Serpentine Draft

Editor’s Note – This is the second in a two-part series inspired by the start of the spring baseball season.

When last we spoke, “Little Johnny” was stepping up to the mark to begin his youth baseball tryouts. Talk about a BIG moment.

Fourteen head baseball coaches, aided by 14 assistant coaches, were all assembled to watch him show his stuff. His moment in the spotlight was aided by the efforts of those same coaches and volunteers who helped to set up the tryouts as well as encouraging parents who got him to that point in time.

His name was called. His number was called. He stepped to the line. Ready-Set-Go.

Johnny’s tryout for his age-appropriate league lasted less than five minutes. When Johnny was done, everyone applauded and then Jimmy Smith stepped up. His number was called. Ready-Set-Go, it was time for him to start.

And so the process would go for the better part of three hours.

Soon, the numbers would trickle. One or two late arrivals would come in and round out the day’s action. Eventually, the appointed time for tryouts would come and go.

At a set time, the coaches and commish would reconvene – sometimes on-site; other times they’d go elsewhere – to pick the teams. I always liked my teams.

The process of selecting the teams was fairly complicated (by design).

As I explained yesterday, coaches were allowed to keep a certain number of protected players or ‘base players.’ In the case of the 7-Under league (referred to as ‘Machine Pitch’), the protected list would consist of four players. In 8-Under, the number would increase to five; for 10-Under (and above) rec leagues, it would top out at six.

The coaches would call out their list of base players and those names and numbers would be crossed from the master list that each coach received from the Commish.

The next order of business was for coaches to draw lots to see where they would pick in terms of the draft order.

In the case of the above ’14 team league,’ the first round would go, obviously, from 1-14. But the baseball league employed a ‘serpentine style’ draft order. That meant round two would go in reverse order (from 14-1). Round three would return to the original 1-14 and so on. The rounds ‘wrapped’ or ‘alternated’ in reverse order until all the picks were made.

I always felt that the best place to be in this case was in the middle. That way, you wouldn’t be affected by the extremes of picking early or picking late in a round.

When it was time for Coach #1 to make his first pick, he’d say the name and number (just as we did when the players came through tryouts). “I pick Johnny Doe. Number 246.” Coach 2 would step up, then, and pick next and the order would go from there.

Head coaches would confer with assistants. They’d refer to their notes, either computerized or hand-written (score sheets that listed evaluation scores based on a number of factors).

This practice would continue until all the boys and girls who had tried out were selected. Then, you entered the ‘blind draw’ phase of the draft.

In order to prevent some coaches from trying to pull a fast one – trust me, some would try anything to get an edge – no kids could just skip the tryout and be picked in the regular phase. So, anyone not attending tryout for any reason went into the blind draw. Basically, that meant their forms were folded and put into a box and everyone pulled a form randomly (same draft order as before).

My ‘blind draw’ results were mixed over the years. Once, I pulled out a form for a player who was a great player. He helped us win some ballgames that season. Another time, I picked a kid who wound not playing. Literally, it was all over the place.

Finally, the last picks were made. The coaches would break down the equipment; box up supplies and be ready to head out.

My long-term assistant coach and I had a tradition of going to dinner afterwards and reviewing the proceedings. Who’d we pick? How’d we look? What were the prospects for the season ahead?

As the saying goes, everyone’s undefeated on opening day; everyone’s a champion. After draft day, I always felt our teams were champions. 

JG

Originally posted 2/26/2014