Recruiting: Stepping Up to the Plate of Life
Written, Designed, and Photographed by James Brewer
Dedication
I’d like to dedicate this book to my family who has supported me from day one. My mom for always being there and being my best friend. My dad for his love of rugby which introduced me to my love of sports. My grandpa for loving me with all his heart and for giving me my name. I hope the after life is treating him well, and yes I do forgive him for being a Dodgers fan. I’d also like to dedicate this book to all baseball fans out there, keep on loving the game as much as it has loved you.
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Acknowledgements I’d like to acknowledged everyone who has helped me in this book. Donnie Ecker for bringing deeper insight to the life of a minor leaguer. Steven McLean for alowing me into his college choice. Lisa McLean for providing a parents perspective of a student athlete’s journey. Sandy Whithol for providing a coaches view of recruiting. Where it not for all of you I would not have been able to create this book and I am eternally grateful.
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Table of Contents 1. Dedication p.2 2. Achnowledgements p.4 3. Foreword p.8 4.Introduction p.10 5. A Free Education p.13 6. Conclusion p.25 7.Index p.26 8. Bibliography p.29
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Foreword Baseballs and sunflower seeds are a mark of any dugout
It’s spring and I am happy, it is not because the winter cold has gone, I love that type of weather. It is not because I can taste the freedom that summer brings. The only thing I care about when spring comes is baseball. I long to hear the crack of the bat, the radio humming with commentary, the men of fall back on the field, and most of all I love the thought of new beginings. I can once again savor in America’s past time, free to relax within its complexities. Every since I had gone to my first baseball game in San Jose I was hooked. I remember my first game was the San Jose Giants, I had no idea that this was one of the lowest levels of the minor leagues, I didn’t care. I was happy, I had apple juice, I saw guys throwing baseballs just like I had in my backyard, I was fasinated by something so complex and simple at the same time. I can’t tell you what the score was, who got a hit, who struckout, or even the players there, but I remember the sights the sounds and from that day on I was hooked. I was there when Bonds added to his massive homerun total, I saw the Giants lose many i season, I even cried when they finally won a World Series. I’m a fan, I have been for a long time. There’s not a single nuance or stat I do not love. Baseball is my passion, my whole household revolves around it, for the ninth months the season last I live, breathe, eat, and sleep baseball. 8
Now when we where asked to make a documentry about something I couldn’t chose anything but baseball. What to write about? Well since I’m a Junior I’m looking at colleges. Colleges, hey isn’t Steven McLean getting recruited? Well he’s got to be, he’s the best in our division. So i asked him would he help me out and do this documentry and he said yes. It all went up from there. His mom got me other interviewees that she knew and soon I had amassed enough footage for a movie twice that I was making. I had asked so many things, what to focus on. I looked at the footage again and it soon became clear that there was one theme. Baseball is a tough thing to get into. If getting recruited to college isn’t hard enough, they then have to make it through the minor leagues. I knew that this was my topic, the perils of chosing the right path to make it to the Majors. Everyone was clear what it should be, college first then the minors. I set out to convey this collecting as much data as I could. Eventually I put it all together and made it into the book you’re about to read. I hope it offers you an insight into the world of baseball and helps you understand the choice that high schoolers must face. I hope that those faced with this choice will see the clear choice is college. Most of all I hope that I put together a book that entertains and gets my message across. Signed,
James Brewer 9
Introduction The major leagues is a dream of all young baseball players. Everyone grows up wanting to be like their hero. They want to be a fireman, a police officer, or an austronaut. Some turn their eyes to their favorite sports heroes and will imitate their favorite’s batting stance. Sadly most kid will not make it to the major leagues. For the lucky few they will be drafted, some are straight out of high school. In fact, 12 out of the 30 picks in the first round of the 2011 Draft were seniors in High School. That’s 40% of the first round were high school seniors. The sad reality though, is that a player’s chance of making it to the majors is very slim. There are 3,225 minor league players on teams, and out of those only 750 will make it onto a major league roster. So that’s a 23% chance, so not an overwhelming majority will make it through.
