How to earn playing time when sitting on the bench-Part One

This is a five part series about how I was able to play at the Division one level after sitting on the bench in Junior College for three years.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

It has happened to many baseball players. Good ones. Players sitting on the bench that deserve the right to be an every day starter and yet aren’t getting the playing time they deserve.

Dos this fit your present situation? Or maybe someone you know?

Do you feel like you could be making a better contribution to the line-up than half of the guys in there?

Are you frustrated?

Understand this….. you are not alone. It happened to me. I played three years of Juco ball. I sat on the bench for three years-with the last year having the most at-bats in any of my Juco seasons with around 25.

Thats not a lot.

I sat the bench, and I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I should of been an everyday starter. Not to brag or boast, but I had ability, and I believed I was capable of competing with anyone, and yet I was sitting.

Despite all of this, I never gave up. For majority of the games I was the first one to show up for early work and the last one to take some extra swings of the tee to avoid having my skills going dull after hours of being an observer.

I worked hard even though, no one was really counting on me.

I sat the bench for three years. A year later I was starting as a  D1 baseball player facing powerhouses like UCLA, Miami, Florida, USC, and OU.

I was a backup player for average Juco players and in less than a year I was playing against the best amateur players in the world.

This is how I did it.

How to earn playing time when sitting on the bench- Tip # 1

I was persistent and focused on a vision of myself as a baseball player.

There was nothing else that I wanted more than to play professionally, and my desire to improve was what truly allowed me to go through the discouraging experience of being a bench player for 3 years.

Regardless of all the disappointments that I experienced as a player early in my college career, I was able to withstand almost anything. I was persistent, and a bit too naive to quit.

If you are a player going through a similar, please understand that how you respond to this kind of adversity is completely a choice. You have a choice to be discouraged from your current situation or to continue to be motivated and persist on. If you can get to the point as a baseball player that you see exactly what you wan’t to get out of this game, and decide to focus solely on that vision, there is very little that can get in the way of that intention.

Whether it’s playing time, and injury, or just a general lack of talent, if you can discipline yourself to focus on a vision of how you would like your baseball future to be, you will eventually pull through.