I've mentioned before that my son plays baseball and I have coached him since he was little but now that he's 14 I've stepped aside for a few reasons. The first is that he has to grow and develop on his own and while I'm decent there are far better coaches out there. The second is that I'm getting older and he's getting bigger and stronger. He just turned 14 and he's now 5' 11" and while only 145 pounds he's all muscle. The scary part is he's wearing a size 13 shoe so he will probably grow at least another 4 inches.

 

Between my older eyesight and reflexes and his maturity I'm not comfortable catching his bullpen sessions anymore, and when I throw batting practice I spend a lot of time ducking behind the L-screen so he doesn't take my head off.

 

Anyway, this winter we started working out at a local indoor baseball academy and he wanted to take some batting practice. As he's getting ready he sets up his phone to what I thought was taking video of his work out. But he corrected me and said he was live streaming his session on Instagram. I told him I could see making a video and then analyzing it to help him improve, but I wasn't sure what the point was of live streaming it so a handful of friends could watch for a few minutes. It seemed silly to me, but I guess that's what teens do these days.

 

I was wrong. Really wrong.

 

As it turns out, a scout for the San Diego Padres watches his workout. Not only that, but the scout posted comments on my son's ability, followed him on Instagram, and told him he would keep checking in on him as he developed. Then a college recruiter from some college I never heard of complimented his swing mechanics and followed him as well. Then a handful of college players paid him complements on his hitting ability.

 

Back in my day you had to hope your coach knew some recruiters or scouts and begged them to show up at your games or at least hoped a scout was in town watching another kid. But this social media has changed everything. In one session he got more exposure as an 8th grader than most high school sophomores and juniors, at least back in my day. I guess I'm old school, but I thought it was amazing.

 

 

Cool

Sweet.

 

Nice!