I started playing college baseball in the Fall of 2008, and I, to this day, have carried the word FACE with me every time I step on the baseball field. Rob Avila, who was the Head Coach at Palm Beach Atlantic University, at the time, made this the motto of our team that year. F.A.C.E is an acronym we will get into in just a second, but the make up of FACE is what you can control EVERYTIME you are on the baseball field. Baseball is full of variables and aspects we cannot control (the umpire, a bad hop, a diving catch, etc), but there are 4 aspects of a player’s game he can control EVERY DAY to help him stay on the radar of College Coaches. If you can learn control these four traits, you will find yourself on a lot of college coaches radars.
F – FOCUS
You can always control how focused you are in practice, in game, on deck, between innings or even in the dugout. It is so easy for players to lose focus in the game of baseball because there is so much down time between each pitch, each at bat and each inning. The main reason people don’t like to watch baseball is because they are constantly losing focus. If you can stay focused through the entirety of a game (using this as an example because this is where scouts see you), then coaches will notice that. What do you think the coaches are doing between pitches? They’re looking around the field/dugout to see what YOU are doing in the downtime until the next pitch is thrown. Are you moving your feet based on the swing? Are you positioning yourself in the outfield based on the count? Are you focused on deck trying to see if a pitcher is tipping his pitches? If you can remain laser focused throughout the game, your Baseball IQ goes up and your game will go up. STAY FOCUSED.
A – ATTITUDE
Players wear their emotions on their sleeves, but this is a double-edged sword because you can either show your butt or you can show your character. Coaches are looking for how you interact with your teammates, coaches, parents, umpires, etc., because they know it is a direct reflection of your attitude towards the game. Do you look your coach in the eyes when he’s speaking to you? Do you speak to your teammates with respect? Do you walk with your head down? Do you sprint on and off the field? These are all huge indicators of your attitude toward the game of baseball. To this day, I still don’t understand watching a player have a bad attitude on the baseball field because they are playing a kids game, and, to me, if a player has bad attitude, they need to chose another sport because they have lost all the fun in the game.
C – CONDUCT
9 times out of 10, when I cross a player off my list it is because he does not know how to conduct himself on the baseball field. We have an extremely limited amount of scholarships and I am not going to waste one or part of one on a player who has bad conduct. Baseball is a game of failure. You chose to play this game, so accept this FACT right off the bat (pun intended). 10 times out of 10 players who conduct themselves poorly on the baseball field do so over something they had ZERO CONTROL over (a missed call, a bad hop, a diving catch on a ball smoked in the gap, an opposing player talking smack, etc.). If you as a player cannot control these situations, why get upset when they happen? Why throw a helmet or a bat? Why talk back to an umpire or a coach? The baseball field isn’t the court of law where you get to plead your case. When I see players conduct themselves in a poor manner, I know they do not know how to handle their emotions, and baseball is FULL of emotion. Control them! A tip I use to help my conduct on the field as a coach and formerly as a player is to have 5 seconds of highs and 5 seconds of lows then let it go!
E – EFFORT
You can always give your best effort. You may not always perform the way you want, but you can always give 100% every time you step on the field. I hear from the coaches of players I recruit often say “if he has a bad first at bat, then the rest of the game is going to be bad as well.” This tells me the player is not controlling his effort every second of the game. Players need to have the ability to accept failure and move on from it, not let it affect the rest of their game. My high school football coach told me during a game when I had dropped 2 passes in a row (I did not drop passes hardly at all) that “the greatest players have amnesia.” Forget what just happened and give it your best the very next play. Don’t let one pitch, at bat, booted ball, etc. affect your effort for the rest of the game. Coaches have learned to see effort. Can you grind out an at bat when the first two pitches were called a strike and everyone knows they were a ball, or do you cash it in as the umpires fault? Effort is giving 100% of what you have regardless of what happens to you or around you!
F.A.C.E. is something that I have carried with me for 12 years now, and I have not forgotten it. I have realized, in baseball, there are a lot of things that we cannot control, and a lot of times all we focus on. I challenge those of you who read this to change your narrative. Next time you step out on the field don’t focus on what you can’t control, focus on the 4 things you can control and then watch what that does to your game!