After the college baseball season, most players go and play in summer leagues to stay fresh or make up for the at-bats or innings they didn’t get during the season.
So when the 2020 season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Towson interim coach Miles Miller started planning to get his players ready for summer baseball.
“When the season first got canceled, I thought we’d send everyone out to summer ball,” Miller said. “Some pitchers don’t usually throw because of innings limits. [But] they need to play and they were getting baseball taken away from them.”
As the pandemic continued, Miller started to adjust his plans. According to Baseball America’s summer league tracker, 14 leagues have canceled their seasons, and another 12 leagues have postponed their start dates. Miller hoped to get as many players as possible playing in leagues by July 1, but he knows the majority of his team won’t be able to play summer ball.
“If nobody plays … we’ll adjust again and get everyone ready for the fall,” Miller said. “We’ll readjust a few times and we’ll probably have to readjust again. We’re trying to be flexible and communicate to our guys to get them ready to play when the time comes.”
The coordination that makes these summer leagues possible goes well beyond the games on the field. Players sign agreements to play in leagues well before the season starts. Teams partner with the local community to find host families for players coming in from out of town. That puts these leagues on a tight timeline, as travel plans are set months in advance.
Maryland rising junior Maxwell Costes signed an agreement to play for the Brewster Whitecaps in the Cape Cod League, which is known as the top collegiate summer league in the country, in September 2019. His older brother, Marty, who also played for the Terps, played for the same team in the summer of 2017 and currently plays in the Houston Astros organization.
After winning Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 2019, Maxwell looked to be on his way to a stellar sophomore season, slashing .432/.620/.750 in 15 games. The first baseman is rated the No. 34 collegiate prospect for the 2021 MLB Draft by Perfect Game.
While the Gilman graduate was looking forward to playing against some of the best players in the nation, he also wanted to make some memories off the field. Sharks are his favorite animal, and he was looking forward to seeing them in their natural environment.
“In Cape Cod they had sharks during the summer,” Costes said. “I was looking forward to going up and seeing them. Just forget the baseball — I was going up to see great white sharks.”
Towson rising junior Cam Clark thought he had his summer planned out in January. The Severna Park, Md., native was going to intern at Chesapeake Contracting Group during the day and pitch for the Gaithersburg Giants in the Cal Ripken League at night.
As a reliever, Clark uses summer baseball to make up for innings he doesn’t get during the season. He pitched just 9.2 innings in seven appearances for the Tigers, well short of the combined 40 he wanted to hit through the spring and summer.
“You use summer ball to pick up your innings going into the fall,” Clark said. “I needed actual on-the-field college experience. This year I was on track to pitch 40 innings so everything gets messed up.”
Some players, like Towson rising sophomore Burke Camper, are still holding out hope. The catcher is supposed to play for the New Britain Bees in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League this summer. Thus far, the league has delayed but not canceled the season. As he continues to work out and train through the uncertainty, he’s taking the lessons he learned with him from an unusual year.
Not only was the season canceled by a pandemic, but Towson head coach Matt Tyner went on leave days before the season was set to start when his wife, Laura, passed away from cancer.
“I’ve learned adapting is key,” Camper said. “College baseball is challenging and rewarding. [You need] to keep on working if you adjust and play the game. The biggest takeaway is making adjustments is key.”
In other cases summer league teams are trying to organize sandlot leagues. UMBC rising senior Keegan Leffler was supposed to pitch in the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League about 90 minutes away from his hometown of Wilton, N.Y. An owner of one of the teams in the league is looking to organize unofficial sandlot games for local players.
After taking a month off after the season ended, Leffler has started a throwing program in case he gets the chance to play again. If that doesn’t work out, Leffler will look to do anything he can to hit his innings target after pitching just eight innings as a reliever this year.
“I just need to start and continue to throw bullpens and catchers around my area and live batters as possible to hit my inning goal,” Leffler said.
As the uncertainty lingers on, everyone is doing the best they can to be ready and try to be better than they were before the pandemic. For Camper, that means working out at a local gym and using a pitching machine to work on his defense as a catcher. For Clark, that means continuing Towson’s weightlifting program at home and throwing with his older brother, Brendan, who played for the Tigers from 2016-2017. For Costes, that means not just working on defense for a possible switch to third base, but honing in the mental side of the game.
For a game in which just a small advantage can lead to big improvements, finding any edge is important, even in unusual circumstances.
“I feel like this is a good time to work on the mental part of baseball more than the physical,” Costes said. “It’s all about using your time efficiently. Let’s say we’re lucky and get to go back to school in September. The next three months, if I don’t think about keeping myself in a calm, positive mindset, I feel like I would’ve wasted my time.”
Photo Credits: Courtesy of Maryland and Towson Athletics, UMBC Athletic Communications
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