My kid is a grinder and loves the sport. I know I did everything to test that and sometimes in not so nice ways, I have no diplomacy skills. I am most proud of his resiliency and to excel from it. There has been and currently are injuries that have cost him opportunities to promote himself (at least he thinks that) and I get frustrated by his own perception considering where he finishes and how well he is regarded by his teammates, coaches and organization he plays with/on. I guess that is part of his motivation.
My most fondest memory is at 12U, he found a travel team and reached out to the org head on his own and asked for a tryout. He played a couple of games in the fall, batted last as they had a full squad. He knew one kid barely but went through winter workout and it was loaded as any preteen small field team could be, I joking called them the Dominican all stars and my son. Fast forward to spring and in their first tourney they hit him in the bottom of the lineup, and he was good about it. The second game is played against a rival org with former players on the team so there was a lot of drama. The team is down by 3 late in the game, kid is up with bases loaded lefty vs lefty, he works a full count and everyone is screaming, the coaches giving instructions in English, Spanish and Spanglish. I was the iscore dad and was also feeling the pressure of the situation. Kid hits a homer left center, everyone is going nuts, 1st base coach is jumping up and down the dugout coach runs out and high fives the 1st base coach. I am screaming too and my son is crying on his way to home from 3rd, I guess the pressure release was too much. They moved him up in the line up and he never looked back. It was a team with a lot of potential, a couple players went back to the DR and got drafted at 16. The parent drama killed the team, the tragedy of youth sports.