CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – Baseball is, always has been and always will be a numbers game. Statistics are kept, compiled and recorded for the ages, with each number taking on its own significance with the passing of time.
Nolan Arp is a 5-foot-11, 145-pound second baseman/catcher from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, who was at Perfect Game Field-Veterans Memorial Stadium on Saturday performing at the Perfect Game Spring Top Prospect Showcase for a second straight year. Numbers matter to Arp.
He was the only junior starter at Cedar Rapids Xavier High School in 2014, a team that featured ace right-hander Mitch Keller for a couple of games until the Pittsburgh Pirates made Keller a second-round selection in the 2014 MLB June Amateur Draft. The Saints were still pretty good without Keller, and Arp certainly did his part to keep the season alive as long as possible.
Which leads us back to those pesky numbers. In 39 games during the Saints 2014 summer season (Iowa plays only a summer high school season), Arp hit .344 (33-for-96) with 10 doubles, 15 runs batted in and 20 runs scored. He posted a .447 on-base percentage and .448 slugging percentage.
Good numbers, indeed, but nothing compared to these two: 4.21 and 32. The former is Arp’s grade-point average as his senior year at Xavier draws to a close; the latter is the score he posted on his ACT college entrance exam (36 is the best possible ACT score). Those are the numbers that seem to resonate the most resoundingly.
”I’ve always worked hard in school just to get good grades and it’s always been something that I’m good at; I take a lot of pride in it,” Arp said early Saturday before participating in the Spring Top’s morning workout session.
This showcase was specifically designed to give college coaches and professional scouts an opportunity to see prospects that don’t have the benefit of a spring high school season, like those in Iowa and some parts of western Wisconsin.
The overwhelming majority of the more than 130 players expected to attend Saturday and Sunday are from Iowa, and all of them – including Arp – are here to show off their talents on the field, not their report cards. That’s the stark reality of every showcase event, with the possible exception of the annual PG National Academic Showcase.
Nolan Arp is the second son long-time Perfect Game National Director of Showcases Jim Arp has sent through PG, with Nolan coming along more than a decade behind older brother Ryan (yes, Jim named his two sons Nolan and Ryan).
Jim Arp, who is working this weekend’s event throwing BP, wielding a radar gun and coaching one of the showcase teams, probably understands the showcase culture better than anyone; he also understands the value of setting priorities.
“Everybody wants their kid to be as good as they can as a player, but I’m super proud of what (Nolan) carries for a GPA and his ACT score,” Jim said Saturday. “People have to understand that those are the things that are important … and where ever he ends up (at college) that GPA and that ACT score is more beneficial to him than you can imagine.
“It’s very important and kids have to understand they’re not going to school just to goof around, they’re there for a reason and they should make the best of it.”
But baseball lies at the heart of it all and make no mistake, Nolan Arp’s heart is wrapped around baseball. The Spring Top is the 19th Perfect Game event he has been involved with. That number includes three seasons in the PG Iowa Fall League (2011-13), four in the PG Iowa Spring Wood Bat League (2012-15) and last fall playing with the PG Iowa Select Red.
Ranked as a “high-follow” nationally and Iowa’s No. 18 overall prospect (No. 1 at second base), Arp has performed well throughout his PG career. He was named to the Top Prospect Team at the 2014 PG Midwest Top Prospect Showcase and at the 2015 PG Pitcher/Catcher Indoor Showcase.
He was an all-tournament selection at both the 2014 PG WWBA Central Labor Day Classic (Upperlcass) and the 2014 PG Kernels Foundation Championship, playing with Iowa Select Red.
One of last year’s highlights was playing at the blockbuster PG WWBA World Championship in Jupiter, Fla., with a team named Perfect Game White. The upstart group went 3-1 at the prestigious 82-team PG national championship tournament and just missed earning a playoff berth. Arp also played in this winter’s inaugural PG National Indoor Hitting League.
“It’s always a good opportunity to see some real good players, and every time you get to play against somebody that’s pretty good you’re going to get better yourself,” Nolan said of his desire to do as many PG events as possible. “The competition is always good and obviously the exposure, too. You come to something like this and you get to hit off someone who’s throwing 92-93 (mph); it’s always good to see that.”
And, of course, there are always new friendships to be made: “I’ve had a lot of these guys on the same teams with me and then I had the opportunity to play with (Iowa) Select last fall and there were a lot of good guys on that team; I still talk to those guys a lot,” he said. “It’s always good to branch out and meet guys from other schools.”
Jim Arp played high school baseball at now-defunct Cedar Rapids LaSalle High School and by-passed college to get involved in an assortment of family businesses in Eastern Iowa. He did continue his baseball career after high school, however, playing for the Walford town-team in the venerable – and historic – semipro Iowa Valley League. A catcher, Jim played in the IVL for 22 years.
