The sprawling Atlanta Metropolitan Area and its 30 Georgia counties can call itself home to many of the top travel ball organizations in the country. Groups like the Atlanta Blue Jays Baseball, Big Stix Gamers Baseball, East Cobb Baseball, Team Elite Baseball, Team Georgia Baseball Academy (TGBA) and 6-4-3 DP Baseball are among the most well-known.
Based on its accomplishments over the past 12 years – and, perhaps, most notably over the past nine months – Home Plate Chili Dogs Baseball certainly has earned a prominent position on that list. The program’s Home Plate Chili Dogs-Maldonado squad cemented that distinction with a pair of championships at Perfect Game 18u/17u tournaments this summer.
Those titles came at the PG WWBA 17u National Qualifier and the PG WWBA 17u/18u EvoShield Classic, both held at the newly opened Perfect Game Park South at LakePoint in Emerson, Ga. That’s about 65 miles north of Peachtree City where Home Plate founder Lloyd Thompson runs the Home Plate baseball and softball training facility.
“It was very satisfying and I’m very thankful and grateful for the kids that we have,” Thompson told PG during a recent telephone conversation when asked his feelings about his teams’ successes during the 2014 PG tournament season. “It’s exciting to see because some of the kids have been playing with me since they were 9 (years old). It’s a joy that I get to see them grow up.”
The Home Plate baseball and softball training facility features a regulation size, all-synthetic turf field, 14 batting cages, three outdoor live hitting cages, an open turf infield area, four mounds for pitching and fielding and a fitness/weight room, and other amenities. Thompson and his staff use the facility as its biggest calling card.
“We’re out on the field and we get more reps than most teams anywhere,” Thompson said. “We can take an average kid and make him a lot better, and we can take an above average kid and make him even better than that.
“We’re brutally honest with the parents and kids because we have to be,” he continued. “All we can promise is to teach them the game … but we talk more about than just baseball in the dugouts and during practice time.”
ELITE-LEVEL SHORTSTOP/OUTFIELDER CORNELIUS RANDOLPH and standout right-hander/outfielder/catcher Tristan English became the faces of the Chili Dogs-Maldonado this summer when they were selected as teammates on the East squad at the Perfect Game All-American Classic.
Randolph is a 6-foot-1, 190-pound senior at Griffin (Ga.) High School who has risen to No. 12 in the class of 2015 national rankings and has signed with Clemson. He was named to the all-tournament team at five Perfect Game events in 2014 and was also named to the Top Prospect Team at the PG National Showcase.
PG ranks Randolph the No. 48 overall (college, junior college, high school) prospect in June’s 2015 MLB amateur draft, indicative of the early second round.
English is a 6-foot-2, 180-pound senior at Pike County (Ga.) High School with a 95 mph fastball and a 1.82-second pop time from behind the plate. He was named to four all-tournament teams playing for Home Plate in 2014 and joined Randolph on the Top Prospect Team at the PG National Showcase.
English is ranked 47th nationally and has signed with Georgia Tech; he is ranked as the draft’s No. 158 overall prospect, or a likely fifth or sixth round pick.
“We were talking about them the other day and we were thinking that at (age) 13 were Cornelius and Tristan the best players on our team? No; at 14? No; At 15? No,” Thompson said. “But they kept getting better, they kept working hard and both of them absolutely loved to play the game of baseball. They’re great teammates, good ballplayers and they’re maturing.”
The most impressive resume from the 2014 season doesn’t belong to either PG All-American, however, but to Adam Goodman, a 6-foot-6, 210-pound left-hander from Fayetteville, Ga. A top-500 prospect that has signed with Georgia, Goodman was named to seven all-tournament teams at Perfect Game events, including as both a pitcher and a position player at two events.
Peacthtree City, Ga.-based Home Plate Chili Dogs-Maldonado won a pair of PG WWBA tournaments in 2014 behind the play of PG All-American and five-time all-tournament selection Cornelius Randolph.
He was named the Most Valuable Pitcher at the 17u/18u PG/EvoShield Classic. He was also the only full-time member of the Chili Dogs-Maldonado to be named all-tournament at the PG WWBA World Championship in Jupiter, Fla. Goodman has played in 18 PG tournaments with Home Plate teams since he debuted at the 2011 14u PG BCS Finals.
Another highly decorated Chili Dog from the season past is 6-foot-2, 205-pound third baseman/right-hander Chase Allen, who was also included on seven all-tournament rosters. Allen has signed with Limestone College, an NCAA Division II school located in Gaffney, S.C. Chris Nall, the founder of Home Plate rival Upstate Mavericks, was recently hired as an assistant coach at Limestone.
