John Means went unrecruited out of high school in Kansas, played junior college, transferred to West Virginia, and threw a no-hitter for the Baltimore Orioles in 2021. The video walks through his path and gives recruiting advice: build a realistic school list, make a short video, email coaches your summer schedule, and hit college camps if they're interested.
Questions this video answers
May 5, 2021.
June 1 (year implied 2021).
Three minutes or less.
2018.
Chapters
If I were to tell you there was a high school pitcher that wasn't recruited at the Division 1 level, wasn't recruited at the Division 2 level or Division 3 level, but went on to make it to the major leagues, the mlb, and not only do that through a no hitter, and not only do that, arguably the best no hitter there has ever been, it'd be pretty hard to believe, right? Hey, we're going to get into that and also steps that we need to be taking right now in recruiting to set ourselves up for this summer, in this fall, because it is going to be prime for recruiting. Let's get into it. Hey guys, Alex Swenson here real quick. If you get anything from this video, please select that thumbs up, that like button and subscribe. I'd really appreciate it. I put out a weekly video on recruiting, baseball, specific topics and how to just better ourselves on and off the field. All right, let's get into it. On May 5, 2021, John Means threw a no hitter for the Baltimore Orioles. And a heck of a no hitter. One of the greatest no hitters that there has ever been. And we will get into that here in a minute. But John Means is an inspiration, especially to us, especially if we're going through the recruiting process right now, especially if we're not super confident in us, ourselves or this recruiting process. Because John Means told in the New York Times after his no hitter of how he had to really fight through self confidence and how he had to do that is just through development, development and development, meaning just trying to get better and better and better and develop his pitches, develop his fastball, develop his breaking ball and then slowly over time he gained confidence. So John Means is from Kansas, small town in Kansas, and as I mentioned earlier, was not recruited at any of the divisions. Okay. And went on to play junior college baseball, played junior college baseball and then went to Division 1 at West Virginia University where he ultimately got drafted out of West Virginia and made his way through the minor leagues and had his debut in 2018 for the major league team and continued to progress. He was a bullpen for the major league team and continued to progress, got better and better and ultimately became a starter in 2019, off and on as he worked and now in 2021 he is a full time starter and again just threw one of the greatest no hitters ever. Okay. And what is it? What is the greatest no hitter, no hitters and no hitter? Well, look at it this way, this is going to be compared to a perfect game because in the third inning he threw a pitch that it was a drop, third strike as you call it, right? But it got by the catcher, okay? And the hitter made it to first base, okay? So there goes the perfect game, all right? Already in the third inning, okay? But the catcher ultimately ended up throwing out that guy. And John means through to the minimum amount of batters you could in a game, which is 27, okay? In a perfect game you face 27 guys. So as no hitter, he faced usually, sometimes no hitter, a guy will get on a walk or an error or something like that, okay? And you face 28 or 29 guys, all right? But in this no hitter, it was 27 guys that he faced. And again it's going to go down because the guy that got on actually struck out. It wasn't a walk, it wasn't an error. Arguably it was an error on the catcher, but the catcher made up for it in a way to throw him out. So it is inspiration to us all. I think of it as the, the four minute mile. Okay? Bannister, who ran the four minute mile back in the 60s, I believe I'll have to look that up or somebody can correct me on that in the comments below. But nobody thought it could ever be done, right? Nobody thought a four minute mile could ever be done until Bannister did it. And then right after that a lot of guys started running sub four minute miles. Okay? I look at it this. You might not be confident in the recruiting process right now. You might be lost in the recruiting process right now, okay? You might not be recruited to Division 1, Division 2, Division 3, but you go and play junior college, you can still make it. This guy is an inspiration to, to a lot of us, okay? So hey, look into this guy. Watch this guy. He is, he is awesome. He's fascinating. The New York Times did a great article on him and he talked about his self confidence and how low it was, especially in high school and even in college, and how he had to develop and develop and develop to build his self confidence. And it takes time, right? He had to work on getting better and better and better through that. Okay, look him up. And now let's get into recruiting specifics for this summer and fall. So as some of us know, on June 1st, the dead period drops for division one, okay? Which means college coaches and scouts can come out and watch players play games where they haven't been able to do this in over a year and they haven't been able to invite players on that they like to their campuses, show them around, give them tour, tours, etc. That all stops June 1st. So how are we preparing for this? Okay? Because we need to prepare for this. Do not just sit back and hope it happens and hope somebody finds you. That is not the way to go about this. Okay? You need to be proactive. You've heard me say this before. Be proactive. Go out and recruit the coaches that you guys are interested in, okay? Be realistic with your school list, okay? And that needs to start there. Hand, hey, have a school. Is which schools are you interested in? Which schools fit you? Okay? And start targeting those, okay? Then from there, we need to have a recruiting video, a good recruiting video that shows our skill set, our best skill sets, whether it's a catcher, pitcher, middle, infield, or outfield or corner guy. Show your specific skill set and have that video. Three minutes or less. These coaches get a lot of videos and they don't have time to look at all of the videos that are sent to them that are five, eight, ten minutes. They're just not going to watch all of that. All right? But if it's short and concise, three minutes or less. That's all they need. Guys, these guys are really good at what they do, and they just want to see certain actions. Whether it's you pitching, hitting, fielding, throwing. They just need to see a few of those. Whether it's at a showcase type of setting or a game setting, those will do, okay? And then it's reaching out. The best way to contact these coaches is, and the best way to get exposure is by email. It is the way it is, okay? Sending email and sending our video and sending our summer schedule. Let these coaches know where you're going to be so they can come watch you. Super important, okay? So as we're gearing up to June 1st this month, okay, Go out and start putting that stuff together. Start putting your school list together. Start putting your video together. Start putting your email, email together and start sending it out to coaches so you can let them know where you're going to be. Okay? And, hey, maybe you can start some dialogue before them. A lot of these coaches are going to want to see you first, but then things can start rolling. And, hey, go to them if you have to. Go to college camps, if they've shown interest in you and you feel like you're a good fit for that organization, for that school and that program. Go to their camp, okay? There are camps out there that they recruit out of. Okay? These coaches recruit out of. Hey, I hope this helps. Helps. I hope you got something from this short video this week, and if you did, please click that like and thumbs up button and subscribe. I'll see you in the next video.
