It is often said that baseball is a game of failure. Even though most players fail more often than they succeed at bat, they are still considered great when they do make a hit.
For Ty Wagar, a Lacombe resident playing for the Red Deer AAA Midget Braves, it is one of his favourite aspects of the game.
“You go one for three, you fail two out of three times and you are one of the best players out there, so that’s what I like most about it,” said Wagar.
Baseball has an interesting dynamic among team sports.
While in the field, players work together as a defensive unit. At bat however, players are on their own to score points and it is each batter against the pitcher.
For Wagar baseball is a team sport broken up into individual aspects. He said that while each player has his own stats at bat and even must make his own decisions while in the field, all of that contributes to a bigger picture.
“It all goes towards helping out the team.”
Wagar has been playing baseball for most of his life. He started around the age of five and hasn’t stopped.
This is Wagar’s second year with the AAA Red Deer Midget Braves and his third playing AAA ball.
Up until his second year of bantam ball, Wagar played in Lacombe. He said he decided to try out for AAA in his second year of bantam because of a desire to play at a higher level of competition against the best players in the province.
“I just wanted to improve my game and see how good I could get,” said Wagar. He added it has been a good move for his development in the sport.
“I’ve grown each year as a player.”
When he first started playing at the AAA level, Wagar noticed a big difference in the level of competition and the level of effort needed from players to compete, he said. “Players were a lot bigger and stronger, everything happened a lot quicker,” said Wagar. “It was a more intense game.”
“Teams were better and everything got harder.”
Wager said that it took him a little while, but he managed to put himself at the same level as the other players.
“At the start it was a struggle,” said Wagar. “But you keep working hard, eventually you catch up.”
Another reason Wagar gave for competing at the higher AAA level was that he wanted to see how far his abilities in baseball could take him. So far, Wagar said he has attracted more attention as a AAA player and is looking forward to Team Alberta tryouts in the fall.
“You get noticed a lot more, I’d say, in midget AAA because you are playing at that higher level.”
As for just how far Wagar sees baseball taking him, he said that he hopes to attract enough attention to get into talks with colleges. He added he would like to get a scholarship or at least get the chance to play ball at the college level.