COLLEGE – The Challenge of earning playing time as a freshman!

Playing college baseball can be a tremendous experience. Competing for your school and playing a higher level of baseball at campuses across the country is enriching to college life. No great reward, however, comes without its challenges.

Every athlete wants to play and have an important role on their team from the get-go. There is not a single baseball player who wants to sit the bench his freshman year. Why would he? It goes against his competitive nature and also runs across the grain of what he’s conditioned to – playing. The reality is that many college players have to wait their turn before claiming a starting position or earning significant playing time.

Not being a starter is a difficult transition for an incoming freshman. To more easily digest the situation, a player should view it rationally. There are only nine positions on the field and 26-30 names on a college roster. Most of those players are sophomores, juniors and seniors. Those returning players have already won starting roles or have considerably more experience in collegiate baseball. They have spent a year (or more) in college practicing every day, gaining feedback from the coaching staff, training in the weight room, and watching and being involved in college baseball games. Because upperclassmen are acclimated to the college baseball environment, they have a definitive advantage over an incoming freshman.

This rational thinking is purposeful because it helps you maintain a stable disposition if you’re not handed a starting role. However, you should approach your freshman season with the objective of earning a starting spot. If a player is ahead of you, push that player every day and one of two positive results will occur. Either the starter will get even better when pushed (which helps the team), or he’ll wilt under the pressure and you’ll win the spot. If it becomes obvious that you won’t immediately win a starting job, look to earn a role as a platoon player. If that fails, strive to be a pinch-hitter, middle reliever, defensive replacement, or pinch-runner.

Coaches like to find ways to give players opportunities. It keeps the spirit of the entire team positive, which makes for a better playing and practice environment. When you get that opportunity, it’s your job to capitalize. Make the most of it and try to force your way into the line-up. DO NOT fall into the category of, “I haven’t seen action in a week. How could I possibly be expected to perform?” That’s an excuse and carries no weight when a coach is putting you in a spot to help win a game. Seize the opportunity and make something happen. At the end of the day, of course it’s not easy to step in and produce when you haven’t been playing. But who ever said earning playing time is supposed to be easy?

If you’re not seeing much playing time right away, please do not become disgruntled and consider quitting or transferring. Be patient. So many things can happen throughout a season that if you just stay the course and continue to work hard, doors may come ajar. Players suffer injuries, fall into slumps (under-perform), encounter academic struggles or become discipline problems. A third string catcher, for example, is one foul tip away from starting the second game of a double-header.

Transferring schools has become an all-too-common practice by college athletes. Because a situation isn’t perfectly suited for them immediately, they allow frustration to compensate their ability to think clearly. Before long, they pack up and go somewhere else. This extends the term of their college career and costs them (or their family) tens of thousands of dollars. The grass is not always greener somewhere else. Be a competitor, not a quitter.

As mentioned, playing college baseball can provide countless experiences and memories that are priceless. A stiff, uphill climb is what can make the view from those peaks so majestic.

A few things to expect as a freshman baseball player:

* Responsibility for carrying team equipment

* Chasing foul balls during home games

* Mandatory study halls

* Last in line to get food on away trips

* Lowest on the totem pole when it comes to sleeping arrangements on away trips

* Sharing seats on bus rides

* Upper classmen who view you as a threat to their playing time