FORT MYERS, Fla. – Just over a week ago, 2019 right-handed pitcher Jack Leiter from Summit, N.J., made his Perfect Game showcase debut at the PG Sunshine Northeast Showcase in Elizabeth, N.J. The 5-foot-10, 160-pound, 16-year-old Leiter wasn’t cowed by the event, having played in eight PG WWBA, PG BCS and PG Super25 tournaments since June of 2014.
Excited by the opportunity, Jack Leiter went out and showed an 85 mph fastball that sat 82-85 mph, a 69 mph curveball and 76 mph slider. The performance was impressive enough to earn him a spot on the PG Sunshine Northeast Showcase Top Prospect List along with an invitation to the 2016 PG Junior National Showcase, which began the third day of its four-day run Monday morning at jetBlue Park.
Now, Jack Leiter was really excited. He got together with his dad, former major league pitcher Al Leiter, and the two decided that the young Leiter should be at jetBlue on Monday. Jack is reaching the age and the point of his career – he will be a sophomore at Delbarton High School in Morristown, N.J., in the fall – where a competitive atmosphere means the world to the young man.
“There’s definitely a lot of great competition here,” Jack Leiter said from the third base dugout at jetBlue Park Monday morning. “It’s just a great overall experience with nice fields and nice weather. I really look forward to (enjoying) the competition; just pitching against these guys is a good time.”
This world of showcases is a much different world from the one the now 50-year-old Al Leiter came of age in. The New York Yankees selected Al in the second-round of the 1984 MLB Amateur Draft right out of Central Regional High School in Bayville, N.J.
Leiter was a top prospect and was heavily scouted and recruited by both colleges and MLB teams. He recalled, however, that the extent of that scouting more than 30 years ago involved the scouts and recruiters coming to the players’ hometown to watch them play.
“This (PG showcase) service has allowed that process to become more streamlined because now there’s one location; that’s a good thing,” Al Leiter told PG Monday morning. “Everything that I’ve seen Perfect Game do is first class. Obviously, the facilities that they use, the process of trying to evaluate talent as best you can in a couple of hours, is all solid. It gives college coaches an opportunity to see kids that are clearly into it, clearly love it, with families that clearly understand that.
“The opportunity for the more motivated better players that can get to a place like this, I can only imagine if I was 16 as a rising sophomore, this would be awesome,” he continued. “… Once you’re here it’s great and with Perfect Game, I don’t know of any other service that does a better job.”
The scouts and college recruiters in attendance – Jack Leiter is uncommitted – saw another impressive performance from the young Leiter on Monday. His fastball reportedly touched 86 for the first time and he looked to be in control of himself, something PG scouts had seen not only at last week’s Sunshine Northeast but in his previous tournament appearances.
He played in five PG Super25 tournaments in 2014-15 with the Jersey Boyz Scout Team. He played in four more traditional PG tournaments last summer and fall: The 16u PG BCS Finals, the 16u PG WWBA National Championship and the 16u PG EvoShield Classic with the Jersey Boyz; he was named to the all-tournament team at the EvoShield Classic. He also played at the PG WWBA Underclass World Championship with the Zoned RedHawks Elite.
“Those tournaments are awesome,” Jack said. “Again, it’s good teams and great exposure. Overall, Perfect Game is a great organization.”
Jack Leiter is yet to enter PG’s class of 2019 national rankings yet but can probably expect to see his name appear on an updated list based on his two showcase performances alone. Just being in the company of highly ranked 2019s like No. 4 catcher/outfielder Jake Holland from Miramar, Fla., and No. 19 outfielder Adrian Colon from Humacao, P.R., along with eight 2018s ranked in the top-19 nationally can only make Jack Leiter a better ballplayer.
Al Leiter proudly wears his “Dad” cap whenever Jack is out on the field but looks on with a very discerning eye: “It’s not that I’m nervous about his performance, I’m nervous about his ‘being’ – his psyche, his spirit,” he said. “It’s not about a strikeout, it’s not about a double, it’s not about a run scored, it’s more about, ‘How’s he thinking? How’s he doing?’ But I enjoy the hell out of it, having an opportunity to see me son out there, a kid who just loves this stuff.”
