FORT MYERS, Fla. – It’s an understanding the high school-aged baseball players all share when they meet at Perfect Game showcase events like the 450 player-strong PG National Underclass Showcase-Main Event that concluded its three-day run at the jetBlue Park Player Development Complex on Dec. 30.
These highly regarded underclass ballplayers realize they have a lot more in common than might immediately meet the eye when a group as diverse as this one is brought together. It doesn’t matter if the young players come from Timbuktu or Tijuana, the North Pole or the South Pole or, in the example of this essay, Florida or New Hampshire, their similarities far exceed any differences.
Top 2018 Florida third baseman/shortstop Roberto Pena and top 2018 New Hampshire third baseman/shortstop Bryce Regan know their hometowns are separated by more than 1,400 miles of Atlantic Ocean coastline, but in the world of amateur baseball that degree of separation could be equated to that of first cousins; maybe even brothers.
The similarities between the two are striking. Pena is a 6-foot-2, 200-pound, 17-year-old right-handed hitting left-side infielder from Pembroke Pines, Fla., and a junior at Flanagan High School ranked No. 231 nationally (No. 12 third baseman, ranked No. 36 overall in Florida); he has committed to the University Florida,
Reagan is a 6-foot-2, 190-pound, 17-year-old switch-hitting left-side infielder from Amherst, N.H., and a junior at Southegan Coop High School ranked No. 52 nationally (No. 4 third baseman, ranked No. 1 overall in New Hampshire); he has committed to the University of Texas. Twin sons of different mothers separated at birth? Of course not. But there is a definite kinship.
“Baseball is baseball, and I just like being outside and hanging around a bunch of guys who are just like me,” Reagan told PG while he was at the jetBlue complex at the end of last week. “It’s awesome to be around people with similar goals and mindsets and, obviously, there’s not a lot of kids like that up in New Hampshire. It’s nice to get down here and be around players that all think the same way.”
“There are kids from everywhere out here … and it’s just fun to play with them and make new friends from out-of-state,” Pena told PG during a separate interview session. “They’re really good baseball players and it’s just fun and to interact with them.”
Pena and Reagan have combined to attend nearly 50 Perfect Game showcases and tournaments. Both were at last year’s PG National Under-Main Event as high school sophomores and both were included on the exclusive Top Prospect List at the conclusion of the event.
It’s a pretty easy trick for Pena to hop in a car, jump on Alligator Alley and make the roughly 140-mile drive west from his home in the Miami suburbs to be at the Main Event, but there’s much more planning involved for Reagan and his dad, Kyle, who was with him here for a second straight year. They, of course, wouldn’t have it any other way.
“it’s good to get outside and out of the cold, and it’s awesome to be able to come down and play baseball while I’m on vacation from school,” Bryce Reagan said. “There is nothing else that I would really want to be doing over my vacation … and it’s really important for me to do Perfect Game things down here. It’s just a good escape – we’ve been getting a lot of snow (in New Hampshire) – and we’ve just been in the (indoor) cages, so it’s great to get outside. It’s good to get to see some (live) arms outside and get some reps.”
The Cincinnati Reds made Kyle Reagan an 18th-round draft pick in the 1988 MLB First-Year Player Draft right out of East Lyme (Conn.) High School and he played a couple of years in the minor leagues as an 18- and 19-year-old before ending his playing days.
He looks at young players like his son Bryce and Roberto Pena and can feel that kinship they share, the one that develops when young men work together to realize their dreams. He just wants to make sure his son – and the other young prospects – stay realistic about the goals they set.
“What I try to make sure he’s always clear about is that it’s a big ocean,” Kyle Reagan said of his son. “… I tell him to always remember that the best games he played in high school up in New Hampshire don’t compare to the games he played in Jupiter (PG WWBA World Championship) or here in Fort Myers (PG WWBA Underclass) last year.
“I’m proud as hell of him for what he’s accomplished so far and he loves baseball, but what I tell him is he has to love baseball when he’s 0-for-4 with four strikeouts – that’s when you know in your heart-of-hearts whether or not you love baseball,” Kyle continued. “When you go 4-for-4, that’s fun and of course you love it.”
