A Field of Dreamers

#3-Join A Travel Team

On Saturday, all 3 sons and I met Kent in the Lobby of the Utah Baseball Academy. The building offered a full turf field with 9 drop down cages on the main level with weight room, and upstairs they had two batting cages with pitching machines and a separate turf area with two drop down cages for more hitting instruction. The company was founded by Bob Keyes, a former NY Met, and for the past 25 years, Bob and his staff had worked tirelessly to increase the sport of baseball in Utah, and helped several players eventually play college baseball. Some even become drafted to play major league baseball.

Kent introduced us to Bob and several of the players on the team, and Bob announced that Austin was going to be trying out for the team. Austin knew several of the players from playing against each other in previous year's tournaments, so he felt pretty comfortable.

"Get your catchers' gear on, Morin," Bob barked, and the boys and I moved upstairs with Kent to watch the tryout from the upper level.

At the end of the tryout, Bob informed Austin, Kent and me that he would like Austin to play for the academy team, and Austin was pretty excited.

Bob explained that the program would cost about $1200 per year, and that would get Austin into 9 tournaments throughout the year, culminating with the Arizona Summer and Fall Classics - two national tournaments where over 60 teams came from all over the country to play against some of the best competition in the country. Only later would we learn how great a value that fee would be as most of the other teams attending the very same events were often charged upwards of $2,500 just to play one 4-game tournament with no guarantee of playing time. Even today, the price the Utah Baseball Academy charges ranks as one of the most affordable travel team experiences in the country.

Bob explained that the events in Arizona would be played at several of the complexes in Peoria and Surprise used by the major league teams including the Texas Rangers, Kansas City Royals, San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners during Spring Training, and that we'd never play on fields that nice, ever.

We were all excited for Austin, and both Marshall and Alec looked forward to their respective turns at making the UBA team too.

At the end of the tryout, I called Missy and told her the good news. Austin had made the UBA team! She suggested we meet and take Kent out for lunch to celebrate and Kent agreed.

Before we went into the restaurant, Kent asked Austin to bring the tin box in, so we could review another card, and Austin agreed. He grabbed the box and we all sat down to celebrate Austin's success.

While we were waiting for our meal, Kent asked Austin to retrieve the next card, and read it aloud:

"#3: JOIN A TRAVEL TEAM," began Austin.

If you're considering which travel teams to try out for, the best ones are often the clubs that go to the tournaments that offer the greatest number of recruiters at-but don't charge a premium to play in it."

Always ask these questions to the prospective coach:

-Is this team going to play together all year, or is this only for a season, or even just for a specific tournament?

-How many tournaments, camps and showcases will the team attend? (A well-run team will already know which events they're going to, and the programs and number of recruiters attending each), the card said. Lesser prepared teams may not - and this should be a warning sign to you as you consider which team you want to play for – and invest in

-How many college programs will be attending the events where the team is playing?

"There's no sense in attending a showcase if the schools you're most interested in won't be attending - or the attendance is lower that what you'd hope to see. Most event organizers already have a good idea of the number of programs attending, so it's more than a reasonable question to ask. If the team doesn't know, you can still move forward in your consideration and future discussions with the coach, but do so with caution."