MANSFIELD, Texas — David Hogg II is having the biggest summer of his life.
"Everywhere we go is filled with major league scouts," the Mansfield high school shortstop said.
He's spent his June and July traveling to event after event, showcase after showcase.
"That's kinda something you've been working for since I was 13 years old," he said. "All these events that I was able to watch on TV when I was younger. So if you go out there and be yourself, that's all you can do."
We spoke with David and his family on a Thursday morning via zoom, before they ran to the airport, because between early June and late July. David has a grand total of four off days.
"Words can't even describe it," he said. "It's a blessing. They've taken me all over the country, west to east coast. Everything."
"We're there to support him," David Sr, his father, said. "And we care about him, and we want to experience the journey with him."
The travel is extensive, and can be exhausting. But it's important for Hogg II's future.
"I tell 'em all the time, thank you," Hogg II said, "because I know, how, if I'm this tired, y'all must be ten times as tired!"
And the Mansfield high school product is carrying a torch - as a young black man playing baseball -- something the statistics say is rarer and rarer, year by year.
"My dad introduced me to baseball when I was 4-5 years old," he said.
"[We want] to show the nation, the world, that black athletes are more than basketball, football players," Hogg Sr. said. "They're also incredible baseball players."
David has had a chance to learn from some of the pioneers that came before him, in camps and summer workouts -- men who laid the framework he stands upon today.
"That helped me a lot," he said. "Just to see there's a side of baseball that's for African Americans, that we should stick with the game, and we should continue to play the game, because that's our past as well."
And if David Hogg has anything to say about it, the future, too.