Growing up, baseball never really seemed that difficult.
Working hard always seemed like a catch phrase as everything flowed ever so easily. Backyard games proved to be just the practice needed. Extra-curricular activity involved everything from four-square to capture the flag and basketball games to door-to-door lemonade stands. Baseball was fun and not anything less.
For what reason?
Because everything that revolved around it was just that.
As the journey grows and everything begins to speed up, things begin to morph into one another. Each passing season promotes a new sport that requires a different attention set. The competition begins to become stiffer and the work becomes harder and harder. Pitchers begin to throw on the same level and hitters are now evening out. The game is still fun but hard work is now the name of the game. This understanding, along with a genuine love of the game, are the wings that carry the player from JV to varsity and high school to college.
There are very few players that have the actual gift of playing professional baseball. Many walk right past how fortunate it is to play at such a stage. Regardless of which level, Independent ball to Triple-A, so many dream of being a Major League Baseball Player but for the majority, it's really just that - a childhood dream.
The vacuum rapidly sucks up the weak while the thirsty and unsatisfied continue the trek. The trek is long, hard and cold. It involves failures and disappointment at just about every street corner. The roller coaster ride is up to the individual to handle. A complete-game shutout one day sees the horror of an injured arm the next. A promotion to the starting rotation wears a string of bad outings and a demotion following it. It's the name of the game; something you must correctly handle in order to grow.
Then come the questions.
Is it worth the quest? How deep is your passion?
It's not overcoming being 5'2 as a freshman in high school or being cut from 4 different workouts, it's about the lessons you learned along the way.
It's not about being hit in the head by a line drive or struggling to find consistency when you need it the most, it's about the resiliency in your blood to keep going.
Is it your time to take a bow?
Or is this the beginning of a beautiful, eloquent and graceful encore?
This is Part One of "A Childhood Dream". Please stay tuned for Part Two.
