Junior shortstop Landen Basey, a third-year starter, has emerged as a veteran leader for an inexperienced Franklin team.
Daily Journal file photo
Landen Basey spent the first half of his high school baseball career under the big top.
A varsity starter during his freshman and sophomore seasons at Franklin, Basey had a front-row seat for the Max Clark Experience — which included droves of autograph seekers, major league scouts and video crews chronicling the former Grizzly Cub superstar’s every move.
It’s much quieter around Mercer Field these days. The food trucks, scouts and cameras are a thing of the past. With Clark now playing pro ball in Florida as part of the Detroit Tigers organization, Franklin just has a regular run-of-the-mill baseball team that most of the world isn’t paying attention to — but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
“I feel like it’s back to normal,” Basey said. “We don’t have to worry about scouts in the stands; we just play baseball now.”
A year ago, hosting a Grizzly Cub baseball game meant carving out space for a dozen or so pro scouts, as well as running into video cameras nearly everywhere you went. Even practices brought onlookers from interested MLB teams, many of whom would ask for certain drills to be run on certain days so they could see what they wanted to see from Clark.
Franklin athletic director Bill Doty says that Clark and former coach Ryan Feyerabend handled most of the planning when it came to accommodating scouts and visiting media, but he still feels a difference in terms of the daily onslaught. Last year was special, he said, but there’s something to be said for a little peace and quiet.
“I miss it a little bit, for sure; anytime there’s attention drawn to your school, it’s pretty cool,” Doty said. “But it’s nice in a different sense to just kind of be relaxed and not be so stressed out about everything.”
With those distractions out of the way, Franklin can get back to working on what it feels it needs to work on — which is important with a young team.
“I feel like the scouts not being there gives us a better chance to improve,” Basey said. “We can improve on defense and hitting, instead of just (taking) BP all the time.”
There’s no superstar like Clark to serve as the center of gravity, but the Grizzly Cubs haven’t suffered for it much in the win column. Heading into Tuesday’s home game against Martinsville, Franklin has a record of 6-7, not far off of the .500 pace it set a year ago.
And new stars are developing. Basey, now comfortably settled as the shortstop and leadoff man, is batting a team-best .310. Senior third baseman Trevor Launonen and freshman second baseman Carsten Bland are tied for the club lead in RBIs. Sophomore Blake Smythe has emerged as the ace of a young pitching staff, striking out 49 batters in 29 innings and posting an ERA of 1.69.
The Grizzly Cubs not only have an inexperienced roster with more freshmen than seniors, but they’ve also got a first-time head coach in Jeremy McKinney, a former Franklin player who previously served as an assistant under Feyerabend.
McKinney appreciates being able to cut his teeth without the glare of the spotlight on him.
“It’s more of a relaxed environment,” he said. “And honestly, it kind of eases me, too. I like to just be able to get out here, teach these guys the game correctly, and I like to see them progress as better players and men, hopefully, in the future — and I really think that we’re starting to instill a lot of work ethic, responsibility, doing the little things correctly.”
