Justin Dawson

Christ-follower, husband, father. Enjoy baseball, hunting, fishing, and spending time with family doing all of the above.

[Justin Dawson @secondbase1380]

@CoachBeede Most of the showcases put on by the big organizers…college specific showcases have been a much better investment, especially when schools have multiple and keep the registration numbers lower and much more manageable.

[Kevin Wilson @KWBaseball]

We have traded fundamentals for measurables.

And it shows up in today's version of the game.

Too many players are lacking:

⚾️ Baseball IQ
⚾️ Awareness
⚾️ Ability to play catch
⚾️ Baserunning
⚾️ Ability to throw strikes
⚾️ Bat-to-ball skills
⚾️ Feel
⚾️ Adjustability
⚾️ Perseverance
⚾️ Grit

Just to name a few...

Players today spend more time in cages looking at screens and less time in the sandlot competing, having to learn how to play the game without coaches.

The players, coaches and organizations who still value fundamentals, stick out more today than ever before!

[Desoto Central Jaguar Softball @sball_DC]

Congratulations to our 2026-2027 DC softball team! Time to get to work! #GDTBAJ 🥎

[Coach Beede @CoachBeede]

A pattern I have noticed in 35 years.
The families who choose their college well are not the ones who took the most visits. They are the ones who asked the right questions on the visits they took.
Most families ask polite questions. The families who choose well ask the uncomfortable ones , the ones that actually tell you what the next four years will look like.
Tomorrow night I am dropping a thread on the seven questions every family should ask on an official visit. The ones most families don't think to ask until it is too late.

[Rob Wood @coachrobwood]

One day you will ache for a season you are currently rushing through. You will look back like a man watching a ship vanish beyond the gray edge of the sea and realize the days you treated as obstacles were often the very days you would later give almost anything to enter again. That is the strange cruelty of time: it feels rather ordinary while it’s becoming sacred, like a bell tolling far off in the hills while everyone in the village keeps working as though nothing has changed.

This is why you must stop treating ordinary days like disposable things, as though they were scraps falling from the table of a better life that hasn’t yet arrived. Never despise the smallness of the life in front of you. I say that as a hypocrite that has lived long enough to experience the excruciating pain of doing just that.

[DeSoto Central Athletics @athletics_dc]

Today we remember and honor the brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. 🇺🇸

Their courage, service, and sacrifice will never be forgotten. From all of us at DeSoto Central Athletics, thank you to those who gave everything for our freedom.

[Northwest Baseball @NWCCBaseball]

UPDATE:

Our early summer Tryout/Showcase has been rescheduled due to weather.

We hope to see you there!

https://t.co/eZDdoWA3OV

#ALLN || #RangerUp

[Dave Kline @dklineii]

Years ago, I was asked to review 100s of exit interviews. Here's what surprised me: Nobody worth having on your team quits over one bad day. High-performers leave when the small taxes imposed by their manager create a cost too big to endure. Here's are the common culprits:

[Coach Vint @coachvint]

I talked a dad who told me he spent $10k a year on travel baseball between tourneys, travel, and gear for his son. He got a partial scholarship to D-2 school. If he had put the $10k in a mutual fund each year, he would have had about $190,000. The scholarship was $5k a year.

[Justin Welsh @thejustinwelsh]

A simple cheat code for life is to just be easy to work with.

Respond quickly. Do what you said you'd do. Be pleasant.

An alarming number of people suck at all of this.

[Kenny @kennyfgan]

Middle America families stuck in the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time that is travel baseball.

Baseball needs Legion Ball played at high school fields in t-shirts and gray pants more than ever right now.

[Justin Dawson @secondbase1380]

1,000,000%

[Kenny @kennyfgan]

Middle America families stuck in the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time that is travel baseball.

Baseball needs Legion Ball played at high school fields in t-shirts and gray pants more than ever right now.

[Baseball Dudes Inc. 🇺🇸⚾️ @BaseballDudes48]

Dear Son:

Reputation is earned through your daily choices. Good or bad, that’s up to you.

Dear Daughter:

Reputation is earned through your daily choices. Good or bad, that’s up to you.

Dear Coach:

Reputation is earned through your daily choices. Good or bad, that’s up to you.

Dear Teacher:

Reputation is earned through your daily choices. Good or bad, that’s up to you.

Dear Mom & Dad:

Reputation is earned through your daily choices. Good or bad, that’s up to you.

[Coach Beede @CoachBeede]

Parents at the field this morning:
Your son is watching you more than you realize. The face you make after a strikeout. The energy you bring after an error. The way you talk to him between games.
He will remember the tone of your weekend longer than he remembers the result.

[Coach Beede @CoachBeede]

Most families think recruiting is about getting noticed.
After 35 years, I can tell you it is the opposite. The student-athletes who succeed are the ones who get clear before they get noticed.
Clear on what level fits. Clear on what schools fit academically. Clear on what kind of program their son will actually thrive in.
Visibility without clarity creates noise, not offers.

[Aaron Cunningham 🇺🇸 @HPBAac]

Something a lot of folks don’t realize in the recruiting process…

College coaches are trying to figure out if they want you around their building everyday for years to come. It’s so much more than talent. Talent is easy to find. Makeup, character, personality, and energy are the hard parts.

Practice your people skills as much as you practice your baseball skills.

I can’t tell you how many kids have missed out on an offer because the college coach didn’t like a kids vibe.

[Dan Furman @Dan_Furman]

NIL has quietly transformed college baseball.

And the ripple effect on the MLB Draft is something nobody saw coming.

Here's everything changing in the sport right now. 🧵👇

[Dan Furman @Dan_Furman]

Here's my prediction 📌

Within 3 years college baseball produces its first $1 million single-player NIL deal.

The scholarship expansion to 34 combined with NIL money makes the top college programs as financially competitive as low-level professional contracts.

MLB teams will respond by either raising draft bonuses —

Or losing their best prospects to an extra year of college and a better draft position.

College baseball is no longer the sport that gets overlooked in the NIL conversation.

It's the sport with the most interesting financial future in all of college athletics.

Follow me — I break down the
business of college sports daily.

My DMs are open. 🔁

[Marcus Jamison Jr. @marcusjr1005]

Last spring game tomorrow! Excited to compete and show what I can do. Coaches, hope to see you there! Doors open at 5, game is at 5:30. Time to work! #finish

[Aaron Cunningham 🇺🇸 @HPBAac]

If your plan this summer is to travel all over the country playing ball, that’s up to you. But you better be able to lift, eat, sleep and workout at an elite level if you’re doing that because you want to play college baseball.

The physicality and skill level needed to play at that level are what matters. If you’re living in a hotel this summer, make sure you have a plan.

I’ve seen a ton of careers wrecked by traveling too much and not having a plan for the part of your development that will matter most when you get to college.