Some twenty sophomores tried out for baseball at Elk River High School. My son was among them, and was also among the 6 or so who were cut today.
I recall missing the cut for my junior high baseball teams (both A & B squads) in 7th & 8th grade. I was a fair ball player, with a decent swing and good hand-eye skills, but physically underdeveloped for my age. Plus, having skipped 2nd grade, I was a full year younger than most in my own grade. I was an 11-yr-old trying to make the cut amongst 15-yr-olds.
It's easy to make excuses, and a nasty trap. I've never completely gotten over what skipping a grade, plus having a later birthday, did to my school-days sports pursuits. Studies have convincingly shown the benefits an earlier birthday in the school year has on an athlete. Adding a full year to that late birthday, frankly, sucks.
So I ended up pursuing games I could work on in solitude, and thus ended up lettering, barely, and only in my senior year, in golf (long before it was cool), and being among the top two bowlers in my school (still not cool).
But back to my son. I can't help but feel for him, knowing that had I been a better parent, he would have had a fighting chance. It's not easy, being I only see him every other weekend, and we live an hour apart, but there I go with excuses again. Did I really have to watch the ball game, golf match, etc., when I could have been playing catch or pitching BP to him? Sure, we did some of that, but not like a father and son who see each other only two out of fourteen days should. You'd think I wouldn't have wasted a moment of that precious time.
He's got the right attitude, and I'm super proud of him for that. He is a very promising young drummer, and wants to work more on that with his newly-found spare time. Like bowling, he can work on it for hours at a time if he wants (and he often does).
Plus, it's a heck of a lot cooler than being a bowler.
Key to the City: London
1 month ago
2 comments:
I'd encourage him to keep trying at baseball. Is there a summer program he can get into? High school is tough as kids mature at such different times. Honestly I think all kids should never get cut until their senior year, if even then.
One of our best town ball players ever barely made the team his senior year. He went off to college, matured, made the South Dakota team all 4 years and finished one of the better town ball players in the state.
I appreciate that. You never really know how good an athlete a kid can be until he's truly full grown. I would submit many a promising athlete never had a chance to shine because of being pigeon-holed at a young age, if only in his/her mind.
No reason he can't at least keep his skills up and play amateur ball after high school, maybe even on a Community College team somewhere.
That's what I meant to do in '86 for the Carlos town team, but I got lost getting to the meeting, and was too embarrassed to follow up on it. Embarrassed because I got lost by forgetting to turn off on 694 from northbound 35E, and didn't figure it out until I was in Wyoming. Instead of just backtracking, I thought I'd try to "cut across."
Young and stupid was I. So I became a slow pitch player.
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