June 12, 2014
University of Notre Dame baseball rising senior Phil Mosey is playing summer league baseball this year with the Redding Colt 45’s of the Far West League in Redding, Calif. As of June 12, the Fishers, Ind., native has played in eight of his team’s nine games, and is first on the team in RBI (9), tied for first in home runs (2), third in average (.387), tied for third in runs (7) and fourth in hits (12). He also pitched for the first time in his summer-league career and allowed only one hit and a walk over three innings while striking out five to pick up the win. A film, television and theatre major in the College of Arts & Letters, Mosey has graciously offered to keep a blog all summer and share his summer ball experiences with the Notre Dame fans. Below is his first blog entry.
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The life of a college baseball player is one of repetition, routine and time management. A full time school schedule paired with 50-plus games in a regular season makes for a busy spring. Although each school and program surely offer different experiences and opportunities, one is likely to find that the majority of players’ experiences are very similar within the school season.
What those who are less familiar with college baseball might not know is that while the majority of a university’s sports teams are taking summer classes and perfecting their athletic craft on campus, college baseball players are shipped all over the country to participate in collegiate summer baseball leagues. These wood bat leagues can be found in practically every region of the U.S., and serve to simulate a minor league schedule and style of play. While a 54-game regular season at the NCAA level takes over 3 months, a 50-60 game summer ball season typically takes less than 65 days. Along with the grind of playing nearly every day comes the newfound responsibility of living away from school and having to manage one’s time, nutrition and weight training properly.
Over the course of the coming weeks this blog will serve as an inside look at collegiate summer baseball and all the adventures and new experiences that come with it. In all, summer ball can provide players with enormous growth, on and off the field, as well as unlikely friendships that never would have been formed without the unique brotherhood of summer ball.
–Phil Mosey, Notre Dame Baseball #33, Infielder
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