You Need to Play

When I tried out for the high school baseball program as a Freshman, I looked around at all the players that were older, bigger, stronger, and faster than me and, for the first time in my life, doubted if I was good enough. I made the team (somewhat to my surprise at the time) and was given the choice to either (a) play on the Freshman/Sophomore team and get regular playing time, or (b) be on the JV team as a backup and not play much. I chose to play every day. And I’m glad I did because I got better.

As a Sophomore, I made the JV team and this time was the everyday catcher. Now I was moving up the ranks, slowly but surely. The only problem looking forward to moving up to the next level was that the Varsity catcher was in the same grade as me. Sammy Donabedian had hit puberty about 4 grades earlier and was a grown man at 16. I still had 8 inches to grow. He was stronger, faster, and just overall a better catcher than me, and we both knew it. So if I wanted to play on the Varsity team I was going to need to play another position.

My dad had always said, “Even if you are the second-best player at your position in the entire world… if the first-best player at that position is on your team… you better be able to play somewhere else.” Going into my Junior year of high school, the fact that he had always said that felt fortuitous. So I went out and played left field. I got myself in the lineup. Got my at-bats. And kept getting better.

Halfway through my Junior Year I went into a slump and got benched for a couple of weeks. It was heartbreaking and enraging. But it motivated me. And I used that motivation to get better. And when I got back in the lineup I played so well that I forced my way into the lineup for the rest of my high school career.

At every opportunity, I got better.

I tell this story because when I give baseball lessons or host camps now, parents frequently ask me for my advice on similar situations they find their players in: “My son has the opportunity to ‘play up’ but not see the field much, or to ‘play down’ and play every day. What do you think we should do?”

I understand the dilemma. You want to put yourself around better competition. You want to define yourself as being on a higher-level team. The allure of ‘playing up’ is hard to overcome. But my advice to everyone that asks is this: You need to play. Play and get better. Go to the team where you will get the reps, get the at-bats. Use the opportunity to get better, and you will be amazed at how far you can go