I had all my clothes, wardrobes, baseball equipment, bed linen, school books, electronics, etc. It can get very overwhelming. Finally getting it done, I loaded the car and drove on home. That is only half the battle. Once you get home, things need to find their place and a lot of cleaning and moving around needs to get done. One of the only good things to come from this day, was perhaps finding some old things you kind of forgot about. That would happen to me.
I came across my evaluation paper from my first summer in baseball camp. Remember that I had zero experience playing baseball and began playing it with my brother in my junior year of high school. That summer, I signed up for camp. The camp was geared toward the college bound high school player, and I was ignorant enough to sign up.
The evaluation is broken into several parts: Running, Arm, Fielding, Hitting, and General. Now I will give the individual scores within each section. Prepare to be really shocked at what you see. Aside for running and velocity, everything is scored based on 1-5, 1 being needs improvement, 2 is below average, 3 is average skill, 4 is above average, and 5 is outstanding skill.
For Running, they held the 40 and 30 times. I an the 40 in 5.20 and the 30 in 4.17. I'm not too concerned about the speed back then, and I really don't know how much faster I got, but I did go 9-9 in stolen bases this past year, so I'd have to say I did gain somewhere along the way.
For Arm, this is where it shows how out of place and in over my head I was. There were four parts to Arm. Arm strength, velocity, accuracy, and mechanics. Accuracy and mechanics, I scored a 3-, and I was lucky for that. I was also lucky to receive a 2 when it came to arm strength. You know why? I was pumping them in there at...can you guess? 54 miles per hour! 54! You show me a junior in HS who's a catcher throwing 54 mph, try to project where he can end up. I think today (and this is based on other people's opinions), after a nice long toss session I can hit 80, which I still work on to get better. Who would have known that four years can bring a 26mph gain in velocity. Not only that. I bet you 54 was what I topped out at. I bet I averaged around 52.
Moving along, we get to fielding. I was a catcher who couldn't block for squat. I was also terrible at catching the ball. I have a VHS of my performance at camp, and I recall it not working after a couple years, but they had a college pitcher just throw to tape catchers receiving skill. I was awful. However, playing for a week straight, I was making lots of improvement is every facet of defense. So by the time evaluations came around, I was able to change enough to got completely embarrass myself. I got a 2+ in mechanics, throwing footwork, framing, blocking, and release to 3B. I got a 2 in release to 2B, and a 3 in bunts.
Ah, Hitting. I got an at bat a day I think because we only played a few innings each afternoon as a game. I think I struck out every day except the last I was determined to hit the damn ball. I hit an opposite field XBH, I can't remember if it was a double or triple. I'm pretty sure it was a triple, and I hit a double the next year at camp. Anyway, I got a 3- for lower body mechanics, backside, frontside containment, upper body mechanics, swing, swing arc, bunting, and multiple skills. I got a plan 3 for stance, stride, point of contact, extension, follow through, and power. I scored a 2+ for contact.
The General section was my pride and glory. I scored a 4 across the board - attitude, coachability, and work ethic.
I guess you can say that my General scores is what gave me the chance to improve into the player I am today. I'd love to get evaluated again, but most of all, I'm just taking time to appreciate my accomplishments and consider some perspective. I wouldn't say I'm at the top, but it has certainly been a long way.
Playa
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