Player in Paradise at the Area Code Games

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Player in Paradise at the Area Code Games

A flock of scouts at the 2021 Area Code Games

I just came back from the baseball version of the Bachelor, or more accurately, Bachelor in Paradise (since there are multiple people on both sides trying to hook up). Granted, it was almost all men so there were no bikinis (thank God), and the setting was the University of San Diego baseball stadium instead of a beach, and the actual name of the show was the Area Code Games, a five day tournament organized by MLB scouts to showcase the best high school baseball players in the country. As the wife of a college baseball coach I’ve been scheduling our vacations around these games for years so when our son got invited to play for the A’s team this year I was excited to actually attend myself and see what all the hoopla is about.

Like Bachelor in Paradise (BIP), everyone there was looking for a connection. Players looking to be recruited or drafted, coaches looking to recruit players, scouts looking to draft players in next year’s MLB draft, agents looking to ‘advise’ players.

The physical attractiveness so crucial to BIP replaced by hard hit balls and 95 mph fastballs. The flirty personalities of BIP replaced by hustle and energy on the field.

Both are situations where the social rules are a little different. Where it is completely normal to walk up to someone you’ve never met and introduce yourself and say where you coach/work/play and get some information on what that person is looking for. It is expected even. It is disappointing if you don’t meet someone new.

The jockeying for the best players is like the competition for the prettiest woman or the studliest guy on BIP. The quieter ones are not completely invisible but maybe take a little longer to be noticed, college scouts knowing what player they could or couldn’t get.

The thing that struck me the most, walking around the event, is that the place was buzzing with wanting. Everyone goes to BIP wanting romance, wanting to find their person and likewise, everyone at the Area Code games wanted something. Wanted it a lot. Coaches and scouts and agents wanted players, players want to be drafted and/or recruited to college, parents want their sons’ dreams to be fulfilled.

Parents really want their sons’ dreams fulfilled.

First, because, you know, we love them.

Second, because we have invested a lot by this point in time. A lot of money on travel ball (the cost of the team, the flights, the hotels, the rental cars, the food on the road), on hitting lessons, on pitching coaches, on bats and gloves and elbow protectors and more bats. A lot of time driving to Lathrop or Glendale or Alpharetta, a lot of time sitting on stadium benches with no back support, a lot of time scrubbing that damn red dirt out of the pants in the hotel bathtub. All of that time and money is time and money not spent on other things. So yes, we are invested.

And this tournament is the big one, the place where the most coaches and scouts have converged at one time. Hard not to want something out of that. Hard not to want, at the very least, your son to show his abilities so that he isn’t disappointed. Every at bat, every ball coming his way in the field, breath held. At least that is how it was for me. I wanted him to enjoy the experience and I knew if he made mistakes that he doesn’t normally make, it would disappoint him.

In retrospect I think it was actually easier for him than me. He went into the weekend focused on appreciating the experience itself, not obsessed with what he could get out of it. He fairly successfully managed to ignore the fact that scouts and coaches were watching. He focused on enjoying playing on a team where every player had such a high level of skill. He reveled in it. He felt at home in it. He made friendships with his teammates and longs to play more with them. Every night he talked about how much fun he was having, how much he wanted to win with those guys not just show off his skills. So in the end, although he did make connections with coaches and scouts, the connection that fulfilled him in the moment, was being part of that team.

He is still uncommitted, still figuring out the best fit for college, and of course we all want that next step for him. It’s okay to want, but I am so happy to realize that the Area Code games were already a success for him because by ignoring the pressure to show well he played well and ended up just loving the actual playing of the game.

And I realize, that is what I actually want for him. Something he already has.

His love connection is with the game itself.

Player In Paradise.