What was the highest level of baseball that you played?

[now]

1 hour ago, PA Bird Fan said:

I had just enough ability to create a few highlights along the way without really being all that great.

 

 

 

Yup, that pretty well sums it up for amateurs at any sport, compared to real players/pros. I first realized that as a novice golfer. Anybody can hit a great shot once in a while. But consistently...? That's the difference. And I guess the same goes for differentiating players even at the highest levels. 

[Otter]

11 hours ago, now said:

Yup, that pretty well sums it up for amateurs at any sport, compared to real players/pros. I first realized that as a novice golfer. Anybody can hit a great shot once in a while. But consistently...? That's the difference. And I guess the same goes for differentiating players even at the highest levels. 

Exactly right.  The best hitter I ever faced in college was Chris Widger.  He was an absolute beast, I couldn't get him out no matter what I threw.  He was just on a different level than most other players.  And the funny thing is many posters probably remember him as a journeyman backup catcher in the majors; a catch and throw guy who couldn't hit.  What this showed me is the incredible jump in talent level every level you move up.  You have to be stud in High School to play D1 college ball.  You have to be a stud in college to get drafted.  You have to be a stud in the low minors to move up the high minors.  You have to be stud in the high minors to get called up to the majors, and you have to be stud to stick in the majors.

[Satyr3206]

27 minutes ago, Otter said:

Exactly right.  The best hitter I ever faced in college was Chris Widger.  He was an absolute beast, I couldn't get him out no matter what I threw.  He was just on a different level than most other players.  And the funny thing is many posters probably remember him as a journeyman backup catcher in the majors; a catch and throw guy who couldn't hit.  What this showed me is the incredible jump in talent level every level you move up.  You have to be stud in High School to play D1 college ball.  You have to be a stud in college to get drafted.  You have to be a stud in the low minors to move up the high minors.  You have to be stud in the high minors to get called up to the majors, and you have to be stud to stick in the majors.

I totally agree. I could handle most College, Rookie ball and A pitchers. When you get to the guys that had played AA or AAA it got significantly harder. I remember a guy named Mickey that had played AAA in the Pirates organization. Mid 90's, vicious curve, and a good change. I could hit him but it wasn't easy. The fact he slightly tipped his curve was what helped me and probably kept him out of the show.

[weams]

To be honest, I played baseball as an adult with a pickup group. Sometimes non standard number of team participants. No uniforms. Torn Rotators. 

[OregonBird]

I was a pitcher at Northeast HS in Pasadena, MD on back to back state 2A title teams, coached by the legend Harry Lentz.  I wouldnt trade that experience for anything.  I went on to pitch four years at D1 level, pretty average, some great days and some awful days.  I had good velocity but my offspeed offerings sucked.  If you don’t have a working second pitch, you’re a one time through the lineup pitcher at that level which is why I was a closer.  I learned a sinker and that compensated for my average slider.

I played on some good summer league teams, even had a first rounder on one team.  Matt White was a teammate of mine on my college summer team.  An upcoming HS senior st the time, the kid threw 95 consistently on the ray gun that summer, good command also, and had a nice slider.  He was 6’4” 230 or so, a can’t miss prospect, but such a humble and great kid.  College kids couldnt touch him.

My baseball days are over but my sons are just beginning.  As they get older we watch a lot of HS ball and I’m continuously  amazed at how good the HS baseball is here in Portland.  Every year there seems to be 5-6 kids from the 3 nearby HS going to Pac12 schools.  Not bad for an area that gets 8 months of rain.

 

[Number5]

36 minutes ago, weams said:

To be honest, I played baseball as an adult with a pickup group. Sometimes non standard number of team participants. No uniforms. Torn Rotators. 

Hey Jude, didn't you play at Strawberry Field?  You know, on Abbey Road across the Mersey?

[Number5]

2 minutes ago, OregonBird said:

I was a pitcher at Northeast HS in Pasadena, MD on back to back state 2A title teams, coached by the legend Harry Lentz.  I wouldnt trade that experience for anything.  I went on to pitch four years at D1 level, pretty average, some great days and some awful days.  I had good velocity but my offspeed offerings sucked.  If you don’t have a working second pitch, you’re a one time through the lineup pitcher at that level which is why I was a closer.  I learned a sinker and that compensated for my average slider.

I played on some good summer league teams, even had a first rounder on one team.  Matt White was a teammate of mine on my college summer team.  An upcoming HS senior st the time, the kid threw 95 consistently on the ray gun that summer, good command also, and had a nice slider.  He was 6’4” 230 or so, a can’t miss prospect, but such a humble and great kid.  College kids could touch him.

My baseball days are over but my sons are just beginning.  As they get older we watch a lot of HS ball and I’m continuously  amazed at how good the HS baseball is here in Portland.  Every year there seems to be 5-6 kids from the nearby HS going to Pac12 schools.  Not bad for an area that gets 8 months of rain.

