If you are not drafted by a Major League organization, nor given an automatic contract or formal invitation to go to spring training by a professional independent minor league team, then you have to come to grips with the fact that you either don’t have the talent or just were overlooked. Either way, you will want to prove the scouts wrong by attending a professional baseball tryout run either by a team, league or endorsed third-party. You also may wish to join a pay-to-play developmental instructional league with confirmed ties to at least one pro independent league, ideally more.
One way to lower the odds of your getting signed to a pro contract or at least getting a spring training invitation is to be inarticulate. Many older general managers, managers, scouts, coaches and league directors of player operations have a belief that the “younger generation” (meaning you) is completely incapable of basic communication at the professional level. The older guys operate by e-mail, physical letter, and voice mail. While they may have profiles on LinkedIn, many only check it occasionally; and very few will listen to a prospective player (whom they do not know) via text message.
While YOU may communicate with your friends and family by way of text, Facebook and other recent technological methods you MUST at least change how you present yourself. Do everything in your power, when communicating with those who have the ability to offer you a pro baseball contract, to communicate in a way which can be understood. You would be shocked at how many independent baseball teams and league offices receive:
- text messages (sent without permission by players) which read something like “do u have any tryouts you can send me 2?” Text messages are deemed by professionals to be received only by those who have been given permission. Even then, make sure that you (an unknown to the team/league official) are articulate
- requests to have tryout information sent to them at e-mail addresses like “sexymuscledpitcher@blahblah.com”. Get a professional-looking e-mail address and learn how to forward it to the e-mail address you check
- poorly made online videos which give the coaching staff no helpful information. Get a video endorsement from a scout or opposing coach who is reputable, give the team objective numbers of your 60 yard dash or fastball speed, etc.
- leave phone numbers which go to a player’s girlfriend or mom, including in another language. Set up a phone number which you can check, even if you get a Google Voice or other temporary number, so that a team official quickly can leave a voice mail and then get on with the rest of his or her day
- Mom and Dad calls who indicate that their son “just isn’t good at all of this phone work.” Most team officials will ignore unsolicited mom and dad phone calls (see the previous post for this)
- physical letters requesting tryout information… and offering no phone number, e-mail, easy to copy/paste Facebook username information or anything else
- requests to send a scout to come out to the player’s location for a private workout. A player, if the team is interested, will invite him to a private workout at the stadium or an open tryout. Teams don’t have the time, budget or interest in visiting a player if he is not already receiving tons of interest as a high draft pick possibility from MLB organizations
Remember that you are applying for a job in pro baseball. The tryout (open or private) is your “interview”. If you were applying for a real-world job then you would not make it far with unprofessional communication, and the same applies here. You could have all the talent in the world but, like so many do year in and year out, you could squander opportunities to get signed due to poor (or unprofessional) communication. Learn to be professional when it comes to getting signed and you may be rewarded with the opportunity to compete for a roster spot at spring training.