Now an analyst for the MLB Network and color commentator YES Network’s N.Y. Yankees game, Al Leiter describes his son as one of those kids who sometimes seems to know more about what’s going on in the big leagues than the old man does. In fact, there have been times when Al has had Jack compile scouting reports for the games Al is going to be working. Needless to say, perhaps, but the relationship between father and son has been mutually beneficial.
“He’s had a real big influence on me,” Jack said. “He’s my main pitching coach, and it’s pretty cool to have him here with me. I get to work with him quite a bit on the side; he always tells me to just go out and have fun and that’s what I try to do.”
After signing with the Yankees out of high school in 1984, Al Leiter went on to play professionally for 23 years, including 19 seasons in the big leagues. He was used as both a starter and reliever during stops with the Yankees (twice), the Florida Marlins (twice), the Toronto Blue Jays and the New York Mets before retiring after the 2005 season.
He collected World Series rings with the Blue Jays in 1993 and the Marlins in 1997, and pitched in the 2000 World Series with the Mets when they dropped the Subway Series to the crosstown Yankees. He was an All-Star with the Marlins in 1996 and the Mets in 2000, and recorded double-digit wins in 10 straight seasons (1995-2004), including a career-high 17 with the Mets in 1998.
Due to circumstances surrounding his own career, Al Leiter became an impassioned advocate for proper training and arm care. He underwent a pair of operations on his left shoulder, both performed by famed orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews, one when he was 23 years old and the other two years later at age 25. He was able to pitch 14 more years in the big leagues after his second surgery.
But his early arm problems made Al wary and protective of Jack’s regimen and he didn’t allow his son to start pitching until the fall of 2015. He just didn’t want a less than knowledgeable youth coach overusing his son in an effort to win some low-level weekend tournament. Al makes sure Jack is always aware of his arm health and emphasizes the using strong legs, a strong core and a strong upper back to generate velocity on his pitches.
“I can always hear Ron Guidry in the back of my mind saying, ‘You only have so many bullets in your arm and at some point your (stuff) is going to break; it’s true for all of us,” Al said, referencing his old Yankees’ teammate. “That’s the whole mystery with the analysis from these scouts, trying to figure out a guy’s arm and how long it will take before, ‘Bing!’”
Both Leiters speak positively of their PG experiences and the oversight provided at the events. They were even able to avoid the PG Jr. National’s first lengthy lightning delay, which occurred Monday afternoon. When Al Leiter was asked what he hopes his son takes away from their time spent at the PG Jr. National Showcase, he became almost profound.
“Every experience like this goes into the memory bank of how things work,” he said. “There’s going to be a level of anxiety and nervousness, for sure, but each opportunity that you’re a part of will go into your ‘being’ and the next time you’ll handle it a little bit better.” And with that, Al Leiter went into a story from his big-league past to illustrate his point.
He was at spring training with the Blue Jays in Dunedin, Fla., in 1993 and it seemed to Leiter that they were playing the Phillies either in Dunedin or nearby Clearwater, Fla., every other day. He developed a familiarity with the Phillies’ lineup during spring training and then was sort of comfort zone when it came to facing former Phillies’ greats John Kruk, Darren Daulton and Lenny Dykstra.
The 1993 season progressed to its conclusion where, incredibly perhaps, the Blue Jays and Phillies met in the World Series. As Leiter recalls from Game 1, he came-in in relief of starter Dave Stewart with two outs and the bases loaded and Kruk at the plate. At that point, all those spring training encounters came rushing back into Leiter’s mind, he found that old comfort zone and was able to retire Kruk without any damage.
“To the point of this kind of (Jr. National) experience, every little thing we do in life goes somewhere in your mind and you think, ‘I can do this,’” Al said. “These experiences for these young men, little by little, will help mold them as baseball players and handling adversity in life.”