An Outside View: Hard work doesn’t always pay off

The snow was heavy. The limbs on the tress bowed from the weight of the white wintry precipitation. From my hilltop, Seymour looked like a winter wonderland. The picturesque view looked like something out of a magazine. A perfect day for the guys to hit the slopes for a little skiing with their buddies. Well, that may have been true for some but not for a few dozen young men who hoped to play baseball for the Seymour Eagles this spring. Although spring seemed like such a distant thing on that frigid day, February 10th was the first “official” day of high school baseball practice. So while their friends took advantage of the unexpected holiday, these guys reported to the high school gym for the start of a four day tryout. It was the same at several other area high schools. In reality, this wasn’t the beginning. It was the culmination of months of what amounted to mandatory off-season conditioning and workouts. In the fall, the guys worked out in the afternoons four days per week. There wasn’t even a Christmas break as players were expected to report to the school gym for more conditioning. It got tougher in January. Players were required to report to the school everyday at 6:00 a.m. where they alternated between running, throwing, and doing drills focusing on baseball fundamentals. Then after school it was to the weight room for strength and agility training. It obviously takes a high level of commitment to play high school baseball these days. All of these guys were more than willing to make the sacrifices to play on their school team even if it meant giving up their part-time jobs, foregoing family trips, having to choose between church and baseball, and forking out big bucks for private hitting lessons in order to improve their skills and help the team. The sad thing is that boys had to make these sacrifices just to have the privilege of trying out. Despite months of hard work, there were no guarantees that a player would even be selected to play on the team. At the end of the week, there was heartbreak for several young men. Their hopes and dreams were shattered. They had played the game they love since T-Ball and now the stark reality hit. It was over. They were left asking was it all worth it? What could they have done differently? Did they have a chance in the first place? All hard questions better left unanswered. Let me stress that Seymour isn’t the only school that conducts baseball tryouts in this fashion. Most schools in this area probably do theirs the same way. However, many schools, especially those with premiere baseball programs, have become sensitive to the very things I talk about and have found a simple solution. They have gone to summer tryouts. The team for the next season is set before classes even begin. The players who make the team are the only ones who go through the demanding off-season conditioning. The players who don’t make it have an opportunity to go on with their lives. There are other sports they can try and they don’t have to sacrifice activities outside of school just for the opportunity to try out for the baseball team. Next year there will be a new bunch of players wanting to play on their respective school’s baseball team. At those schools where they continue to conduct tryouts the old fashioned way, it will mean more hard work and more heartache. Hopefully, a sense of fairness will prevail and more and more schools will decide it is time for a change. A change for the good of the kids.