Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Overcoming the Bench: A Baseball Guide to Players, Coaches & Parents
    Overcoming the Bench: A Baseball Guide to Players, Coaches & Parents
    Overcoming the Bench: A Baseball Guide to Players, Coaches & Parents
    Ebook122 pages1 hour

    Overcoming the Bench: A Baseball Guide to Players, Coaches & Parents

    By Bobby Brown

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Gifted from a young age to play baseball, Bobby Brown longed for the opportunity to be in the MLB. With the support of his parents, Bobby's talents flourished, and he became one of the best players in San Diego. He played at one of the toughest high school programs in the country under Head Coach - Sam Blalock at Rancho Bernardo High School. Bobby's success in High School led him to the University of Arizona, where he learned he was not the only player with talent. Little did Bobby know, he would not get an opportunity to be an everyday starter until his fifth, and final year where his team won the 2012 College World Series. His success in his final year in college led him to sign a professional contract with the Kansas City Royals, where he played two minor league seasons. Though he is not playing anymore, Bobby is now giving back by coaching youth players. In his book, "Overcoming the Bench," Bobby tells a story of perseverance and commitment. Today, with so many athletes bouncing around from one school to the next, Bobby shows how hard work and patience will eventually pay off by sticking it out. Bobby also looks to educate parents and coaches on the two most difficult aspects of baseball, the mental side of the game, and hitting. In addition, he gives interesting insight in what it is like to play in the minor leagues, something not widely written about. Bobby hopes his story can help aspiring ball players achieve their dream of playing professionally one day.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateJul 24, 2020
    ISBN9781098318291
    Overcoming the Bench: A Baseball Guide to Players, Coaches & Parents
    Author

    Bobby Brown

    Bobby Brown is a singer, songwriter, dancer, producer, and actor. He lives in Los Angeles, California, with his wife and children.

    Read more from Bobby Brown

    Related to Overcoming the Bench

    Related ebooks

    Sports Biographies For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Peter Crouch

      Jul 3, 2023

      Peter Crouch
      6 min read

    • Article

      Life Of A Bagman

      Nov 11, 2021

      Life Of A Bagman
      6 min read

    • Article

      Bears Necessities

      Mar 8, 2022

      Bears Necessities
      10 min read

    • Article

      A New York love Affair

      Oct 14, 2021

      A New York love Affair
      6 min read

    • Article

      Commentary: In Defense Of Baseball In A Fast-paced, Screen-obsessed World

      Aug 23, 2018

      CHICAGO - Criticism directed at the game of baseball is on the rise. From the introduction of the MLB's so-called "pace of play" initiatives to reports that millennials aren't interested in baseball, America's favorite pastime has been under siege. B

      4 min read

    • Article

      Ruck Star

      Jul 3, 2022

      Ruck Star
      11 min read

    • Article

      One Step Removed

      Oct 13, 2019

      One Step Removed
      2 min read

    • Article

      Interview: John Dillinger

      May 21, 2020

      Interview: John Dillinger
      7 min read

    • Article

      ‘I Could Lose My Best U.s. Player Title At This World Cup’

      Nov 25, 2022

      AGE: 40 POSITION: Forward TEAM: U.S. Men’s National Team, LA Galaxy (among others) CLAIM TO FAME: Considered the greatest U.S. men’s soccer player of all time, with numerous records in both international and club play PERSONAL: Part of the HEROES ros

      5 min read

    • Article

      Edwina Bone

      Aug 14, 2019

      Edwina Bone
      3 min read

    • Article

      Aaron Pike

      Dec 16, 2020

      Aaron Pike
      3 min read

    • Article

      Super Hooper

      Oct 1, 2019

      Super Hooper
      6 min read

    • Article

      Leader Of The Pack

      Oct 24, 2023

      Leader Of The Pack
      2 min read

    • Article

      Football’s Larrikin

      Apr 24, 2020

      Football’s Larrikin
      4 min read

    • Article

      Unique outlook

      Mar 5, 2021

      Unique outlook
      7 min read

    • Article

      Words Of Wisdom

      Nov 16, 2023

      Words Of Wisdom
      7 min read

    • Article

      David Ross

      Apr 16, 2022

      David Ross
      2 min read

    • Article

      Fara Williams

      Jul 31, 2023

      Fara Williams
      5 min read

    • Article

      Scott Hend Unplugged

      Aug 19, 2020

      Scott Hend Unplugged
      8 min read

    • Article

      John Mcenroe

      Jul 4, 2022

      John Mcenroe
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Overcoming the Bench

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Overcoming the Bench - Bobby Brown

      Overcoming the Bench

      A Baseball Guide to Players, Coaches & Parentss

      Bobby Brown

      ISBN (Print Edition): 978-1-09831-828-4

      ISBN (eBook Edition): 978-1-09831-829-1

      © 2020. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

      www.bobbybrownbaseballco.com

      Table of Contents

      Foreword

      Introduction

      1 Freshman Year

      2 Redshirt Freshman Year

      3 Redshirt Sophomore Year

      4 Redshirt Junior Year

      5 Redshirt Senior Year

      6 College World Series 2012

      7 Kansas City Royals

      8 What I Learned

      9 Overcoming the Bench

      10 Being A Student Athlete

      11 Dealing With Failure

      12 The Game

      13 Coaching

      14 Mechanics of the swing

      15 Being a Pure Hitter

      16 Coach Lopez

      Foreword

      I dedicate this foreword to Bruce, Bobby, Bradley and Britts. Thank you for giving me, The time of my life.

