My Story…
I am not a baseball guy, or least I wasn’t 15 years ago when my three boys started playing baseball. Sure I was big into sports growing up in Nebraska were I played just about every sport under the sun. It seems the only sport I didn’t play in an organized fashion was youth baseball. It’s not baseball fault, but rather it was an issue of scheduling because track and baseball were both spring sports and my friends and I wanted to be Olympians not Major Leaguers. Dare I say Bruce Jenner was my idol growing up. Boy have times changed.
I am telling you all this because when my three boys were growing up the only sport that registered on their radar was baseball. Of course, the only sport they pick is the one I didn’t play growing up. If that wasn’t enough, I had moved to Chicago before they were born which meant I had no clue who to call when it came time to fix their swings or to teach them the finer aspects of pitching. Probably the most daunting task was trying to find local travel teams looking for players. In those days, many teams kept their tryouts private so you needed to know someone to get an invite. Talk about catch 22.
Well, my boys and I made it through the youth baseball experience with more than our share of great memories. Best of all, I developed a passion, or as my wife calls it an obsession, for youth baseball. I also found my mission in life which is assisting people going through the youth baseball experience. Towards this end, I created BaseballConnected with the hope that I could help people get better connected to their baseball community, thus the name of the website.
Isn’t it funny how life presents you with an opportunity when you least expect it. For me, it was when my boys decided to play a sport I knew very little about.
Sincerely,
John Irwin
Founder – BaseballConnected LLC
Chief Cook & Bottle WasherWiley pitching during a high school game.
Tyler showing off his swing before a travel team game.
Avery learning to catch during a Little League game.