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It may not sound like a lot, but you have to factor in the every year upwards of 600 players will be drafted. Not everyone signs, but a majority due. This pushes those failed draft picks from the previous year out when the new draftees come in. No, it’s no picnic in the minors. Every year your chances of becoming a major leaguer goes down with time. Soon it will be too late and those that were drafted out of high school will be out with little to no money to their name and no college diploma to boot.
In fact, being drafted out of high school has a lot of downsides. First of all, the schedule is much more grueling. In high school you only play roughly three games a week and they are all relatively close to your school. Once you get into the minors they can play up to seven games a week and be traveling on a bus for hours on end going from Fresno, CA to Las Vegas, NV. Once you’ve arrived in Las Vegas then you have to stay in a cheap hotel because the teams can’t pay for the higher end hotels. Your food budget will have you going to McDonalds all the time. Players live off bargains and sales they just don’t make enough to live off of. I interviewed a former minor league player who told me that his salary was $1,500 a month. He was forced to get another job, which was hard considering that he had no college degree. Not only will high school seniors have to adjust to a new schedule they also are thrown into the deep end of adulthood. College is a big part of a teen’s development because it is a taste of independence in a controlled environment. The minor leagues tosses them straight in the deep end, and a mistake there will be far worse than that of one in college. There will only be the player on the road, no advisors or parents. Steven Strasburgh was the first round draft pick in 2009 straight out of high school. His body was not ready for the taxing it would get in the minors, he eventually had to have Tommy John surgery. This is a surgery where they take a bone in the elbow and replace it with a tendon. It’s some pretty serious stuff. Strasburgh is now pitching fine, but the surgery could have gone wrong and ended his whole career. If he had gone to college he would have been able to let his body mature and have a training staff that understood how to take high school athletes and make them into professional players. 11
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Steven McLean leaps to catch the ball previous page: Left: Almond’s scoreboard and dugout Backround: Los Altos High’s foul poll
A Free Education
For many years students everywhere have been seeking out a higher education. It has allowed for students all over the country to mature and learn skills essential for their future careers. Colleges have been a place for students to grow within a community through clubs, classes, and their first taste of independence. Originally sports at universities where just clubs, meant to allow those who wanted to to compete for the pride of their university. Soon colleges realized that just as professional sports made money they could make money too. Soon a new institution was created to regulate sports within the college level, the NCAA. Soon colleges began inticing athletes to their colleges with a “free ride”. Much adversity has comes form the NCAA and recruiting scandals, but the offer still stands for high school athletes. Compete for the school, learn for free. Most kids eventually realize that the dream will never happen because they lack the talent. But for a select few the dream stays alive, they’re the top layer on their team. They have to seek out talent on their same level and have a number of scouts coming to their games. Soon they are given a choice at seventeen, not even an adult yet. Would they want to take hundreds of thousands of dollars for a chance to play in the major leagues or go to college for free? 13
The majority of American teenagers go to college. It has now become a requirement to get any job above the minimum wage. The choice of what college to go into has become a highly profitable market. People pay thousands to have their child’s admission form “perfected”. Working the system to groom their form to look just right. Every family will go on multiple road trips to find the right college. Will their child like a small liberal arts, a mid major, or a division one school with 20,000 students. Every student is different and each chooses what school is right for them. Many factors go into everyone’s decision: the size, the majors available, housing, food, the campus, how hot the coeds are, or the strength of the athletic program. Yes ever school has their mens and womans sports program. There are some colleges, powerhouses, who are known for their dominance in one sport. Alabama is known for its