An old, wise, local baseball sage, told me once, "for a kid to play college baseball, he has to get past the car keys and the girlfriend." I never knew what he meant???? Until this past summer.
The window for most boys to be inspired to play, then be recruited to play, and finally commit to play college baseball is probably 13 - 18 years old. Within those five years boys go from being "boys," to being "men."
As 9and7 says above, "There are days it tears your guts out." He's referring to the recruiting process. And it will. But at some point, the back-slapping bear hug of a dad, or the warm embrace of a mom, just does not compare to the comfort of another teen age "soul mate." The desire to spend time with "Sally" at times competed heavily with the desire to work on baseball. Especially during those darkest of dark days. And let's be honest, baseball, as we all know, is not a game that loves you back as much as......"Sally." "Sally" will always love you (in HS anyway), but baseball is a cruel mistress and for the teenage boy spending time with "Sally" often outweighed the desire to spend time with fickle and cruel "Baseball."
And of course hanging with the guys on a Friday night or some random summer night, cruising town in a car, the freedom of a car, is also tempting. You want your son to have "a life" but so many temptations out there that can and will distract him from attaining his goal he set to claim at age 13.
We all want our players to still have a "life," as they go through this process. We want them to experience those important young life events, but to say that it can all be balanced equally (baseball 50% and normal teen life 50%) would be disingenuous. There is a huge sacrifice these kids make to accomplish their goal. They do pay a price, if they can stay the course.
Thankfully mine did, and made it "past the car keys and the girlfriend," but it was a squeaker.