School Baseball vs Summer Baseball

My son is a freshman at our local high school. He is fortunate enough to be able to play 3 sports – football, baseball and this season – baseball. He is a wonderful pitcher and will likely get to play some varsity games this year but for now he in the JV team. We live in a community where the local school system graduates 120 kids a year, so it is not very big. That size of a school opens up a world of opportunities for athletes and he loves it.

Outside of school, we have been involved with a summer baseball program that plays at a very high level. The team he plays on travels to out of town tournaments, they have tryouts each season with lots of kids showing up to try to land a spot on the team, and they are professionally coached by a man who also coaches a high school team during the spring season.

I have become accustomed to (and a little spoiled) watching baseball be played at a high level. The first time I realized how good the summer team had become was when I caught myself describing the team and type of games played to a co-worker. I was telling him that the difference between summer competitive baseball and recreational baseball is that ground balls are expected to be outs, fly balls are caught, pitchers throw strikes and if a team makes more than an error or two during a game they go back to the drawing board and figure out what went wrong. If you have ever watched a recreational game each ball hit is an event. In competitive baseball leagues, most hit balls are outs.

When I showed up at my first JV scrimmage game I instantly noticed a big difference in the way the opposing team was taking infield – kids were overthrowing first base, the first baseman had trouble getting it back to the catcher, etc. My son’s team was better than the opposition were but many of the same issues still existed – we just did not have 9 players to put on the field of the same caliber of the summer team.

At first I was a little frustrated and I could see it on the faces of a couple of the parents who have sons who also play on more competitive baseball teams in the summer. Then I watched the game and it took on a whole different perspective from where it started. The kids seem to truly enjoy playing for their school. The pressure is there but it is different than trying to keep stats up or trying to take a player’s spot, as it is in the summer leagues. The pressure is there to play well and win with the group of kids who are on the team – period. It seemed OK that some of the boys would be better than others - no one was calling for an upgrade to the center fielder when a ball dropped in front of him and they all enjoyed the game quite a bit when my son pitched and dominated the opposing team for a few innings. It was different and enjoyable and made me proud to know that so much school spirit still existed. I hope your local school has the same experience – this is going to be fun! I am looking forward to an enjoyable spring school season with some good friends before we start our summer season.

Good Luck,

Coach Chuck

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