Baseball Career Musing

And you know what? You better have a good 401K or some other investments because your child is not going to play pro ball.

Doesn't that sound awful? To say right up front that your child will not be good enough OR stay healthy enough to go pro. Well, odds are I am right.

I say that very same thing to groups of parents for shock value. Many parents NEED to lower their expectations for their kids. Once we get by the idea that the end result of their LL experience will be a pro contract, we are a lot closer to what they really CAN get out of baseball.

Some kids go on to play highschool ball. That's great. Some go on to college and a very select few (maybe one or two in your local district) get a cup of coffee in the minor leagues. Almost litterally, no one makes the Majors.

Once we have that clear, we can talk about what baseball, as a sport, has to offer. Give me almost any situation and I can relate it back to baseball (ok, that sounds sad). Baseball is a lot like life and vice versa.

I heard Jim Roam (Rome?) talking about youth sports today on the radio. The subject revolved mostly around how parents often ruin their kid's love for sports by putting too much pressure on them to succeed. Of course, they had a so called "expert" that went completely the other way almost touting the theory that the proper way to play sports was for "funzies".

Well, in my view, the proper mindset is somewhere in the middle. I want to instill in my son and players that if you are going to do something, you should do it right. That means trying when the time comes with every fiber of your being. Take the chance knowing you may fail. Not tense and afraid of making a mistake, all out and loose. If you succeed, great. If you fail, learn and go on.

I ramble on this because my league is going into the fall season. I am recruiting managers at the current time (along with trying to put together balanced teams...). Most of the ones that coached in the spring are either unavilable (understandable) or unwilling. I mean GOOD coaches that are unwilling to put up with all the $@^%$&@* from parents.

It bothers me that we are loosing quality caoches and may get stuck with unknown commodities in that position. But it also leads me to beleive, given the particular stories that I have heard, that parents have completely unrealistic expectations for their kids. It scares me to think what their car rides home after games are really like. I am really bothered that ignorant people (one of my favorite expressions lately) are taking out their own frustrations and the frustrations they have for their child's limited playing ability on the coaches.

Honestly, I saw more than 1500 kids play this year. Not one was a potential Major League player at this time. People don't want to face reality. That's too bad because once you do, baseball becomes fun again.

No one should give up their dream, especially kids. The good news is that if they don't make the HS team, they probably still have the opportunity to play somewhere else. When they reach their full potential, whenever that happens (and it happens to everyone), they can still be involved with the game they love in some aspect. Just look at all of us broken down old players on this board that still coach, umpire, or otherwise give of our time and effort. And I would bet that all of us took something valuable way from the game even if we never got a shot at a contract.

Splitter