Official Visit
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On November 10, 1999, our son, Ben A. Harrison, accepted a scholarship offer and signed a National Letter of Intent to play college baseball at a Division I university. Conceived in Key West on the sailboat that my wife, Helen, and I built in Costa Rica, it simply never occurred to us as Ben learned his first words and took those first steps that he would become a good baseball player or, for that matter, that I would write a book about baseball recruiting. Early on, I was not a dad who dreamed of bats, balls and weathered gloves. At the time I was a professional entertainer/songwriter playing the guitar in bars on Key West’s famous Duval Street. Years before Ben held a baseball in his hand, he was playing Scott Joplin on the piano. My dream was for him to become a musician. I even fantasized that we could someday play as a duo. When he was nine, a friend of his suggested he try baseball since he was a good athlete. I had played and enjoyed Little League and Pony League baseball growing up in Corpus Christi, Texas, and it seemed like a fun thing to do, so off we went to Bayview Park to throw, field grounders and awkwardly swing the bat and hit the darn hard thing wrapped in leather, stitched in red and made in China. Somehow, through a combination of genetic magic and the astonishing curveballs life loves to throw, he fell in love with the game and excelled. The stewardship of the Key West baseball community and local coaches played a large part in his success. As the time to begin making official visits approached, we reluctantly decided to decline Coach "Turtle" Thomas’ invitation to visit Louisiana State University, despite their reputation and amazing baseball record. The determining factor for us was that we were only vaguely familiar with the state of Louisiana and the city of Baton Rouge. Demographically it is out of the way, and we felt the schools closer to home would be as good baseball wise. True, Stanford, our other long distance possibility, is a long way away, but two of Ben’s cousins live in Palo Alto. Helen and I lived in San Francisco for two years and loved the area and the climate, so we had multiple California connections. That difficult decision behind us (and it was difficult–L.S.U. wound up winning the College World Series Ben’s senior year of high school) our first official visit was to the University of Florida in Gainesville on Friday, September 10, 1999. We knew they were putting us up in a hotel, would feed us and that we would go to a football game. We also hoped they would try hard to sell us on their baseball program. We were both smiling to ourselves as we got out of the car at the Key West International Airport, my big kid and me. It was a shame Helen was unable to come with us. Ben was familiar with the Florida campus, having visited Gainesville with his best friend, Billy Spottswood. Bill Jr. and Ben started playing baseball together before their age reached double digits, and his family has treated Ben as one of their own.
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About the Book
If your son enjoys the game of baseball and shows promise as a player, this book contains a wealth of information gained from the author's research and personal experience about the ritual of college and professional recruiting. Perhaps more importantly, it tells the reader how to lay the proper foundation and find out crucial information needed to help make important decisions. There is a tremendous amount of opportunity to play after high school, either as a scholarship athlete or professional draft choice. But to take advantage of the opportunities available, the parents and the player need to know how the system works.
About the Author
Ben Harrison and his wife, Helen, married in 1972. After she graduated from college and he from law school, they moved to Costa Rica and built a thirty-eight-foot sailboat on which they traveled and lived for eleven years. They have two sons. The older plays college baseball and the younger shows promise. Ben played music professionally in Key West for sixteen years, recording five albums. He has written three musicals and is the author of Undying Love (Martin's Press, paperback). They have called Key West, Florida, home for the past twenty-three years, and own Harrison Gallery at 825 White Street, Key West, Florida. Visit the gallery online at