My wife unearthed an old letter from her softball days, written by her old coach to the parents of the players. It's four pages of reflections about the season, and supporting young players. Here's a small slightly edited selection I thought folks might appreciate.
“You cannot hide in baseball. It is, at once, the most individual and the most team-linked of sports. The most pressured position in soccer is the goalie, for all eyes are on that position when a shot is taken, and the results are clear, a save or a goal. And independent of what the defense has done, the goalie always carries the weight. Very few kids like playing goalie, few will volunteer for it and most will even refuse their coaches when told to play it.
Everyone, at one time or another in baseball, is a goalie.
In baseball the spotlight is intense, and if a mistake is made, a strike out, a dropped ball, being part of a double play, redemption could be an hour later or even a week away when the next ball is hit or the next at bat taken. Grace is not cheap in baseball.
And this means it takes enormous character, when the game is played right and the expectations high, to put yourself in the crosshairs of pressure, knowing that failure is both highly public and highly possible, and that salvation may be far away."
