So I'm talking to my son -- who decided to hang them up before fall ball started this past year -- about many things baseball related -- what to do about the lousy Giants, the College World Series, eventually getting around to remembering the highlights and lowlights of his own baseball journey. At some point, he starts talking about how much he misses it -- like on a daily basis. There is obviously a big hole in his life where baseball used to be.
I mostly just bit my tongue and listened. I did think to myself that he really should never have hung them up willingly. That's not something I ever imagined in a million years he would do. Always thought of him as "a cold dead hands" type when it came to somebody taking the bat out of his hands. But he did.
That's water under the bridge. But it became clear to me, as he talked and I listen, how much of a struggle and a challenge that first year really was for him, how he struggled to cope with an entirely different level of demand, feedback, expectation, competition, coaching, etc. It's not that didn't perform well in his limited opportunities. He did. But he still seems to have felt sort of like spare change.
I wanted to say to him that the first year is often hard on players and that those who stick it out and fight through it, can often end up having great experiences. Too late for him to benefit from that thought. But for those just starting the college journey, I hope your player is ready for the possibility of a higher than heretofore experienced degree of uncertainty. How they cope with that first year can be a huge big deal.