Daily KPB| Are You a Good Teammate? - a podcast by Keep Playing Baseball

Daily KPB

This episode mirrors our written article with the same title. You can read that article here. Here's what we discuss:

 At some point during your college baseball recruitment, an interested college coach is going to turn to your high school or travel coach and ask some variation of the same questions: are you a good teammate? 

If you want to play college baseball, the answer to that question better be a resounding yes. If it isn't, you've got work to do. In this podcast episode, we talk about why that questions always comes up, why it's so important, and why if you want to get the most you can out of baseball and go as far as you can, being a great teammate is priority #1. 

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Are you a good teammate?”

Stop right now and consider that question for yourself. How do you grade out as a teammate? What kind of teammate are you? How would your coach describe you to an interested recruiter? If the answer is anything less than rave reviews, you have work to do. Being a good teammate is rule number one, and if your coach lets on that you are anything less than a good teammate, your recruitment will likely end right there on the spot. There are many boxes a recruit must check off to be seriously considered by a program, but there are only a few question marks that will make a coach red line (cross off) a recruit on the spot. The previously mentioned social media and academics are among these important questions, but even those provide more wiggle room than the teammate question.

In a sport where team culture is talked about almost as much as launch angle, there simply is no room for guys who are going to give anything less than 100% support for the guys next to them on the bench and in the field. Do bad teammates slip through the cracks and end up on college rosters? Sure. Do they get as much out of the college baseball experience? Definitely not. Baseball is a team game, and there is nothing more detrimental to the success of the team than an “I” guy. Coaches seek out energy giving players and there is a place on every college baseball roster for a player whose skills may be a tick below par, but who is a phenomenal team guy, brings positive energy and work ethic every day, and is loved by his teammates. You also won’t have to look far to find examples of college baseball teams performing beyond their capabilities because they love being around each other, pick each other up, and simply don’t want the season and experience to end. A tweet by former William Jessup Head Coach, Jake McKinley captures this idea to perfection after leading their team to the best season in program history. 

He posted a team picture and said, " Teamwork driven by love creates unique momentum that can’t be quantified. Truly an honor to be a part of @Jessup_BASE and @JessupAthletics."

When the wins and losses are tallied up at the end of the season, all you are left with are the relationships that you created and the lessons learned.  College baseball is about creating this unquantifiable synergy with teammates. If you aren’t being the best teammate you can be, the time to change that is now. Not just because it will help you get recruited or help your team win, but because on the most important level, it’s what will give you the most out of this great game and allow you to create meaningful relationships and memories that last a lifetime. 

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