dominance in football. Duke is known for its dominance in basketball. Basketball and Football alike are known for being the money makers. Each sport has deep-rooted traditions, football has its bowl week and basketball has March Madness. ESPN dedicates Millions to buy the T.V. rights for each and has one o three hours shows each weekend to discuss that week’s match ups and the story lines of the past week. Each sport has stadiums that can fill up to 100,000 and each brings in millions to the school and national attention, but what of baseball? It has the college world series, which is broadcast by ESPN, but ESPN dedicates no gameday shows to it. It’s hard luck to find a game on T.V. Why does it garner no attention, who watched Brian WIlson at LSU? Who saw Dustin Pedroia play for the Sun Devils? Why would nobody pay attention to America’s past time? Why would no one watch the future of the MLB? The death of college baseball was the MLB draft. Ever since the Major Leagues had allowed its teams to draft high school talent fewer high school seniors have been tempted to go to college to gain higher education. As a result colleges have been putting less money into the baseball program. The level of competition lowers, so the T.V. stations no longer want it, so the high school seniors never see it. As a result the schools can’t offer as many scholarships used to be able to. 14
View of left field from the snack shack
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The level of competition lowers, so the T.V. stations no longer want it, so the high school seniors never see it. As a result the schools can’t offer as many scholarships used to be able to. Now let’s take a look at a school with over 39,000 students, they have been a power house in basketball, but their baseball is lacking to say the least. Let’s take a look at what one year would cost at this university: $7,614 for instate tuition and $23,974 out of state. The average room and board is $9,023. Lastly your book and other such fees is $4,120. That total comes to $20,757 in state and $37,117 out of state. That’s one years worth of education, a normally graduation rate is four years. So that makes it $83,028 in state and $148,468, that’s four years, and that doesn’t take into account inflation over those four years. To put it in perspective one could buy an Audi A8 for the instate, or for out of state I could buy this,” 3-bedroom, 2.5-bath Houston home for sale could be yours. Built in 2005, the one-of-a-kind home has been fully customized and upgraded with features such as cherry hardwood floors throughout, high-efficiency insulation, granite slab showers and a covered dream patio”. This comes from Zillow.com “What you can get for $150,00”. What’s even more surprising is that you could buy 21 season tickets to the Texas Rangers next to the dugout with the in state tuition and have $2,766 left over to buy all the team gear you want. With the out of state you can buy 38 of the same season tickets in the same section and still have $3,232 left over to buy enough peanuts and cracker jacks to be sick for a year. “Rangers Season Tickets” rangers.mlb.com Hopefully this puts the importance of a scholarship into perspective. In fact, most American teenagers can’t pay for their full four years and many must rely on financial aid. The fact is that athletes are extremely fortunate to be able to have the opportunity to go to college for free. They recieve all of their tuition, room, board, and money for books and a computer. Those coming out of college will have no student debts and will be able to enter any job and be able to use all of that money the way they want and not on paying off debt. The only thing they must do in return is play a sport they love. Now I can’t speak for everyone, but I’m sure most people would take a free four years at college to do what they love. Left, Los Altos’ dugout
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What are the rules of scholarship, surely there must be a snag. A student must be “eligible”. According the NCAA website a student must, “Graduate from high school. Complete a minimum of 16 core courses for Division 1. Earn a minimum required grade-point average in core courses. Earn a qualifying score on either the ACT or SAT.” “Becoming Eligible” NCAA.org. Now the raises a few questions: What is a core course? What is the minimum grade-point average? And what is A qualifying score for the ACT or SAT. According to the NCAA,” A core course is a four-year preparatory class in English, mathematics, physical science, social science, foreign language, nondoctrinal religion or philosophy that is at or above the regular academic level of classes at a student-athlete’s high school”. “Becoming Eligible” NCAA.org. Now on the NCAA’s website it does not say what the minimum G.P.A. or ACT/SAT scores