Coach May -- WOW! Thanks for a terrific, and accurate, assessment. I have printed it for my son, and will be sharing it with some of our serious minded baseball friends.
I live very close to Coach Milburn's neighborhood. No doubt baseball has seen a decline in our area for many of the reasons posted here. Times and people have changed. Maybe it is all the other choices available; maybe it is a decline in desire; maybe we have gotten away from a time when kids could just be kids. Don't know ... and I'm not too sure that I care.
One thing is certain, if a kid loves the game, and embraces the concept that he needs to work to become his very best (whether that be playing baseball, or the bassoon); there are plenty of opportunities out there.
"Fun" is a relative word. It is true, most people only want the "fun" of the final outcome -- playing the game. Very few are willing to embrace the "fun" of doing the hard work to be able to play at their maximum potential.
I am a student of success, and in my work I deal extensively with helping individuals and organizations improve performance. I learned a long time ago that only 3% of people will willingly invest of their own time and effort to become the best they can be in any given endeavor, while the other 97% just do not care enough to put forth the effort.
You can fight this fact all you want, and will experience results similar to attempting to hold back the tide; or you can strive to surround yourself with the 3%'ers in whatever endeavor you enter, and allow the others to go their own way.
As a parent, I believe a big part of my job is to make sure my son understands that sustained success in all things is found only through pursuing the endeavor with pride, passion, and a commitment to excellence; and then to help him find those things he can throw himself into whole heartedly -- where he can be a 3%-er.
So far, those things have been baseball and business. Truth be told, he has come a lot further in both areas than his native abilities would suggest he could reach; and he is working harder every day to reach his dream of being a D1 player, studying in a top business program, starting in the fall of 2011.
What am I driving at? The Game is better than ever. There are more opportunities than ever for a kid to embrace the game and become the best player he can become. The knowledge and training available to young players has never been better. The playing opportunities have never been greater.
But the individual kid has to want it, and has to be backed by parents and coaches who will support them as they chase the dream.
For the kids who have the love for the game, and the desire to give of themselves to become a 3%-er in baseball ... there is plenty of opportunity out there. For others, there is still the bassoon.