When I first came to this board, my son was an eighth grader. Now he has graduated from college.
Like so many parents here, I started participating in this forum because I wanted to know how best to support my son with his journey in baseball. What I found here didn't just serve that purpose, but so much more. I was blessed to develop many friendships with the good folks here; friendships that I am certain I'll have the rest of my life.
So what started as a place to learn more about the process of navigating high school and college baseball became much more about being a part of a community of wonderful people. I'm grateful for this place, and for the people here.
My son went to college far from home, so I was only able to attend a fraction of his games over his four years. But luckily, due to a new job, I was able to get to about half his games this year.
When his last game ended, the handshake line completed, he came over to me in the first row by his dugout, tears in his eyes. We hugged for a long time, both of us emotional. I was so choked up I couldn't even tell him how proud of him I was. I hardly needed to. In that long moment the waters behind the emotional dam of four years of his effort, struggles, successes and failures just cascaded down on the both of us.We just hugged, both of us unable to talk, but words weren't necessary anyway.
I will never forget that moment.I still choke up just thinking about it.
If I have any advice for parents of kids who want to play college baseball, it is to understand that it will be an uneven road for almost everyone. Sure, there are the world beaters who are impact players right off the bat, and get drafted in the first round as juniors. But that's the exception, and my son was not that player.
For almost all of our kids, the story will be much more like my son's experience. First, figuring out the price that must be paid to succeed in college baseball, then making the decision to pay that price.
Then, fighting through all the challenges that present themselves in college baseball: warming the bench before you earn your time on the field, dealing with unreasonable coaches, handling the demands of school (especially finals week), slumps, the errors, the highs and the lows.
It's not easy, and there is a lot of failure along the way. As parents, we tend to want to shelter our kids from failure. We give encouragement, we tell them it's all part of the game, sometimes we deny it (That wasn't a strike!) All of this is an understandable attempt to ease the sting, and to keep things positive. But it can result in failing to deal honestly with it.
And I guess that is what I think was the most valuable part of the experience for my son: dealing with the failure. This more than anything else is what turned my son from the boy I dropped off at school four years ago to the man I see now: how he trained himself to be honest with himself about failure, and keep going beyond it.
He fought his way through lots of adversity over these last four years, and he forged himself a very nice college baseball career. He actually will show up in some Duke career stats lists: he's in the top 25 all time in career batting average, and 7th all time in career on-base %.
He wants to keep playing, and I hope he gets the chance. But as I told him in front of his team and all the parents at our senior dinner after the last game, he has already given his mom and I more joy watching him play than any parents deserve.
And I am proud of him.
