5 questions with Beau Torbert
You've recently moved back to the Chattahoochee Valley area after several years in South Dakota playing and coaching baseball. What brought you back and what are you doing now?
As much as I enjoy the game of baseball and coaching, I felt like it was time for me to pursue the career in health care I always wanted if baseball hadn't taken off the way it did. I am in school full time again finishing some prerequisites at CSU and will start applying to physician assistant schools at the end of the summer.
A Facebook post about travel baseball having a bad reputation stirred quite a conversation recently on your page. Why do you think travel ball has such a negative connotation?
When I was growing up,
there was no such thing as travel baseball, you played the sport that was in season at the time. Travel ball has since gotten huge and there are a lot of opinions on it. The negatives I see come from overzealous parents and coaches with a win-at-all-cost attitude, which leads to burn out and injury to young players. I just don't like the misconception that all travel ball is like that though.
For the organizations I am a part of, it's about good instruction, playing top competition and learning the life lessons sports can teach you. We encourage playing multiple sports and taking time off from throwing. There are plenty of programs like that. Of course, there are plenty that aren't. Unfortunately, as with most things, the actions of some are starting to bring negative attention to something that can be and is really good.
You spent several years in the minor and independent leagues. What are some of the things you learned about the game, politics of the game, etc.?
I was very fortunate to be able to be around the professional game for nearly 10 years. What I didn't realize going in after I got drafted was just how much of a business professional baseball is. Making it to the big leagues isn't always performance based and not everyone gets the same shot.
There are plenty of players you'll never hear of that have what it takes to play at that level but will never get the chance for a number of reasons. It sounds crazy, but I learned so much more about the actual game of baseball once I got into pro ball.
The beauty of this game is that there are so many different situations and different ways of doing things that you never stop learning the game.
My goal now is to pass along the wealth of knowledge I have obtained from really smart baseball people over the years to the baseball youth of today. The other beautiful thing about this game is it allows you to give back to it. The people I got to meet and places I have been are things I'll forever be thankful for. I learned so much about the game of baseball but more importantly about life in general.
If you could go back and tell your 15-year-old self one thing, what do you think that would be?
Well, first I would tell that 15-year-old kid to eat because he was a rail. I would also tell him that life isn't going to turn out exactly how you plan, rarely does it for anyone. Focus on a destination, but don't forget to enjoy the ride as you go along.
What is the best-kept secret in the Chattahoochee Valley?
The best kept secret in the Chattahoochee Valley in my opinion, especially to people not from the area, is its location geographically. I have lived all over the country, and there aren't too many places where you can be at beautiful beaches or mountains in 3-4 hours. We have a major metropolitan city in Atlanta an hour away and multiple major college universities nearby.
A few hours drive in different directions will get you to totally different sceneries and totally different historical/cultural backgrounds.
This story was originally published March 22, 2015 at 10:41 PM with the headline "5 questions with Beau Torbert."