The Village and Baseball

My oldest son made the JV baseball team this spring. This is of course good news and we are happy for him. However, it has been not the positive experience he had hoped for. His playing time has been limited and though he made the team as a pitcher he has only got into two games for limited time. He has always been one of those who played most of the time and certainly has always had a regular turn in whatever rotation he was in. This, therefore, has been a challenge.

For the most part he has handled it well. I think he is mature enough to have a sense of himself outside of sports, to know that he is not going to make the major leagues someday, and to be realistic about his talent. I have told him that while I might disagree with the philosophy of not using a JV team to play more players more innings I cannot argue that he has more talent than those boys that are playing more than him. I might think he has the potential to be but in the very limited opportunities he has had he has not shown it. Of course one could argue the issue of having every at bat magnified when one only gets one every two or three games but that said one must take opportunity when it presents itself. His bseball career may come to an end over the next two years. It is a very competitive sport and at this point while he loves all the sports he plays he may be disadvantaged in that everything has come so easy to him he still has to learn the drive to want it more than the next fellow. Wanting it meaning that he will work for it. We shall see.

However besides the maturity of his outlook we have also seen that he has made many good impressions with his previous " baseball adults." Little league coaches, Juniors coaches, junior high coaches, All Star coaches and even opposing coaches from the past have all reached out to him or me for him to have him know they believe in him and that they believe his opportunity will come. It has been actually a little remarkable the support these people have volunteered for him. I have to assume this means the boy has done some good things in maintaining these adult relationships.

I am proud of his growth this year.