Categories: Minor Leagues

So, you think you can play professional baseball, huh? Well, here’s your chance

FDR Park in South Philly, known to locals as “The Lakes”, will host a Phillies open tryout on July 11, 2019. (michaelwm25)

You played sandlot ball growing up, or in the schoolyard or fields back in your old neighborhood. You were one of the better players on your Little League or rec league or local age-bracket league as a kid. In high school, you had some flashes of brilliance. Maybe even dominated your league at times.

So, you’ve always thought to yourself, “I wonder if I could make it in the pros?”

I mean, okay, maybe you don’t think that you could hit big-league pitching. As Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) said in “Bull Durham“: “They throw ungodly breaking stuff in The Show. Exploding sliders.”

But maybe you’ve seen your fellow 18-20 year-olds playing on the back fields in Clearwater while visiting Phillies spring training and felt that you could compete with them.

Or maybe you’ve attended a rookie-league game up in Williamsport, or a Low-A game in Lakewood and thought that you could have made that play. You could hit the right cutoff man. You could throw as hard as that pitcher, or with better command.

Maybe you were actually pretty good in high school or college, but you just never got noticed. Or you stunk on the days that scouts were watching. Or you got hurt, missed some amount of time, but are healthy now.

Well, if you really think that you have a shot, then now is the time to put up or shut up. Over the next six weeks or so, the Philadelphia Phillies will be holding seven different tryout camps. Four of those will be held in Philly as well as at the locations of their area minor league clubs. Three will be held down south in Texas.

Per the team: Tryout camps are open to players ages 15-23. There is no fee. Registration will be done 30 minutes prior to the start of camp. All players must bring their own equipment and water.

Here are the dates, times, and locations:

The June 20 (tomorrow – Thursday) camp at Coca-Cola Park will be a limited indoor workout with registration starting at 9:30 a.m. and camp

starting at 10 a.m..

The July 11 camp is at FDR Park, which for those unfamiliar with South Philly is located just two blocks west of Citizens Bank Park, across from the Philadelphia Eagles’ NovaCare Complex on Pattison Avenue.

Back in 2015, Bill Bavasi, director of the Major League Baseball Scouting Bureau and a former big-league general manager, was quoted as part of a nice piece that is worth a read by Danny Wild at MiLB.com on players looking for a way into affiliated ball:

“There’s no end of showcases or games or independent leagues; there’s so many opportunities to play baseball. That’s besides 30 teams having six or seven of their own teams. There’s tons of baseball opportunities. I think the independent leagues are probably the best non-affiliated situation you could get with, no doubt about that.”

Here is one of those chances, all you wannabe’s. Go for it!