Didn't get drafted? Been Released? You can still play pro baseball.

Art Howe, former player; Major League manager, Astros, A's, now Mets: "Maybe there's a tryout camp in your future."

Have you dreamed about career baseball…playing pro baseball…as long as you can remember? Was your plan to get scouted, get drafted, start in the Minor Leagues and eventually play on a Major League team? OH NO! What if you don't get drafted? Or what if you got drafted, signed that pro baseball contract, then got released? Not to worry. There's always Plan B.

As you'll see in the book, baseball history shows that some of its greatest players got into the game this way.

Okay. I know what you're thinking. Here comes the flood of questions. How do I find out about tryout camps? When are they? Where are they? What do they cost? Who runs them? What should I take? What should I wear? Can I go to more than one? Could I get signed from there?

Find the answers in the book. www.baseballwise.com/

By the way, Art Howe tells how he made it to the Major Leagues out of a tryout camp.

Frank Robinson, member, Hall of Fame: "Naturally it's best to get drafted because that means a lot of people have seen you and there's a lot of interest in you. Plus, you may get some money which probably guarantees they'll keep you around for a year or two anyway.

"Another way to get there is what we call 'walk-ons.' That's when players are recommended by a friend or a coach from high school or college or whatever and they walk up to you and ask for a tryout with your club. We usually give them a strange look, but it does happen. Most of these kids don't gain anything this way.

"The best way is to write to the different organizations and find out when they're gonna have a tryout. Some clubs don't do them, but most have as many as three a year. Many good Major League players have come from the camps."

Don't think that attending a tryout camp will solve all your problems and make your dreams of career baseball come true. Getting there is the easiest part.

Dallas Green, former Major League pitcher, former GM, Cubs: "The problem with tryouts that most young fellas don't understand, is that they want to come and they want to get scouted there, yet ninety percent of them don't come ready to show their true abilities because they're not in shape! They haven't done a darned thing all winter. So they can't run the 60 yard dash to the best of their ability. They can't throw to the best of their ability. So the wisest organizations like to announce tryout camps about thirty days ahead of time to get in shape before we evaluate them.

"The bottom line here is that if a fella wants a tryout camp evaluation, he'd better come prepared 'cause it's a one-shot deal."

Dallas, I'll differ with you here. Players may only get one shot, but that's one shot PER organization. Guys can go to as many of the tryouts as they can find. The summer I attended several as an observer, I ran into several young baseball players over and over again who showed me the routes and tryout dates scribbled on their dog-eared maps. They were devoting their entire summer to driving from tryout camp to tryout camp all over the country. They did their homework and I hope it paid off for them.

But I'll agree with you in a big way about the way players show up at tryouts. Every single scout I interviewed, and there were many, said their pet peeve with tryouts is that players cheat themselves out of the results they want by showing up out of shape

Who attends the camps? Frank Robinson told me he saw a guy show up "ready to play" wearing a three piece suit and carrying a briefcase. NOT!

Lloyd Christopher, former scout, 50+ years: "I never ran tryout camps myself, but they do serve multiple purposes. Obviously, for the amateur player still in high school, it's a chance to be seen and evaluated. For players who have gone through the draft but were not selected, it's a chance to get re-evaluated. For the released player, it's also a chance to get re-evaluated and possibly get a new baseball contract with another organization. It's good for the organization, too, because it allows us to get the names and addresses of high school undergraduates who attend for our future reference. It also gives us a chance to see all of them in a group setting and in game situations. And we may see some players we actually may have missed from rural areas."

The "open" tryout, where everyone is welcome, is the most common and has the largest attendance. However, there is another kind of camp that players feel gives them more status and a better chance to get that baseball contract.

Fred McAlister, scout 40+ years; former Scouting Director, Cardinals: "The Cardinals is the first organization to have a tryout camp. In fact, we started the whole thing. First it was to see all the young players we could with open tryouts. But we took it a step further, and had a "by invitation only" camp a week or two before the draft where we only invited players we were actually considering drafting. Some other organizations do the same thing now, so it must be working for them like it's working for us."

Several scouts want to let you know that all tryout camps sponsored by the Major League organizations or the Major League Scouting Bureau are FREE. Scouts affiliated with Major League Baseball run them. But there are other tryout camps out there who evaluate you and report to the Major League scouts. They may even ask you to pay and register up front to get a cheaper rate. Check the website for links to some of them.

One of the most colorful baseball people who is touted by the entire world of professional baseball is George Kissell. He's been with the Cardinal organization since 1940, first as a player, then a scout, then as Senior Coordinator of Player Development. He is so delightful and loaded with "goodies" to share. Here's a sample:

"I signed out of a tryout camp in 1939, in Rochester, New York. Of course there was no draft back then, and you should've seen the crowds at those tryouts. I was on the eleventh infield and my number was 385. There were only two guys signed out of there. Ted Wilkes, who became a good relief pitcher for the Cardinals in the '40s and me.

"My tryout consisted of them hitting five balls to me in the hole at short, then they told me to run from home to first. Then they told me to take a seat in the bleachers. That was the extent of it. I thought I was done because several others were given more to do.

"Well, I thought I'd been eliminated and was getting ready to go home when one guy called me over. And that's the way I signed on the spot. The scout that signed me was Pop Kelchner and I got a bonus of twenty cents. Here's how that happened. He asked me how old I was and I said I was nineteen. He asked if I'd come down there by myself and I said I'd come with my dad. He told me to go get my dad and I did.

"He talked to both of us together and asked my father if he wanted me to play ball. My dad said yes. He asked if they could sign me that day and my dad said yes again. Then Kelchner told me to go figure up our expenses for that day, including mileage. We drove about 105 miles, plus overnight at a guesthouse, so we figured our expenses came to $19.80. He gave me a twenty dollar bill and said, 'Congratulations. Sign here.' The twenty cents change was my bonus."

For the 2004 season, George Kissell will wear two hats for the St. Louis Cardinals: Player Development Adviser and Coach of one of their rookie league teams.

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