      My son asked me to write the foreword for his book. Where do you start? I could start when he was 4 years old and I took him to the park and we were playing catch. I beaned him right in the nose and he said he never wanted to play baseball again. Ironically, what he said a few months later while we were watching a Padre game in San Diego, he said, I will be there someday. I thought nothing of it until….14 years later.

      I would tell parents that have a child with a special talent to get ready for a wild ride. I’m not talking about a child that does well at something. I’m talking about a child that you already know that he/she is a freak. You will spend more money than you have to help them achieve whatever that greatness will be. You will refinance your house, put 350 thousand miles on your SUV so you can hang on to the journey. There is nothing to prepare you for this. Starting at the age of 11 or earlier, every other weekend you will be in some other town for a tournament while your child balances little league and school. If you are good enough you will be asked to play on a pro Scout team. We did that for 2 years during the week and on weekends. Bobby doing his homework in the car for the 2 hour ride each way from San Diego to LA and back was common.

      And if that is not enough, he played International baseball for 2 summers. If your child ever gets the opportunity to play International ball, do it. You meet players, parents and coaches from all over the world. Even though we mostly could not communicate, we did so with baseball. The pin trading and jersey trades were so much fun. I actually think the parents enjoyed the pin trading more than the kids. The jerseys that we have from other countries are priceless.

      If your child is a freak, you will have coaches fight over your child. There is the potential for the parents to be jealous. Don’t be a part of their drama. This is why we always sat beyond the outfield fence and almost never in the stands. It likely fueled them, but we did not want to be a part of that. We were fortunate to be a part of this team that had no such drama and jealousy when Bobby was around 12. With this team we played a tournament in Colorado with 64 teams and we placed 9th. We only had 9 players for this particular tournament. No one could get hurt and everyone had to pitch. Pretty amazing and I have to say it was really fun to run rule the other teams by the 4th inning.

      Don’t forget about those hitting instructors to tweak this or that to prevent the, dare say it, ‘slump.’ I tried never to mention the ‘S’ word. Too much pressure. I felt my role was to keep everything organized, supportive and be the ‘safe island’ in the middle of this madness. Be aware some head coaches will try to change your kids swing causing contradictory information to the hitting instructors’ philosophy.

      We figured that Bobby played around 1,500 games before he set off on his journey at the University of Arizona.

      My thoughts on college are this, if you’re lucky to get a scholarship it likely won’t be much. Do not expect a big one. There are only 11.7 scholarships available for each DI Team. So do the math. 35 players and 11.7 scholarships. If you can get an academic scholarship to help great, but do not count on this. When Bobby’s team went to the College World Series and won, we financially could not attend. Just not a dime left in the coffers. Watching on TV from home was not the same, but still an amazing thing to see your kid hit a home run in the Series and become,1st Team All-Tournament DH.

      You will have many ups and downs. Anyone that knows baseball at all knows that there is lot of failure. Try not to ever get to high or too low. It’s impossible though. After a rough tournament or game, my husband would go over and over and over what went wrong. Blah blah blah….Sometimes it was just too much and I would cry. Then I would think to myself, why am I getting so upset over a game? There is no crying in baseball…..right?

      One thing I know is that quite a number of coaches and scouts get hooked on some kid and that kid gets drafted. Many of those kids are generally oozing with talent, but lazy. I guess they are hoping for the so called upside. The whole thing is really just a big guess. And boy do they get it wrong when they get it wrong. It seems that some do not do their homework on a kid. When you are around baseball all the time you know all the players. Some kids have a ton of talent but are miserable to be around. Bad attitudes can ruin a team. Try not to get too pissed off about this. Life is not fair. Bobby did not get drafted, but you will read in this book that Bobby did have the opportunity and was signed as a free agent by the Kansas City Royals. The key is just having the opportunity.

      The journey is more than just baseball. It teaches the players and their parents about life. Make this a family journey. I always tried to have our other 2 children feel special too and all the traveling together makes for so many family memories. The long drives, double headers in 120-degree heat, the spectacular wins, making sandwiches at 80 MPH in the car and the family time at the hotels is priceless. We turned many of the trips into mini vacations, sightseeing; and visiting family along the way. Who doesn’t want to see the world’s biggest thermometer, pan for gold, visit the oldest water tower in some city or play I Spy in the desert?

      I am thankful for Bruce’s (Bobby’s father) extensive knowledge about baseball. Having played the game through college and semi pro, he was able to navigate, ‘the ropes’ of the game where I could not. When it’s all over you

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1