the kids grief if they miss football workouts in the summer or basketball summer league.  When we asked each coach before 2016 started high school how they felt about him playing 3 sports they all said they loved it.  Encouraged it.  The reality is they love the IDEA of it.  Love a kid who has the athletic ability to play 3 sports.  As long as he never misses any of their stuff in order to do it.

Livingthedream- are you sure your son doesn't go to the same HS as mine?  LOL. 

The player I mentioned earlier who is just committed for baseball, but plays football, basketball and baseball at a very high level (captain in each) and does not pick up a bat during football/basketball season is also quite solid in the classroom.

His verbal is to Stanford. 

He may end up a 2 sport guy there but also has pro scouts talking to him, knowing the price won't be a bargain if gets picked next June.

This is spot on for our experience.

+1 on the grades and time factor. It is a really tough balance.

Infielddad, for a minute there I thought I knew the kid you are referring to. But, the one I know is only a Junior this year. A verbal commit to Stanford for baseball (as a sophomore), but is also the starting QB for football and a really good basketball player. As a Soph, he was the football Gatorade player of the year in our State. Those level of athletes are pretty rare, especially when they have the smarts and grades to get into a big time academic school on top of the athleticism.

I feel fortunate that our football and baseball coaches get along (the head baseball coach is also a football coach). It makes things a lot easier. Football coach knows my son is a baseball player first. We have been very upfront with him. He missed most of the 7 v 7 in the summer because of baseball and didn't attend a lot of the lifting. Next year, he will most likely miss the June football camp because he has a showcase tournament at a D1 school in a neighboring state. The football coach still wants him and is willing to let baseball be 1st.

Right after basketball his sophomore year.

In Texas, almost every sport has their own class dedicated to it.  Usually 4th period. He played basketball during his sophomore year.  He didn't make varsity right away because he was in the basketball class.  As soon as the season ended (with a little pressure from the baseball coach) he proclaimed he was done with basketball and was concentrating on baseball.  That first weekend of baseball he was 'brought up" to varsity and never looked back.  He pitched the second game of the year (a tournament) against Rockwall Heath....and got the win.    When we moved to Georgia, he was shooting around in the gym and the basketball coach asked him to tryout, but decided to concentrate on baseball 100%.  Although he did play in a HS rec league once or twice a week.  

The "coaches not getting along" is also a huge factor.  Our HS is a "basketball" school...with football a close second.  Travel baseball and AAU/Summer basketball do not work well together....especially if you want to be anything more than a bench player when the basketball season rolls around.

We also have a huge issue with our track "weight coach" who is also an assistant football coach that if they want to play football....they are "encouraged" to run track/throw shot/discus/etc.   It's "encouragement" in name only....if you play baseball your odds of playing football are somewhere between slim....and none!! 

Never get involved in the baseball only or multi sport athlete debates.   Seen it work out well either way for too many.

Here is something interesting, though.  Last night Scott Schebler led off the game for the Dodgers and hit a home run.  Scott is from our home town and he really had very few colleges interested in him.  He ended up going to an instate Juco. 

We always knew that Scott had special ability, but he really hadn't played as much baseball as most other players.  You see, Scott was a 5 sport athlete In HS.  Yes, he actually was a star in five sports.  If allowed or even possible it probably would have been even more sports. He played Football, Basketball, Soccer, Track and Baseball. Only in his senior year did he figure out Baseball was going to be his future.

I watched the game last night PG and for all of the fanfare the other two Dodger rookies are getting he seems to be holding his own just fine! 

Agree with PGStaff, it can work out either way. And each kid is unique, so whichever path they choose, you'll never know how it would have gone if they had chosen the other path.

Here's an example. I had a college classmate back in the 80s who played three sports (football, basketball, and baseball) in COLLEGE (lower end of D1) freshman year, just as he had done throughout high school. Obviously a terrific athlete. After freshman year, he dropped football and basketball. After junior year he was drafted in the 4th round. He did not make the majors. Now, would he have progressed as far as he did in baseball, without the cross-training benefits he got from football and basketball? Or, on the other hand, would he have been better off specializing in baseball earlier, to further develop his baseball skills during the 15 - 19 years, and, if he had done so, maybe he would have made the majors? The honest answer is: no one knows. Each kid is different.

For 2019Son, at his school it is damn near impossible to play a winter sport and baseball -- the baseball team is practicing hard and playing scrimmages throughout January, and real games start in February. So the only option would be fall sports, which are football, cross country, and water polo, and 2019Son has no interest in playing any of those. If only soccer were a fall sport here, like it is in many parts of the country . . .