While the Arp family’s baseball legacy may have started in the small towns of Benton County, Iowa, it eventually spilled over into the Catholic school system next door in Linn County, where Cedar Rapids sits.
There were two Catholic high schools – LaSalle and Regis – in Cedar Rapids for almost 40 years before they merged to create Xavier, which opened in 1998. Jim was a LaSalle graduate and all three of his children – Ryan, daughter Morgan and Nolan – are Xavier graduates (Nolan receives his diploma with honors next month).
Nolan was exposed to baseball games from a very young age, with Jim taking his family to spring training games, minor and major league games – games at just about every level, really.
“He’s been to a million baseball games, he’s been to a million big-league parks, so he knows the game – he understands it – and he has great knowledge of the game,” Jim said. “But being around Perfect Game and hearing everything about hitting and hearing everything about fielding, it’s definitely made him better.
“He’s really gained a lot of knowledge … just by hanging around me and everybody else at Perfect Game because he’s (at the facility) all the time.”
Ryan Arp, like Nolan, practically grew up at Perfect Game’s old facility on this city’s southwest side (a new PG Headquarters opened on the northeast side in February). Ryan, who graduated from Xavier in 2004, was the type of kid who wanted to hit every night – Nolan is pretty much the same – and he and Jim would spend long hours in PG’s old indoor cages.
After high school, Ryan attended Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kan., for two years and then transferred to Upper Iowa College in Fayette where he played two more years. The Los Angeles Dodgers drafted him in the 45th round of 2008 draft and he went on to play parts of two minor league seasons, climbing as high as Triple-A.
“Ryan also had a lot of knowledge of the game,” Jim said. “… He was a late draft pick, but the day of the draft just to hear that he got drafted that was pretty exciting and it took about three hours for everything to sink in an for him to realize what that meant, even if he was a late pick.”
Ryan, a catcher like his dad, worked in Perfect Game’s scouting department for several years after his playing days ended. Although Nolan was still in middle-school during those years, he would show up at PG’s old headquarters almost daily to work with Jim and Ryan.
“Between (my dad) and my brother, they’re the driving force. They’ve worked with me four times a week since I was 10 years old, so that’s been huge,” he said. “With Ryan, he’s working all day and he’s pretty busy but he’ll still come out to Perfect Game at least once a week to work with me on catching and hitting.”
This will be the 14th summer season Jim Arp has helped coach at Xavier High School. He had Ryan for three seasons (2002-04) and then stayed on staff for about 10 years without a son on the Saints’ roster until Nolan arrived on the varsity last season.
“I’ve really enjoyed coaching my boys,” Jim said. “It’s funny, because I told Nolan several times, ‘I think I’m going to quit; it’s a lot of hours out here,’ and he’d say, ‘Dad, you’ve got to stay. You coached Ryan and now you’ve got to stay until I’m done.’
“I was glad to hear that because I think some kids don’t want their dad around when they’re (playing), so I was pretty happy with the fact that he actually wanted me to stay.”
Nolan Arp played basketball, soccer and football as a middle-schooler but once he got into high school he decided to go the baseball-only route. As the Saints’ only returning everyday player, he will definitely be called upon to be a leader on this year’s Xavier team.
He’s looking forward to his senior campaign and playing against other top guys from Eastern Iowa high schools, many of whom are at this weekend’s Spring Top.
“We always have great guys out there and having my dad coach is always nice,” Nolan said. “He works with me so much he knows every time I do something wrong and he can help me out. But, yeah, I think Xavier is great place.”
Academics and baseball are two of Nolan Arp’s passions, to be sure, but there is also a third. He is an avid hunter of just about any critter or game-bird that is in-season, going out most of the time with his dad and his brother. During Iowa’s 2013 deer shotgun season, Nolan bagged a world class trophy buck with a 200-inch, 14-point rack down in southern Iowa.
Hunters will tell you those are some pretty impressive numbers in themselves, which leads us back to the beginning of this essay.
Nolan has yet to decide on where he will attend college, although he is considering Coe College – a four-year NCAA Division-III school in Cedar Rapids – or he might go the junior college route to begin with, like his brother did. His academic numbers (4.21/32) are likely to help pay for a large part of his education but they may not be the deal-sealers in the long run.
“Baseball and hunting, those the things I really like to do. They’re probably factoring into my college decision more than academics; probably more than they should,” he said with a laugh. “I don’t want to go too far away (to school) that I can’t get back in the fall and winter and go hunting.”
Once again, it looks like Arp will ace the numbers game.