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IvankasBathWater 2 points ago +2 / -0

That sucks. I walked on at UGA in 2003. I was thinking of how rough it would be on non scholarship players now.

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Mattdaking [S] 2 points ago +2 / -0

UGA for baseball? holy shit I'd love to talk to you about it

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IvankasBathWater 2 points ago +2 / -0

Sure man. Fire away.

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Mattdaking [S] 2 points ago +2 / -0

what set you apart from the other walk ons and the other players who were on the team with a scholarship?

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IvankasBathWater 2 points ago +2 / -0

Not enough to be honest. First of all I was a "preferred walk-on" for Coach Polk who left in the middle of the night for his beloved Mississippi State. Within a week or so the new coach David Perno had me and two others in his office and basically told us he would not be able to honor Coach Polk's promises and that we would have to earn it like the rest of the walk-ons. Situation got worse with him when I red flagged one of my physicals with a heart palpitation on my ekg. I called him to tell him I was temporarily medically restricted and he lost his shit on me. Couldn't believe I "didn't have the respect to come tell him in person." I actually thought I was being respectful considering he had just taken the job and was surely busy. Few weeks later he cut me and that was that. I'm sure he would've liked me to come grovel and find out how I could get better etc and maybe in retrospect I should've but I was young and prideful. Quite frankly I didn't like the guy and come to find out later nobody did. I remained friends with most of the younger players on the team throughout college.

Politics aside I was a switch hitting SS. Came in between two major leaguers (Jeff Keppinger and Gordon Beckham). My first day out there for optionals "Kep"(who had just been drafted) was out on the field taking bp with wood. That is the moment I realized the enormous difference between good ball players and big leaguers. He was smaller than me and was just effortlessly stroking 440ft bombs. Foley Fields dimensions are big and really only one or two right handed mashers would hit bombs in bp. That was with metal obviously.

What pos are you? Had any pro interest?