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All American Game | Story | 8/19/2021

Hard Work Lands Gupton in Classic

Blake Dowson

Photo: Michael Gupton (Perfect Game)

Michael Gupton didn’t necessarily show up to the Perfect Game National Showcase wanting to break any sort of record in the 60-yard dash.

Gupton, the No. 30 overall player in the 2022 class and No. 1 outfielder from the state of North Carolina, doesn’t really think that way. He doesn’t typically concern himself with what others are doing. He focuses on how he can improve himself, and takes comfort in knowing that’s enough.

He had run a 6.1-flat personal best 60-yard dash. That’s the number he had in mind to beat. He ended up running a 5.96, sending everyone in attendance into a frenzy with the fastest time ever recorded at the event.

This is what fast looks like 💨

5.96 in the 60 by @GuptonMichael pic.twitter.com/8iwZfnaCtg
— Perfect Game USA (@PerfectGameUSA) July 16, 2021

“Honestly, I didn’t know the record,” Gupton said. “I knew I was capable of running 6.0 flat or under 6.0. I just went there trying to break my previous 60 time, which was 6.1. That’s all I was expecting. I’d been training to break that time and had a good outcome.

“You can run everything perfect one day, and then you can do it again on another day, and just because your body feels better that day, you run a faster time. Some things just fall into place in perfect ways.”

Gupton is one of the best sprinters in the country. He has won national championships in track spikes. And for all the buzz he gets for his speed, he wants people to know there’s more to him than just his speed.

Make no mistake – Gupton is nothing close to a one-trick pony on the baseball field. You don’t get to where he is headed by leaning on just one tool. A complete baseball player has five of them, ready and able, and Gupton has proven to have all of them.

In 57 career games at Perfect Game events, he has a .343 average. His top exit velocity at PG National came off the bat at 101 mph, and he is an elite defender in the outfield.

Michael Gupton (NC) super athletic with twitchy wrists. Looks to attack on every pitch. #PGNational pic.twitter.com/FQbtbkR6W6
— PG Showcases (@PGShowcases) July 16, 2021

“There isn’t a spot I’m not working hard at,” Gupton said. “I’m working to make the skills that I have now a little bit better. Turn them into absolute weapons while developing the other things I need to work on. I know that I don’t have the strongest arm or some people don’t think I can hit the ball the furthest. I’m working to better myself in all areas.”

In talking to Gupton, the word ‘work’ comes up often. He wants to outwork all of his competition and he might well be on his way to doing so.

During the summer he’s running, lifting, and throwing one day, the next he’s hitting and lifting, and the day after he’s running and hitting. He doesn’t really have an offseason, but during those winter months when he doesn’t have game action on the baseball field, he’s running indoor track to keep his body right while still getting as much diamond work in as possible.

“There’s a lot of time in the day,” Gupton said.

Any shortcoming on the field or tweak that can be made to better himself, Gupton is anxious to work on. He mentioned his arm strength – he threw 87 mph from the outfield at PG National – as something he’s not content with.

“Whenever I do anything, whether that’s sports or school, I put my all into it,” he said. “I recognize that I’m gifted, and I try to take full advantage of the tools I have to offer.”

More than anything, he wants to feel dangerous on the baseball field; in the batter’s box, taking his lead off first base, patrolling center field, playing for the East squad at the Perfect Game All-American Classic.

A year ago, Gupton wrote down a list of goals he wanted to work toward, and playing in the Classic was one of them.

He had built the necessary resume heading into PG National, and his performance at Tropicana Field put an exclamation point on it. Of course, Gupton was glad to see his hard work (there’s that word again) pay off.

“When I found out that I had been selected, it was a big sigh of relief,” Gupton said. “You always think you did enough, but then the other side of your mind is like, ‘Did I really do enough?’ It means a lot to me, with the work I’ve put in. I’ve been working really hard and it was one of my goals, so I was really happy to achieve it.”

Now he gets to prove to himself one more time this summer how dangerous he can be on the field.

There’s no bigger stage as a prep prospect than to do it at Petco Park for the All-American Classic, and Gupton heads to San Diego comforted by the fact that he has put the work in.

“I don’t judge myself because other people will do that for you, so I just think to myself, ‘If they don’t think I’m the best, they’re going to know one thing, that I work the hardest.’ That’s what I keep in mind,” Gupton summarized.

“I just want to go out there and do my thing…I know the best me is plenty, so as long as I’m the best me, I can’t complain.”

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