Home Plate’s Ethan Gillis, a 6-foot-6, 240-pound southpaw pitcher from Senioa, Ga., was named to both the Top Prospect List and Top Prospect Team at the PG National Underclass-Session 3 Showcase, the Top Prospect Team at the PG National Showcase and to four all-tournament teams in 2014. He is a top-500 national prospect who has signed with Kennesaw State.
Other notable contributors included Georgia Southern signee C.J. Ballard and Georgia Regents recruit Tyler Sellers. Ballard, who like English has been with Home Plate since they were 9 years old, was named to four all-tournament teams and Sellers to three.
The players on the Home Plate Chili Dogs-Maldonado roster that won the PG WWBA National Qualifier came from the Georgia communities of Peachtree City, Sharpsburg, Fayetteville and Newnan; they arrived from McDonough, Williamsburg, Griffin, Tyrone and Ty Ty. To a man, they all attended Georgia high schools or were home-schooled.
“There’s nothing wrong with teams that bring in players from all over the country to play; there’s nothing wrong with that at all,” Thompson said. “But it does present a challenge for us because we’re usually not the biggest or the fastest. We teach our kids how to play because spend a lot of time with them.”
THE BOSTON RED SOX SELECTED THOMPSON, AN INFIELDER, in the first round of 1973 MLB January Draft-Regular Phase from Blinn College and the Montreal Expos then took him in the 17th round of the 1975 MLB June Amateur Draft out of the University of New Mexico. He wound up playing parts of four minor league seasons (1975-78) n the Expos’ and Chicago White Sox’s organizations.
At Home Plate, Thompson has assembled a group of coaches who have been with him almost since the program’s inception, guys like Kyle Bedrosian, Ryan Childs, Rodney Dickinson, Esteban Maldonado, Erik Sanchez, Spencer Shelton and Casey Wilson, all of whom played at either the collegiate or professional level.
“I’ve tried to get a good mixture of personalities because everyone needs to be a little different,” he said. “I have quiet ones and I have loud ones and I have emotional ones and I have passive ones and to be able to team up those personalities and with what age (group) is important.”
Thompson anticipates Home Plate fielding 27 teams in 2015, including one 17u team, five 16u teams and two 15u squads. He is especially excited about the depth in his class of 2017 – this year’s sophomores, next year’s juniors – and expects his class of 2016 athletes to perform on a level similar to what this year’s seniors attained.
The Home Plate Chili Dogs team that finished 1-2-1 at the PG WWBA World Championship in Jupiter, Fla., the last week of October featured 15 players with college commitments, a number that included many of the regulars from the Chili Dogs-Maldonado team that enjoyed so much success. Thompson is quick to remind his players those scholarship offers are not guaranteed.
“That is something we never promise because they need to go out there and play well,” he said. “But it’s nice that we had so many (prospects) that will continue to play after high school; there’s two or three that could be drafted.”
Thompson made the trip to the Perfect Game All-American Classic in San Diego with English and Randolph and greatly enjoyed the experience.
He is a renowned batting practice pitcher who has long thrown sessions at prestigious showcase events like the Perfect Game National and East Coast Professional and was selected to throw to the PG All-Americans during the final round of the Home Run Challenge from the mound at the San Diego Padres’ beautiful Petco Park.
“I remembered when I started playing BP many years ago, it was in hazardous cages, gravel and rocks on the field, holes in the screens,” he said. “I went out there and I stood there and looked around and I just started crying because I remembered where I use to throw.
“To be in that situation was just an honor and a blessing,” he continued. “I love to throw to these boys because it reminds me of my father throwing to me. … That experience in San Diego was just priceless and I was thrilled to be a part of it, and I appreciate Perfect Game allowing me to be part of it.”
The Home Plate organization has reached a comfortable position in the world of travel ball, at least in the mind of its founder. Lloyd Thompson doesn’t envision a day when there are Home Plate facilities scattered all around the country, or even all around the South, for that matter. He likes the way things are going in Peachtree City, in the south Atlanta suburbs.
“What we do, I would like to do better,” he said. “Sometimes we have miscommunication with parents or players and I would like that to never happen, but I love where we’re at. For what we do, we might tweak things a little bit, but the field is still the same size.
“I’m very happy with where Home Plate is and I’m thrilled to be recognized by Perfect Game and MLB, and I’m very lucky to do what I do.”