I believe it is the parent's role to listen, alot and offer solutions based on your kid's experiences, successes/failures and overall enjoyment of the sport he/she is involved in. I also believe you will know when that time comes, if it ever does.

Now that I've dispensed such wisdom i will say that in my case, the kid started T-ball at 4 and has played baseball every year and is a freshman in college on a baseball scholarship. He is a very lucky kid who is blessed to be where he is.

Disclaimer: Dad loves basketball. I coached him one year at 8U and I loved watching him grow within the game. He was not very good, we had 2 guards that played alot more and were our best players. By the end of the year, my son was the 3rd best player...we weren't very good and won 1 game, so he was no Lebron. I will now state for the record that I coached the team in our only victory of that season as our HC was out. Yes...was i sick of losing.....ABSOLUTELY. Was i sick of watching our kids "stand up like trees on defense" while the other, better teams romped thru them like hot knives thru butter, HECK YEAH!

So what did i do in my single game as HC EVER.....we ran "clear outs" and watched our guards go to town and set their single game scoring records and we won. Man, i still recall my point guard calling his grampa, while sitting on his dad's shoulders saying" Gramps, I scored 21 points today!" #AWESOME 

My kid was not one of the guards so it wasnt about him, our kids wanted to win a game.

After the season, my son said, i dont want to play basketball, it cuts into my friend time. That was it....my spirit was deflated and i was sad but i will tell you that he and i can go out today and shoot around and play horse and have a great time.

Mom wouldn't let him play football until he asked in about 6th grade. He played for 2 seasons and never really got utilized, we ran the wing tee and he was a receiver. I think he caught less than 5 passes for 2 TDs in his 7th grade season. He told his mom, I'm just not mean enough and mad enough to hit those kids like the coaches want me to.....and that was it for football. 

So to sum up, i also listened alot and after realizing how much of an idiot i had been about being hard on him in 13U & 14U baseball, i stopped the post game criticism fest and just supported him. I asked him after his 14U season, where he lost his starting spot in the lineup and on the field to a kid who hit better than him, if he was done? If the work and the result wasn't enough for him to continue? i told him i would support him 100% in whatever he wanted to do and if he quite baseball, it would be something else...but we would support him. This was around the age where the dimensions change and curveballs are a plenty and kids migrate to other sports....lacrosse was where many of his friends ended up.....he stuck with baseball and the rest in history. 

Sorry for the long winded response.

College.

The HS basketball and football experiences were really good.  Might be a different story if your kids HS isn't so good at these sports

Most of the position players on his minor league teams were legit multi-sport players in HS.  I think it mostly reflected a "demand" for their exceptional skills rather then helping "make" them a better athlete, although I am sure it didn't hurt.

Son played basketball and baseball throughout HS.  He also played travel hockey (inline) through, I think, sophomore year.  He would have also played football if not for concussion issues he experienced.  He loved doing lots of different stuff and still does.  He probably benefited in that regard by being at a small/medium HS (750 ish) so multisport kids were encouraged and it wasn't AS tough to make V roster in multiple sports without being a year 'round commit.  There was certainly still pressure from different coaches and of course, juggling with summer events when all sports are trying to do something.  It was also very difficult when basketball was making a run in playoffs and baseball season was nearing first game date.  That can be a particularly difficult situation for a player who has no previous exposure to the sport he is starting late with.  But I think it was definitely the right path for him based on his interests and abilities.  I think he will always feel he got the full HS experience (except maybe the no football/concussion issues).  So, I think this reinforces the statement "play until the game tells you otherwise".  Had he not been able to perform at a high enough level, that particular game would have told him so.  There is certainly a lot of time commitment with multiple sports but there is always time to work extra on the sport you think you want to pursue most if you really want to make it happen. 

As a coach, I see a lot of different circumstances.  In some instances, my opinion would be that a player will be far better off playing multiple sports to gain in athleticism, a specific area of conditioning or a specific type of competitive mentality.  Many kids also just need the mental break from sport A.  Then, I see others who clearly have a single-minded interest and are quite capable of getting the necessary speed, strength and agility via other means.  There are also times when I see kids who want to play football but I could bet money they will get broken like a twig (usually due to body type or mentality) - and I'm right far too often on that one.  The problems arise when it is the parents and/or coaches pushing this focused initiative instead of the player.  Again, the player should go for it with whatever sports or activities they wish (within reason and if they have earned the right) until the sport tells them otherwise.

In regards to the affect on recruiting efforts, yes there is give and take.  But I think most kids who can play at the next level will have the ability to do so with or without the interruption or participation in another sport in HS.  I am far more inclined to encourage multiple sports to realize your passion and maximize your HS experience than to be concerned that playing other sports will negatively affect your ability to maximize your potential in baseball.  For MANY parents, it's too easy to get caught up in the moment, thinking their kid has to focus on one sport to keep up with the others and/or feeling they need to cave to the pressure of the coaches when they push them in that direction.

