How I Got My Division I Baseball Scholarship (Thread):

As a small child, l I was a naturally gifted athlete

But by the time middle school came around, I wasn't exactly an athletic specimen

I was socially awkward and late going through puberty

Needless to say, your boy wasn't getting too many dates

Like many teenagers, I was itching to stand out for some reason, ANY reason

Recalling my elementary school athletic glory, I decided sports presented such an opportunity

Except I wasn't very good

My last game in 8th grade, I made 5 errors. Mental midget

"Do not hit the ball to me" I plead to the baseball gods, to no avail

But it didn't matter. I wasn't getting the respect I wanted socially and I saw sports as the best vehicle I had to get it

Freshman year of HS, I really wanted to play football with my friends but my dad would not let me

So baseball it would be

I showed up to the first fall scrimmage

The Varsity coach asked what position I played

"Shortstop"

"Okay, we'll put you in centerfield"

F me

Rather than sulk about it like my teammate in right field, I made 2 diving catches in the first inning

One on the first pitch of the game and the second to end the inning, a la Jim Edmonds shown below

I averaged one diving catch every 2-3 years before that game

That inning got me on the Varsity coach's radar

But there were levels to this game

I didn't know it at the time, but college coaches didn't communicate much with Varsity coaches. They spoke to travel select ball coaches almost exclusively...

And even though I got called up to my varsity team as a freshman, my travel ball coach thought I sucked and nearly cut me

Who could blame him? I was 5' 9" 155 lbs and slow

My teammates were > 6' > 175 lbs and fast

Monsters

With bicep veins

And beards

At 15 years old

After ending my freshman summer on the bench, I did what any dateless motivated kid would do

I lived in the weight room

I spent hours after school every day running and lifting weights

Overtrained to the max

BUT

I got better

My arm got stronger and I cut my 60 yard dash time by .4 seconds

Enough to win the respect of the travel ball coach whose favor I sought deeply

This coach was like a local king

All the rich parents sucked up to him, hoping it would help their kid

Laughed at all his bad jokes

But he liked me because I became a PROSPECT

So much that he asked me to work with a younger kid in the organization he said reminded me of him

Because we both sucked as 15 years old shortstops, but worked hard

I didn't think much of the younger kid. That kid became @bcraw35

I continued to play well in spurts, and my Junior year of HS, skipped out on finals to play in an Oklahoma tournament

I didn't hit well all year, but that week I had the best tournament of my life

11 hits in 17 at bats. Hit every ball hard in front of many SEC & ACC coaches

And that summer, I hit 100 pts higher than in my HS season, against better competition

I played so well that the Stanford coach came to recruit me at my house

Stanford was my dream school

Except they had their pick of the litter

I was just a local kid with good grades

Vanderbilt too had been following me all summer

The same Vanderbilt that hadn't made the NCAA postseason in 20 years

I loved the coaches when they recruited me & loved the atmosphere on my recruiting trip

But they were still my "safety" school

I still had my eyes on Stanford

Which was unfortunate because the Stanford coach didn't even remember the weekend he said my recruiting trip would be

It was clear I was a roster filler in his mind and he only ponied up a 5% scholarship offer

So I committed to Vanderbilt because they wanted me more

Never did I expect the team I committed to would become the @VandyBoys

Every coach became a Coach of the Year at the NCAA or MLB level

Before @DavidPrice24 @MikeMinor36 & Pedro Alvarez were making MLB All Star Teams, they were just dudes we messed around with in the locker room

And they still are

We were the hardest working team in the nation

We spent 17 weeks as the #1 team in the country in 2007

& won an SEC Championship

& I finished 7th on the all time hits list

With a group of guys who will be my best friends for life

My baseball journey never took me to the destination I wanted it to

But in many ways it took me further

The perspective you see, the mental frameworks that got me hired at the hedge fund, @Google, & @OKCoin were all shaped in the 4 year grind that was my college career