Have baseball players gotten faster or am I slowing down?

After the Abbotsford Merchant baseball team dissolved in 2020, I thought I’d be done with baseball for good. Or at least playing in the game. We had a couple of poor years in the Dairyland League and struggled to find guys who wanted to show up consistently.

It was understandable. A constant flow of players from the high school program is the best way to keep the team stocked full of players. I had stopped coaching high school in 2018 after I went to UW-Oshkosh to begin my journalism journey. It was tough to ask players to come play from high school teams when they didn’t know who the random guy was asking them to come play baseball during the summer.

We also weren’t very good and being stuck in a league that has teams that pull from bigger municipalities like Wausau, Marshfield, Stevens Point and even Wisconsin Rapids, we were never going to be able to compete with those teams.

That has all changed this summer after Ryan Bargender decided he wanted to get the team back rolling. The crop of high school players Bargender has cultivated has created a core group of guys that are very talented and motivated to be good at baseball.

The Merchants now have four or five guys from this year’s high school team that are the best players on the adult team. They play not only with the Merchants, but with a high school team that has two or three games a week as well. All in all, these kids are playing four or sometimes five games a week. A select few of them also participate in a fall baseball league and train with a baseball academy during winter.

That’s something that will absolutely pay dividends down the line. The more pitches you see, the better your hitting becomes. That’s why major leaguers spend time on the field in batting practice before games, time in the batting cage and time seemingly every single day taking swings. I think we all knew in high school that, in order to get better, you needed to practice. However, we didn’t have the know how or motivation that these kids do. We were told about baseball camps we could have attended and by no means did I do everything I could to be as good at the game as possible, but I think our opportunities were more limited. I think this is starting to sound like a sad story of me reminiscing on what could have been so I’ll turn it around. Playing with the Merchants again has been a joy. Watching these kids play and play well has been a pleasure and for the first time in a while, I’m excited to be a part of a baseball team.

One thing I know for certain: the game has gotten much quicker since the last time I played it. Or maybe I’ve just gotten slower. But regardless, it’s been a blast. Be sure to get out to Red Arrow Park to catch a game!

Speeding

Through

L

ife