Select baseball today.....

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Reposted off of Diamond King Sports website.  If you have been around select for a while, this may ring true with you.  Especially if you coach. 


The Grass Is Not Alway Greener

12/29/2012, 12:45pm CST

By DKing Dan

Loyalty is hard to find these days...
.

I know you have done a ton for me coach but....

Old school people, like me, remember Johnny Bench only catching for the Reds,  Roger Staubach QB'ing the Cowboys, and Larry Bird shooting for the Celtics.  What would we have done with our purple and gold Lakers # 32 jersey had Magic Johnson bolted for the Knicks?  How bad would Terry Bradshaw have looked in a Dolphins uniform?  Could we imagine Don Drysdale pitching in pinstripes?


We have all heard the cliche "the grass is greener" but is it?  As I discussed in a previous article (AA or MAJORS). There is a time to move vertically up the food chain.  A kid needs to be pushed and play better kids.  He needs the exposure so college coaches can make a fair evaluation of him.  But, why do kids move horizontally?  Why do kids leave a program where the coach has been good to him?

I'm old school, but I believe you dance with the gal that brought you to the dance.  Coaches do a lot of work on your behalf. They coach you.  They make calls.  They invest their time and effort getting you seen.  They work many hours away from the field marketing you.  So if they have done their job with exposure, marketing and teaching, why would you leave them for the next best program?  I think I can answer that.  The loyalty is gone in this generation.  It starts with their stars, they jump for money.  Most recently in OKC, "The Beard" fled for Houston.  Why do they flee?  It is greed as old as Cane and Abel.  I am not sure I can blame them, there is a finite window that the can make the real money.  In the big leagues, regardless of sport, loyalty is gone from the owners and the loyalty is gone from the players.  This mentality trickles down to the travel ball sector. The kids and parents think there is a better deal out there.  Sometimes there is, but many times there isn't. 

I understand leaving Program A for Program B if you are not getting what you need, but don't do it for the sake of doing it.  I can promise you if you aren't happy with Program A for some things, there will be other things in Program B that will leave you unsatisfied.  The move will start out great.  I call it the honeymoon phase.  Everything will go your way.  You will be batting where you want, you will be playing where you want and you will pitch at the right time.  However, as with a ton of marriages, the honeymoon won't last forever.  If you aren't producing at a level the new coach wants or expects, reality will set in, the grind will set in, the fights will begin and you will be left asking where do I go from here?

Reasons to leave:
1.  Prior to joining a program,  identify  where you want to go to school and ask questions of coach to see if the college coaches that need to see you, can see you.  If that coach has misled you, and you are not playing in the appropriate tournaments,  you might need to seek a better fit for you
2.  You find out coach is not working on your behalf.  This  maybe tough to do, but it can be done.
3.  Let's say your catcher #2 and catching every third game.  DH one game and sit one game.  Coach brings in the next Pudge.  And catcher # 1 slides into your role.  You stay for a tournament or two and see that your playing time is nil.  Catcher # 1 is ok with his new role, you need to find another place.  As with the big league guys, you have a finite time to make your money (scholarship)
4.  Sometimes it just isn't working for either party.  It may be coaching style, team chemistry, or just a bad fit.  Everyone makes mistakes and choosing a summer program is no different.

How to leave:
1. Talk to coach, explain why you need to do what you need to do.  Parents let your child do this.  He needs to take ownership over his decisions.
2.  Thank coach for his help.  Baseball is a small community, you can't afford to burn a bridge.
3.  DO NOT bad mouth their program! You do not want coach bad mouthing you to a college coach. 

In Conclusion:
There are things in this article I wish we would have done differently, things we have learned through the process, things we will continue to learn.  If I could start over and do the whole travel ball thing again, I would not make the same mistakes twice.

Good luck!

Dan