 

Wow!  5 or 6 kids per year going to D1 schools is amazing for any high school.  Colleges should be recruiting that coach!

By the way, you pitched four years in D1 -- you certainly didn't suck!  

[Can_of_corn]

2 minutes ago, Ohfan67 said:

Dude. You are using the wrong denominator. There’s like 500,000 Chinese guys that could play that have never touched a baseball. The NBA, NFL, and many professional soccer leagues are full of people who could play professional baseball. You drive by construction sites every week with guys who could play. Guys in the Dominican Republic don’t have special baseball playing genes. They don’t have anything else to do, it’s a tiny island easy to scout, and now there’s the historical oddity of baseball history in play. The potential to be an elite athlete is actually way more common than most people think. Relatively rare, but not infinitely small as you continue to imply. Predators and then human warfare and the like provided some serious selection pressure. We are literally built to throw rocks and swing sticks. 

Hard to be good enough if you never played the game.

I'm sure that potentially there are a lot of people who have the physical skills and mental makeup to play in the majors. 

[weams]

 

[NashLumber]

High school. Soph through senior years at Garner Sr. High (Garner NC). We won the 4-A state title in '78 at Crockett Park vs. one of the Charlotte teams.  Crockett was where an O's AA farm team played. 

I've never seen an action photo from an actual game, though one may exist somewhere. Here I am in the batting cage in the gym preparing for the 1980 season. I was a 2nd baseman. Was from a newspaper article about the coming season. 

 

 

[OregonBird]

1 hour ago, Number5 said:

Wow!  5 or 6 kids per year going to D1 schools is amazing for any high school.  Colleges should be recruiting that coach!

By the way, you pitched four years in D1 -- you certainly didn't suck!  

Sorry, I meant high schools, plural.  There are 1-2 per year at our HS.  There are two rival high schools within 5 miles from me that are good for another 4-5 Pac12 level kids.  

Adley Rutchman went to a neighboring HS, seen him play baseball and football many times for Tualatin Hs and OSU.

 

[Number5]

Just now, OregonBird said:

I meant high schools, plural.  There are 1-2 per year at our HS.  There are two Rival high schools within 5 miles from me that are good for another 4-5 Pac12 level kids.

 

That's still impressive.

[tntoriole]

When I played in high school, the best guy on my team was a friend of mine and a pitcher, Steve Hanson.  He was selected out of high school in the 7th round by the Indians and had two good years in the minors before he hurt his arm and never pitched professionally again.   10 years before I played at my high school,  Jim Spencer, the first baseman with the Angels, Rangers, Yankees was selected in the first round in 1965 out of my high school (number 11 overall).  He would come back when I was in high school and provide workout tips, sessions for kids on the team- he was an amazing first baseman, could do things with the glove that were astounding.   After he retired, he and my Dad were friends, played golf together quite a bit, but died suddenly of a heart attack at 54. 

 

 

[Il BuonO]

I was All-City at 2B in ‘82 (hit .418 and made no errors defensively) along with Bret Saberhagen who I doubled off in league play. Two years of JuCo where Paul Blair III was a teammate (yes, that guy’s son) as a CF (All conference.372). Recruited by Texas A & M but wound up at D2 San Francisco State because of family issues. All-conference again and then offered a roster spot ($600 a month and all the bus rides a guy could want) for one of my HS area scouts first rookie league team with the Tigers. 

Played a couple years in MABL after that winning a city championship. Scouted briefly for the A’s and coached HS ball.

 

[Tony-OH]

19 hours ago, Ridgway22 said:

We had a player on our team all the scouts were out to see, John Cox. However, he kept getting shelled and I would come in to clean up. Normally the scouts would vanish when he came out of the game, but one, a bird dog for the Brewers, stuck around and was drinking beers in brown paper bags with my Dad. Scout ended up writing me up and I got drafted before I graduated High School.

Great story. The bolded part above reminded me of something that happened to me in high school as well.

I grew up loving and playing baseball. Baseball was basically my life as I collected baseball cards, watched every baseball game or show on TV, played baseball video games while keeping stats (back before they kept them themselves), made up my own fictional dice-based baseball game that included rosters for several teams all with different types of hitters and pitchers, played computer baseball games of every kind, and of course played wiffle ball or baseball from spring to fall. 

I made the all-star teams every year from my second year in T-ball (yes they had t-ball all-star team back in our day) until I was too old to play Pony League (15-years old). By my sophomore year in high school I was already getting pulled up to be on the varsity team for a great baseball program. Basically I thought I was going to be professional player and never gave much thought to doing anything else other than play baseball for a living one day (The reality of being a 5-foot-8 kid playing in Maryland was not something I thought about).