are. After some digging I was able to find them: the G.P.A. is 2.0, but the NCAA is raising it to 2.3 in 2015. The ACT/SAT are calculated according to G.P.A., the lower the G.P.A. the higher the score must be. Consequently the higher the G.P.A. the lower the score must be. For 2.0 it would be a 17 on the ACT and 1010 on the SAT. For a 3.0 a 13 on the ACT and a 620 on the SAT. A 3.55 and above is a 9.25 on the ACT and a 400 on the SAT. The average American score on the ACT for 2011 was 21.1. “NCAA Eligibility Standards” NCAA.org. The maximum a person can get is 36. The average American SAT in 2011 was 497 out of 800, on the same scale as NCAA that would be a 994. This is quite odd considering the highest required for ACT is much below the average for the country, but the SAT is slightly higher. If those numbers confused you, that’s what it was supposed to do. It’s just to show how a difficult the NCAA is to work with. Home plate at Almond
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Left, View fo the field from behind home plate Right, Eagle’s scoreboard
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Right, Almond Elementry’s baseball field
The NCAA is actually known around the sports business as the worst run authoritative bureau in sports. The NCAA is extremely unpredictable, in fact it never has put together rules to follow when it comes to punishing programs. The NCAA judges each case individually, so it can do whatever it wants to each school. Even though the NCAA is arguably the worst administration is sports it offers a major opportunity to baseball players. It allows them to compete against a higher level of competition and also gain more stats that MLB General Managers value in the draft. Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland A’s, the man pictured in the famous novel and film Moneyball says in the book that he values college players over high school seniors. He states that high school seniors are not tested enough, and that the college level offers actual stats that he can work with to find the true value of a player. Clearly the college choice is right for a high school senior. It offers them a free education that otherwise would cost over $100,000 and it gives the opportunity to gain a higher position in the draft. 22
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Conclusion
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When you get down to it’s a pretty clear choice. The bright lights of the majors have the grimy minor leagues behind him. Many players go there to have their careers fail and come out of it scrambling for a job. Those who fail in the minors, but have gone to college are much better off. They can get a job immediately after, not a minimum wage but a good starting salary. They also get to mature in college, college is an experience that has become a traditional part of an American’s life. They will also not have to pay for college after they get cut from the minors, instead they will have recieved a very high-priced education for free. High school seniors have an incredibly tough choice when they are drafted and have a D1 scholarship. The clear cut choice is college, I hope this essay will have brought to any one who reads it that view. I especially hope that those who are given the choice chose college. Many men have gone through the minors and failed, but having that diploma will put them far ahead of the others when it comes to getting a job and a salary they can live off of. 25
Index Right Field Foul Line p.1
Los Altos’ Dugout Cage p.27
First Base Line p.6
Los Altos’ First Base p.28
Almond Dugout and Scoreboard p.10 Right Field Foul Pole Line p.11 Steven McLean Grabs a Line Drive p.12 Snack Shack p.15 Los Altos Dugout p.16 Almond Home Plate p.18 Los Altos Infield p. 20 Los Altos Scoreboard p.21 Almond’s mound p.23 Los Altos’ Batting Cage p.24
Chain link fences protect Los Altos’ players from flying baseballs 26
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Bibliography “Rangers Season Tickets.” texas.rangers.mlb.com. Major League Baseball, n.d. “NCAA Raises Minimum GPA for Incoming Student-Athletes” edweek.org Bryan Toporek n.p. web october 27, 2011 “Average ACT scores rise for first time in 7 years.” usatoday, Mary Beth Markelin. web August 17, 2004 “While U.S. SAT scores dip across the board, N.J. test-takers hold steady.” NJ.com, Star-Ledger Staff. web september 15, 2011 “Becoming Eligible.” NCAA, n.p. n.d. “NCAA Freshmen-Eligibility Quick Refrence Sheet.” NCAA, n.p. n.d. “Draft Rracker 2011 First-Year player Draft.” MLB, n.p. n.d. “What You Can Get for $150,000” Zillow Blog, Camille Salama. February 23,2012 “College Profile: University of Arizona” Collegedata, n.p. n.d. View of first base from Los Altos’ dugout 29
Bottom of The Ninth
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