How do you present as a ball player ?

 One of the changes in baseball that has occurred since I was still an active player is the proliferation of what I like to call "attachments" available to players at all levels. I'm talking about elbow guards, shin guards, sliding mitts, custom gloves, various styles of sunglasses, wrist wraps, bat grips, batting gloves, and cleat variations. Yes, some of these items were available a decade ago, but they were used sparingly, mostly for practical reasons. Today, they seem like a prerequisite for playing the game, and the more you have, the more "cred" you seem to gain, I guess.

Let me be clear; I have no problem with any of it. I think a lot of it is cool. I guarantee that if I were at the high school level or below, I too would have as many attachments as I could. What I'm here to say is that it might not be in the best interest of a player to gear up like Iron Man before stepping onto a baseball field. Let me explain.

You may have heard the expression "you never get a second chance to make a first impression." It's true in all areas of life, and if you've had any life experience at all, you know it to be true. Now, I don't think that people should make judgments based on a first impression, but the truth is, THEY DO! I'm guilty of it, and I'm sure you're guilty of it too. The truth is, it's hard to shake that first impression that someone may have left.

Just recently, a new player showed up to the field with every attachment previously mentioned. When I first saw him, my impression was, "Wow, this kid's a stud." I watched him play catch with his custom-colored mitt, and everything seemed alright; I was excited about the new addition. Then, he took to the field. The first ground ball hit to him, I saw the custom glove go down, and the ball popped out. A fly ball hit to him, and I saw the sun reflecting off the coolest pair of sunglasses a player could have, but then, he darted out of the way because it was too bright.

The other coaches and I were all thinking the same thing, "Here's some cocky kid who looks better than he plays." Now, I know that's probably not true; after all, he's just a kid for goodness sakes, and a teenage kid at that. He didn't put on all of his gear to make me think he's cocky or arrogant; he likely has no clue that his appearance is affecting our thoughts and his chance at making the team.

Here's what the decked-out appearance says to me as a coach. "I'm so good that I want to be the shiniest object on the field. I've taken care of all of the hours of hard work that it takes to be successful in this game, and I want people to notice." That might not be what the player is saying or wants to come off as, but it's the way the player is presenting himself nonetheless. I know from my own experience that the most difficult players to work with are the ones who think they've got it all figured out. If a player is wearing all of that gear and then shows that he needs a lot of help, my natural instinct as a coach is to recoil based on him presenting as the player who thinks he knows everything.

It turns out, after getting to know and talking to countless players who choose to wear all of the extra accessories, most of them have no clue that's how they come off and are not cocky or arrogant in the slightest. Maybe as a coach, I need to completely rid myself of the preconceived notion of the aforementioned stereotype; maybe. What I do know is that baseball is deeply rooted in tradition and filled with many gatekeepers who hold pride in those traditions. With the exception of elite talent, they will not be able to look past the way a player presents himself.

How many scholarship opportunities have been missed out on due to this? If a scout comes out to watch a player, and that player has a bad showing, it's not the end of the world. Scouts understand how hard this game is; they understand they may need to see more than just one game. They also understand that performance is just one aspect. How you carry yourself on the field when things aren't going well says a lot. Let's say you struck out in an important situation, and you're upset, but you grab your glove and run out to your spot along with the rest of your team. Now let's say the same thing happens, but he's got the bright pink lizard skin on his bat, or the cotton candy-colored cleats on, and his ice cream dripping elbow and shin guard, and his triple-strapped Bruce Bolt purple and green batting gloves, and now he's the last one out of the dugout onto the field because he's got to take all of that off. Can you see how that presents differently to someone who might not know that player?

Here's my advice to any high school player or younger. Do with it what you may. If you're going to have attachments, make sure they're your team colors or black. Anything outside of that screams that you think of yourself as an individual, not a member of the team, whether that's true or not. If you're not an extremely aggressive base runner, skip the sliding mitt. If you put one on and slowly make your way around the bases, I might assume you don't know the kind of player you are. Finally, please don't get your glove in a vibrant color. Get your laces done however you'd like, but don't get a bright pink glove. God forbid you miss a ball with that bright pink glove, and now your error feels like more than what it is.

I know that there are MLB players who do all of these things, but as I mentioned before, baseball is entrenched in tradition. It's very traditional in baseball to be okay with the most accomplished and talented players in the league drawing individual attention to themselves. Those players have, in some regards, earned the right to do so, just as much as they're inviting a higher level of scrutiny upon themselves from the fans, media, and organization. If I were a high schooler today and wanted to stand out the most, I would do so by wearing the least amount of attachments and let my ability speak the loudest, not my swag.