Chasing your dreams, if you aim high enough, and work hard enough, will afford you some pretty cool experiences. My name is Alex Hale, and these are my baseball stories...
Part I: The Tryout
So there's this thing every year called the Area Code Games. It's basically the "Who's Who" of high school baseball, and teams are assembled by major league scouting departments, who field eight teams to play a 5-day showcase in California. You can't buy your way in, there's no showcase to sign up for, you get a letter in the mail that you're invited to a two-day tryout, and that's your shot.
If you've ever been to a tryout, and thought "Well they didn't get a chance to see me enough to decide how good I am!" This ain't your tryout.
It's changed slightly, but here was the Day 1 docket for the tryout:
- Run a 60-yard dash. Catchers & Pitchers run once, position players run twice.
- Throw from your position about 5 times.
- 7 Swings on an empty field.
That's it.
Didn't get all that? Run 60 yards, throw 5 times, hit 7 baseballs. List posted within 30 minutes of the tryout ending on a bulletin board. See you tomorrow.
Fortunate enough to make it to Day 2? Congratulations! You got 3-4 at bats off the nastiest 60 pitchers from Illinois to Arkansas and everywhere in between. Better make 'em count.
Flashback: Here's My Entire Area Code Games Tryout Experience -
So I get the invite and head up to Illinois for the White Sox - Midwest tryout. My dad and I pull into some small college campus and there's 300 players, all of whom are bigger than me, look older than me, and are more athletic than me. I looked at my dad and said "We must be at the wrong thing, these have to be college guys."
But I get out of the car, grab my stuff and head up to the table, hoping they tell me I'm at the wrong place and that the high school - Area Code tryouts are down the street. No dice, I'm at the right place...
I figure what's the worst that could happen? I find out I don't have any business pursuing my dream of baseball? Hunker down for my senior year of high school, hit the books and maybe look into a college with a solid academic reputation?
We get a number to pin on our t-shirts and loosen up on our own. First we run the 60. They have the catchers run first.
Now I can't be sure, but I'm pretty sure they didn't even time us. As soon as we ran through the line they basically said "Keep going", so we headed to the dugout to gear up for throws to 2nd. We gear up in no time and glance out at the outfielders running their 60's. I'd never seen so many guys run so fast. One kid said he heard all the outfielders ran sub 6.8's. Yeah that looked about right, so we started playing catch...
We did our pop times to second, threw one to third, and it was time to hit. Can you see how fast this went? They didn't have fielders in the infield, because they wanted to see the flight of the ball, so when you were done you stood back in the outfield, and it rolled like clockwork. The list was posted 30 minutes after the last kid hit.
240 position players, cut to 60, just like that.
Part II: Day 2: Gigantor and the Giant Pitch
I make it to the second day and get to catch to start with, which was a plus, because I wanted to see what we were dealing with here. Every pitcher threw 90+ mph, and they were all going to face just 4 batters, so you were going to see that 90+ mph, with wood bats. Catching them was easy, it was trying to hit them that was going to be tricky. You had no idea what they threw until they warmed up.
This is what the tryout looked like (above - photo from an Area Code tryout)
The first guy I faced was a righty from Illinois I think, for some reason, I thought that maybe since he was from Illinois he wouldn't throw that hard. Cold weather state right? No, he threw hard. Once again, there were no fielders, infield or outfield this time, because they wanted to see the ball travel, so after you hit a ball, you ran to first and then ran out to get the ball you hit. I hit a pretty good fly ball to center, then a hard ground ball the second at bat.
So the third at bat I'm thinking "Ok, I gotta do something or I'm not making this team." Naturally this is when the 6'4" monster from Arkansas takes the hill. He's throwin' seeds, so "here goes nothing".
The first pitch I don't even see. Strike one.
The second pitch starts head high, and must have hit a rock in mid-air, because it broke about 2 feet down into the catcher's mitt. Strike two. "Ok," I think to myself, "can't hit that..."
He's working so fast I can't even think yet, and throws a ball that stops spinning half way to the plate, and I think the ball smiled and winked at me before buckling to the ground. "Ok, can't hit that either.."
While the catcher corrals the ball, I step out, "Ok, the giant has a 94-mph fastball, a curve and a split...I have about a 2% of hitting the second two, so we're gonna gear up on the fastball and swing when he lets it go."
So Gigantor rears back and has that look like "I'm gonna blow this guy away" so as soon as he lets it go, I just swing...
Pretty sure I blacked out for a sec, because the next thing I know the ball is sailing into left center, two-hopping the fence. I run through first and head out to get it, gotta say it was the most satisfying jog of my life.
When I get to the dugout and the inning ends, Gigantor comes in the dugout and goes "Man you were sitting on that!" And as baseball players tend to do, I played along. I laughed with him, like "Of course, I turn around mid 90's fastballs all the time back in Nebraska...." To this day, I have no idea how I hit that ball...
Part III: Long Beach, CA
So they tell us they'll call us within 48 hours after the tryout. If you don't get a call, thanks for playing, we don't need you. 48 hours comes and goes, and I'm all bummed out. Life is over, I'm wasting my time, what was I thinking...
Then I get the call. I'm headed to Long Beach.
At our first practice they let us know they figured none of us had ever been cut before, so they didn't call anyone until after 48 hours later, just to mess with us. Pretty messed up in hindsight, but we didn't care, we were there!
The games were where Long Beach State played, so we get to the first game and Gigantor must have had a cousin from the Dominican, because he was throwing for the other team. Low to mid 90's, curve and a split. Son of a bitch....
First ball I hear go by. Hissing at me - SSSS-pop! Second pitch is the curve, I chase it into the dirt. I step out. Alright I didn't come all this way to get K'd on three pitches by Gigantor's twin, gear up, let's go! I shorten up a bit, and the dude sends one that looks up, but then I see that winking smirk on the ball from the tryout, and it starts to knuckle back towards the zone. I fire it back up the middle, a hit! Right?
No chance, Gigantor's twin flails his glove up at the last second and the ball hits the back of the web...At least I "hit it" I suppose...
We finish up the first game and they tell us to head to the Nike tent. Wait, I gotta buy something? No, not exactly.
Obviously I have never died, but at this stage in my life, the tent was teenage me would imagine Heaven. We walked through and told them our sizes, and we were handed everything from batting gloves to cleats, to Dri-Fits to bat bags, even catchers gear. Gotta remember, this was circa 2003 so this was the before everything was customized and matching tee ball teams. It was the coolest candy store I had ever been to, and it was all free...hey who just pulled up in that Hummer H2 right in front of the stadium? We'll get to that.
To be continued....The Kid with the Filthy Change (Travis Wood) and The 2004 #1 Pick (Matt Bush)....
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