Baseball: Multiple-sport athletes wanted

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Yes, there’s a trend for athletes to specialize in a single sport, but Eddie Bane, the director of scouting for the Angels, says in an e-mail that his organization and others ‘encourage young men to play as many sports as possible. We like to see these quality athletes that play football, basketball, soccer, golf or whatever sport they are attracted towards.’

That’s great to hear, because there are too many high school baseball coaches demanding their players to devote too much year-round time to baseball.

Bane says, ‘One of my first questions to my scouts is, ‘What kind of athlete is this guy?’ I want the player to be able to have a lot of skills, and those skills are not enhanced by getting on a travel team from the time they are 13 years old and playing baseball year round. I believe that really limits an athlete when they specialize that young.’

Bane says he and other scouts enjoy going to high school football games to watch the skills of a potential baseball prospect. ‘It is a great scouting tool to see these guys and how they handle themselves on a big stage like they have in high school football,’ he said.

So there you have it. Don’t let the travel coaches influence you into playing baseball year-round if that’s not what you want to do.

-- Eric Sondheimer