Then, my junior year came around and I was pretty certain I was going to be the starting catcher on Varsity since the Varsity catcher graduated. My competition was a sophomore, and although he was pretty good, I felt like I could beat him out even though the year before on JV they had asked me to play the outfield at times so he could catch as a Freshman. The coaches told me he was "only a catcher" and I could play anywhere so they felt it was in the team's interest for me to play other positions besides catcher (I loved catching).

So we were both playing catcher in preseason when in the 1st or 2nd preseason game I got hit on my right wrist with a 80+ MPH fastball. It swelled so bad I had to go over to the emergency room to get it x-ray'd. I thought it was broken, but thankfully it was just a bad bruise. The worse part though was I could do any baseball activity for about a week.

So during that missed time, it's clear I'm not going to be the starting catcher now so my assumption was I would just start in right field (I had a good arm and the sunset in the right fielder's eyes and I played a good sun ball) where I played the year before. So the season starts and low and behold, I'm not in the starting lineup. I had been back for about a week and felt like I was ready to play, but I was not starting! It was the first time in my entire life that I was on an organized team and was not starting. 

Worse of all, I knew I was better than the kid they were starting in RF even though he was a senior. So what I do? I did what most 16-year old kids with a high opinion of his playing abilities would do. I pouted. I complained under my breath. I didn't hustle during practice (I was always a hustler) and I basically did everything I should not have done. Unfortunately I was young and immature, and I didn't have a lot of parental guidance (I needed a foot placed up my butt).

So the kid in RF gets hurt in the second game of the season and I'm like, "Well now I know I'm going to start." So imagine my surprise when they announce another kid is going to start in RF. I basically lost my mind when this happened and openly questioned my coaches. That's when my coach basically told me I wasn't starting because I wasn't hustling at practice and because my attitude sucked (He was 100% right).

I should have just taken that feedback, went to practice the next day and started to hustle my butt off again. But for the first time in my life, I wasn't enjoying baseball and being an immature 16-year old, I did the exact thing I thought I would ever do, I quit. I quit the one thing that defined me. I quit the one thing that I loved more than anything because I let my ego get in the way.

I walked into the head coaches office with my uniform and told him I was quitting. I'm pretty sure I thought he would try to talk me out of it and that we would talk and I would just go back to playing. Instead he took my uniform and said ok. I was devastated. It was my own fault. 

That summer, I didn't play any baseball for the first time in my life. I had decided I was done with baseball. However, over the winter I started to have that itch again and I realized I had screwed up. I went to my coaches a few weeks before baseball practice started and apologized for actions and convinced them I was more mature. To their credit, they gave me another chance. They didn't have to, but they gave a now 17-year old once more chance and i wasn't going to let them down.

Practice started and I hustled everywhere. I was first for drills, ran hard everywhere, and sure enough, the season started and I was starting in RF. I was always a leadoff hitter because I walked a lot and stole bases, but I was batting 6th or 7th to start the year, but I wasn't going to get upset since I was just happy to be back in the starting lineup. But after basically losing a year of playing, I was rusty when the season started and by the 3rd or 4th game of the season I was batting around .200 and I can still remember calling my Dad and telling him that I think I forgot how to hit.

That's when my coach did something surprising, I batted back at leadoff. That game I went 3-for-4 with a walk and two stolen bases and everything started to click once again. 

So I'm red-hot, but as a 5-foot-8 kid (I hit 5-8 at 15-years old and never grew anymore) who missed his junior year, i clearly was not getting scouted, but we had a kid on our team that had a good fastball and had power, so a few scouts started coming around.

He was pitching one game towards the end of the season when I happened to have one of my best games. I went 3-for-4, hit the only home run of my high school career, doubled, knocked in like 4 or 5 runs, made a diving catch and threw out not one, but two runners at home plate. After the game, a guy came over to me and told me he was a Kansas City Royals scout and he gave me piece of paper. He told me it was a pre-draft invitation only try-out camp and he wanted me to attend. He asked me if I was going to college and told him I was in the delayed entry program to go in the Army. 

So fast forward a few weeks and I'm sitting there eating my breakfast on the Saturday morning before the camp. I was excited and trying to think how I could get out of my Army commitment if I got drafted. That's when I read the morning local paper and went to the sports section to see if there was any news on the camp. There was. It stated that the Kansas City Royals held a invitation only tryout camp ..... YESTERDAY. 

I looked at the piece of paper and sure enough, I looked at the date wrong. I missed the camp.

Now everything happens for a reason and it's probably doubtful I would have been drafted anyways, but that along with my Saddam Hussein-caused missed camp two years later just told me that pro baseball was not my future. HAHA.

I'm sure if I would have gotten into pro ball the Hangout would not have ever existed so I guess in some ways, people should be thankful to my 18-year old inability to read a date correctly and Saddam Hussein for the Hangout.