My son's team just started in earnest this past weekend. They have been working out all year, but Conference restricts "official" practice times. Received reports about intra-squad and controlled scrimmages which took place this weekend.

This is the first time I have not been able to watch and assess with my own eyes. It is quite an adjustment. I had the feeling of launching him in the Fall, but I never attended class with him or socialized with his friends, so that part of being away was just an extension of what had already been happening.

I find waiting to hear about on field activity to be nerve wracking. There I am taking the garbage out, realize its 2:20 and the game started at 2 and I start to wonder. As the day went on I kept wondering about when the call would come. It came at 5:34 on Saturday with a good report, its now 5:35 I've heard nothing, does that mean today was bad?

I know they truly are out on theri own, but I was just wondering how some of you vets handled that first year of hearing about rather than seeing son's play ball.

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I was just wondering how some of you vets handled that first year of hearing about rather than seeing son's play ball.

I won't lie to you, it is an adjustment. My wife and I were lost puppies for about two weeks when he moved out of the house four years ago and 750 miles away. Time does cure the sense of loss however...

As far as the reports, I used to try and read tea leaves but I really don't do that anymore. I pretty much leave the management of his baseball career up to him. He knows how important it is to us to call and let us know what is going on both in school and at the field. If he does not call, I have learned not to read anything negative into that. Most often, it is because he is busy doing homework and that is a pretty darned good excuse imho

What helps a lot if the school athletic department posts frequent updates on their website. My son's school has been excellent in that regard. Local newspaper coverage - although spotty at times has also been a blessing. The Internet is a godsend for long-distance parents

17 went away last summer to play travel ball. I have found that learning how to text with him gets much more information than ever talking in person. It seems that this generation is more comfortable with texting. Not that I like it this way, as I think a lot is lost in texting.

Backstop, I was going to recommend the same thing. Texting is the way to go. You still may have a delay in response but more apt to get an answer.

I think some of it has to do with they can be with their buddies and be texting you. No one knows who they are texting with because they all do it regularly. Folks around them could think its a girlfriend for all they know, and it has become such a common thing, they don't ask each other who they are communicating with.

Well, I don't know which is worse...being so far away that you can't know what is going on..or being just across town and knowing that "oh i can just drive by for a quick look to see how the scrimmage is going". It was nervewracking to KNOW too much. Son's college field was on the street that we would drive to pick up daughter..so we'd drive by and take a look. This was our case. Son would, maybe, call later on to tell us what happened. We'd spend way too much time guessing who's warming up or whatever...it was too far to really see anything..and Son was hard to pick out sometimes (his body had changed so much over the summer that I was having a hard time picking him out).
In the end, texting was the single best way to get anything out of him...you must learn the vernacular though..do not expect full sentences.

We are lucky enough to at least have Game Tracker available for all our freshman's games, however I heard it doesn't always work..how frustrating would that be, sons up to bat and POW...lost connection.....anyway I have also found text to be the way to communicate anytime except classes and practice. always seems to get a response, Mom is pretty jealous, she is not a texter (YET)

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pretty much leave the management of his baseball career up to him. He knows how important it is to us to call and let us know what is going on both in school and at the field. If he does not call, I have learned not to read anything negative into that.

Great words of advise!

Last year as freshmen parents who live far away and do not always have Game Tracker, it was agony waiting for that phone call. As a freshman parent, you have to be careful what you say and be aware that they may not have gotten into the game. Just keep reminding them that their time will come, etc. and do not put more pressure on them than they have on themselves.

We also learned that our son was often in the car after the game (or on the bus) with a bunch of players when he would call and he couldn't really tell us the whole story of the game. We learned for him to give us the score and a quick update and then to call us later when he was by himself and could go into detail. They act completely different talking to their parents with their friends around than by themselves.

This year it's not quite so bad waiting for that call. We did learn that he is truly in charge of his baseball and schoolwork = we are there in the wings to support him through the ups and downs.

Texting is wonderful - Diamond Dog = time for your wife to learn - maybe she needs a new phone? But they don't have their phones in the dugout for updates!

As far as father-son communications those were fine. We talked just about every day but we were always that way and had nothing to do with college or college baaseball. Text messages were common too.
But games were not fine. I hated to listen to the games on the radio (internet link) so I would always find something to do outside. My wife listened to every pitch and would come to door and give me a report. ON good games the phone would ring right after the game ----- on bad games the phone wouldn't ring. Gametracker was terrible. Living in the country, dial up was the only thing available ----- "Buffering" is a bad word for a baseball parent!!

Not sure if it helps but one of my secrets was to get information from a parent of another player, she always seemed to know more than I did, when we travel now to games, if a parent does not travel with us we give them our cell phone no and we share information as the game goes on, bad or good, as we know how it is not to be there. So somehow connect with another parent who goes to more games than you and/or the scrimmages. Agree with the texting, amazing how that works! Most importantly, is "tincture of time." Our son is now a Jr. First year was ... don't come to scrimmages even though we are 25 miles away, don't call, and when he did call said "was okay." Everything was always just "okay." Sophomore year he actually learned a few more words in communicating (amazing how much he learned in college!) and even acknowledged had a parent at the game (most of the time unless he played bad) and by his Jr. year would ask us if we were going to the scrimmage that day, would hang around to speak with us at the games we attended and would sometimes call as soon as he got on the bus. The most amazing thing about a son who plays college baseball is to see him turn into a man (and acknowledge he was not put on this earth by aliens

Most all my son's team's action occurs while I am sound asleep.......unless I want to wake up at 3am for a webcast.

We keep in touch with everything via MSN chat....he can multi-task while chatting, which would be hard to do on a phone. It works well for us.