A nice success story (long)

I ran into a former player, who is working at the local supermarket.

He's in his Junior year of HS, and has already been accepted to the US Air Force Academy on a full scholarship.

This is a case of good things happening to good people. Nate is a fantastic kid. Baseball is his ticket to better things. He comes from a single-parent home, and while mom works real hard, college would have been a burden, even with student loans.

What impressed me the most from our conversation is his attitude. He loves baseball, and wants to give it his best shot, but if he doesn't make it, he has a terrific education and a career in the military. Very good judgement!

But as Paul Harvey would say, now for the rest of the story...

I was coaching LL minors. Nate was on my team for two years, during which time he led the league in scaring IF. He hit scorching line drives, and was nearly impossible to strike out. Defensively he was below average. He was 5' 10" at 10 years old, and was awkward anytime he didn't have a bat in his hand.

In his 12 year-old season, I sold him real hard during draft. He really needed to be up in the majors. No one picked him. Everyone was more interested in drafting 9's and 10's who would sit for a couple of years, over a 12 year-old who they would "only" get for a year.

Fortunately I was friendly with the Player Agent, and dragged her to one of my practices. I threw Nate BP, and she was convinced that Nate had to move up, if for no other reason than it was a safety issue.

She got Nate on a team, where his bat earned him plenty of playing time.

He graduated to Senior League, and his defense came around real nicely. He's now the starting LF on Varsity. He hit .549 last year. When I remarked how impressive that is, his reply was, "Yeah, but I've gotta work on bringing down the strikeouts."

Needless to say, this made my weekend. I also called up the Player Agent at the time (who has since retired from LL), and she is thrilled to death.