Focus Baseball - Seattle

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Players: Want to get noticed? Recruited? have more post HS opportunities? Then be different. I mean truly different. Got to be willing to set yourself apart, in more ways than just your physical tools. It starts by being willing to read this long post and then let it marinate into your game ….

Tools get noticed, yes. But so do many other things. Things that players don’t seem to understand the importance of. College coaches, now more than ever, want players who can drop the tired acts…. The show… and be “a baseball player”… not just someone who “plays baseball.” There is a big difference…

What does that mean? In summer ball… Come to the field looking like a player. Leave the crocks for the beach. Wear uniform correctly. Take out headphones when doing team activities. Put phone away all game and then… take pride in your warm-up routine, pregame hitting routine, stretching, and throwing routines. Regardless of what your teammates are doing and what they might think!!! Take pride in your between inning reps. Everything matters.

Play the game with energy and focus. Be a great teammate. Keep your focus on your team and winning. Yes, winning matters. Coaches want winners. Players who bring that edge win at the next level. Playing to win requires focus, intensity, hunger. Anyone can play when it does not matter who wins…. There is very little pressure in that arena.

Right now we live in a world of showcase tooled players (throw hard, hit hard/far, run fast, etc.), but they don’t know how to play the game. Get noticed, by demonstrating high baseball IQ and situational awareness. Hustle on and off the field. Control your emotions when you fail and bounce back on the next pitch…. and when you succeed… act like you have done it before… old school style. Yea… I promise you will get noticed.

Call me old and outdated. You would have the old part right. As far as knowing what wins, I put my money on what I stated in this tweet! Hear me clearly, genuine emotion is cool. Strike out 16 in a 7 inning game, throw a no hitter, hit a walk off bomb… authentic emotion is cool.

However, the staring down opponents, dancing around the mound or bases with the “look at me” focus is a tired act. If you are elite tooled, someone will still take a chance on you. But you might not get all the opportunities you should. And for the rest of the players, you become just another tired act.

In the end, college baseball is about winning. That’s what the coaches are paid to do. They get fired when they don’t win. So ask yourself “what do I do that sets me apart from the rest of the baseball players on this planet?” The answer better be… “I have tools that match that level and I have make-up that wins.” “I’m not like the others.”

So start now: become the player that is different. The one who cares. The one who plays the game right. The one who respects the game and opponents. The one who wins!!! The one colleges are looking desperately for.