I think it is safe to say that all of the kids coming through our HS recently who had the ability and desire to play at the next level were not denied because they played other sports.  Most benefited from doing so.  Some did have injuries that ended their path. 

There is one story I'll share that sort of goes against my argument...

We had a tall P who was a bit thin and young for his class age.  He didn't become a P only until a junior in HS.  He had a lot of HS success on the bump and even more potential as a college recruit.  His mom (and, to some extent, dad) really pushed hard for him to play football.  SHE wanted the Friday Night Lights experience in the stands with her friends.  So, during key scout ball fall exposure opportunities as a rising senior, he showed up on the weekends beat up from football and certainly less than 100%.  This hurt his recruiting efforts.  He ended up going JC and then D3.  I'm quite sure this could have been a kid who had D1 success or at least opportunity. 

Parents, PLEASE...  this is about them, not you.

Agree 100%. 

And the flip side is that the baseball-only (in HS) kids who can play at the next level clearly have the athleticism to play another sport in high school if they so choose. By way of example, at 2019Son's high school there is a 2016 OF (committed to a D-1) who is 6'3" 190 lbs and ran the 60 in 6.58 this past summer at a showcase. The same school had a (baseball-only) first-round pick a couple of years ago who is 6'4" 210 lbs. and his PG profile shows that he ran a 6.37. Do you think these kids could have made their high school football team?  As these kids show, and as is shown by all of the high school first-round picks who are baseball-only in high school (roughly 70%), being baseball-only does not equal unathletic.

Some kids want to play multiple sports; some don't. It doesn't matter.

The size of the high school may have a bearing on kids playing multiple sports. The competitiveness of each program may have a bearing.

My son attended a large classification high school. Almost every sport contended for the conference championship each season. There weren't a lot of two sport athletes. My son was the only two sport athlete on the soccer team. He was also the only one not to play travel at an elite level all summer. He was cut from basketball soph year after being the starting point guard on the freshman team. He had already played varsity soccer and was a lock to start varsity baseball. The basketball coach didn't believe he was committed to basketball. The only basketball player playing a second sport was a 6'7", 220 tight end/defensive end.

Several of the baseball team played multiple sports. The head coach was the former JV football coach. One assistant was the middle school football coach. They didn't have issues with players playing second sports as long as they showed up game ready the first day of tryouts.

1b played football

3b played water polo

lf played hockey

cf played soccer

rf played football

Backup catcher played football

4th outfielder wrestled

He became a one sport athlete in college.....hade some offers to play football and baseball for some D3's but wanted to focus on Baseball.

2016 still plays football and basketball, though it definitely has had some detrimental effect on baseball.  For one thing, it's one of the prime reasons he's been a PO ever since moving up to varsity.  Simply cannot get enough offseason BP reps in to maintain his swing mechanics and his timing.

Agree 100% about HS coaches wanting them to play multiple sports as long as theirs is the top priority.  We spoke with all three of the varsity head coaches, who all agreed that whenever there was a conflict (particularly in the summer) that they would work it out and let him know which sport he should be at.  But when those conflicts actually arose, they all consistently told him to "talk to the other coach" and then put the onus on him to decide which sport's activity to attend.  Probably cost him PT in basketball last year because he didn't go to the summer team camp at the beach the previous summer (because that would have taken him away from both summer football workouts and HS baseball team summer games).  This past summer he went to the summer basketball team camp, which will cost him a spot on the football team's Wall of Honor because the football coach wouldn't excuse him from summer workouts while he was with the basketball team.

But he's very proud of the fact that he's the only kid from any of the 9 high schools in our county that played all three major sports at the varsity level last year, and likely will be the only one this year as well.

There really is no right or wrong answer to this, but it leads to a great and informative discussion.

It was afer my son's freshman year, he gave up football and played baseball only.(Interestingly enough, it was that time that he became a PO).  Football told him he had a great chance to be a starting receiver as a sophomore.  Went to the meeting to discuss summer workouts and such and noticed the two out of town camps they scheduled coincided with the two out of town tournaments his baseball team were doing.  He decided that he couldn't half way it in both sports and be as good as he wanted to be so he decided to go all in for baseball.  And being that he went to a school in the largest classification in Missouri, it would have been hard on him.  Two kids he graduated with played both.  Two kids in the two classes below him did both.

He also told me that if he couldn't give 100% to football and be at every summer workout, he didn't think it was right to be on the team.  He is big on commitment.