Both Bryce Reagan and Roberto Pena have toiled at tournaments like the PG WWBA World Championship in Jupiter and at the PG WWBA Underclass World Championship in Fort Myers with travel ball teams as far-flung as the New England Roughnecks, the Palm Beach Select, the Houston Banditos and the Elite Squad. They have been on PG WWBA and PG Super25 championship teams and learned how to be great teammates in addition to being outstanding young prospects.
“It’s crazy that there are kids from all over the place that are just as good as you,” Pena said. “From any state, there are kids that are just as good as you and even better than you and you see that you still have to work harder because you realize there are other kids working just as hard as you are.”
And don’t think for one minute that these guys don’t notice each other. Hey, it’s their responsibility to pay attention to what their peers are accomplishing and how they go about achieving those accomplishments. In fact, Roberto Pena went out of his way to make sure he could see Bryce Reagan play at least once during the three-day event.
“I saw that kid play and he’s really good; he’s really talented at third base,” Pena said of his New Hampshire counterpart. “He’s ranked really (high) so I told my friend, ‘Oh, let’s go watch him play,’ and he really has a lot of tools. I really enjoyed watching him play and I like seeing my competition; it’s just fun to compete with these all great kids.
“You can’t take days off because there are other people working when you’re not working,” he continued. “Every day you’ve got to work to get better.”
They also pay close attention to the way their game is progressing. It might be something as obvious as a jump in velocity on a throw or running a tick or two faster in the 60-second yard dash, and sometimes it’s only a matter of going back and looking at old film.
When Reagan was at the Main Event a year ago, he was listed at 6-foot-1, 180-pounds; a year later, he’s listed at 6-2, 190, and while an extra inch and an added 10 pounds might not seem like huge difference-maker, that’s in the eye of the beholder.
“Earlier today I was looking at video of myself … and I just thought I looked so small and weak,” he said. “It’s awesome because I’ve been working really hard and hopefully I can see the same (growth) next year.”
Pena has also added one inch and 10 pounds to his frame from when he was at the 2015 PG National Under-Main Event. When he arrived here the middle of last week he, too, wanted to show the Perfect Game scouts just how much his game has improved in the last 12 months.
“These last three days out here I’m just trying to come out and prove myself and get my get my rankings better,” Pena said. “It’s a lot of fun being out here with all these kids. There’s a lot of good competition out here and a lot of good pitching and just really good pitching out here.
“That’s the whole idea,” he continued. “I wanted to come out here and prove who I really am and get my numbers up and showcase myself to these great Perfect Game scouts and show them that I’ve gotten better since the last time (they saw me).”
Both prospects performed very well in the workout sessions at the event on their way to once again being named to the Top Prospect List.
Pena threw 89 mph across the infield and delivered a 90-mph fastball during a pitching performance, both personal-bests and both of which were 1 mph off event-bests. Reagan posted personal-bests in the 60-yard dash (6.95-seconds), 10-yard split (1.57-seconds) and with his throw across the infield (83 mph); he also ranked in the top 95 percent in bat speed during the Zepp testing session.
With this being the second go-around at the PG National Under-Main event for both players – Pena was also at the PG Junior National Showcase here in June and Reagan was the PG Underclass All-American Games in San Diego in August – and both said they came into this year’s Main Event with much more confidence than they’ve had previously.
They would like to see their national prospect rankings continue to climb with the goal of being invited to the 2017 PG National Showcase and maybe, just maybe, receive an invitation to the 2017 PG All-American Classic in San Diego in August.
“I try to stick to what I’m doing myself and then I think everything will just kind of play-out without me thinking about it too much,” Bryce Reagan said. “I learn something new every day and I just want to keep enjoying the moments while they last. I want to cherish every moment of being able to come down here to Florida and play baseball.”
The more of these PG showcases and tournaments Kyle Reagan attends the more he becomes impressed with the quality of athlete his son is competing with and against. He also becomes increasingly optimistic about the state of the game.
“{They’re) head and shoulders above when (my generation) was playing,” the 47-year-old father said. “These kids are athletic beyond their years … and when you see all these top kids on one field it’s kind of like, ‘God Bless American’; this is still America’s game.”