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Have you had "The "Talk"

D dswann100+ posts
The boy came home the other day and I directed him to my office, in a stern but fatherly manner. In the past this usually meant a deep and serious discussion on grades( or lack of) curfews, restirctions and everything else in between.

Of course he was apprehensive and nervous about the impending talk. He sat, while I read him an interview by a player from a local paper, it was all about "how good I was " and nothing but I's and Me's for four paragraphs.

As he sat dumfounded as only a 17 year would over this tremendous waste of his time, I told him that the player came across like a complete moron and if he ever had the opporunity to be interviewed, here a few suggestions. I went to schoolin him as Crash Davis did with Meat in Bull Durham on Cliche's. I hit it hard with all the old favorites "I'm taken it one day at a time" "I'm glad that I can just help the team" " My catcher called a really good game" etc, etc...

After about an hour and lots of laughs all was right with the world.
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dad43dad431,000+ posts
Dswan...great advice, My son has had the good luck to be interviewed several times. The good thing is I found out that while i was having the "talk" with him. It became apparent that the "talk was not 100% necessary.

It turns out that the numerous car rides to and from all the sporting events over the past years, all of the mini"talks" we have had really did help prepare him and the big talk was not really necessary....but like you it was fun to have.

Especially when i remind that if he got the opportunity to thank a parent it better be "DAD"! Smile
zombywoofzombywoof1,000+ posts
I never thought of having that talk with my son when he played. Probably because he already "got it" as a result of playing team sports since he was 6 and his personality. He was a team captain of his winter varsity sport and was selected as team captain for his American Legion team by the players. He never talked about himself so if he had to deal with a newspaper interview, he would've said the right things.
Last edited by zombywoof
RJMRJMHSBaseballWeb member since 2007
There's so much gotcha journalism now I believe it can't hurt to have the conversation on how to talk with the media. At the collegiate level a lot of sports programs teach athletes how to interview, or don't allow them to interview. At fifteen I didn't want to take the chance my son might say the wrong thing even if he didn't mean it.
FungoFungoHighly Regarded and Beloved Old Timer
Not a bad idea to have "the talk" but I tend to agree with Zombywoof. I had "the talk" --- well actually I had a lot of "talks" with my son about his actions and his words but they started long before he turned 17 and they were not specifically about what to say during sports interviews. He did a lot of media interviews and I never picked up on any self centered or self promotional comments in those interviews. He was more concerned about what he was going to say than I was.
Fungo
D dswann100+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by zombywoof:
I never thought of having that talk with my son when he played. Probably because he already "got it" as a result of playing team sports since he was 6 and his personality. He was a team captain of his winter varsity sport and was selected as team captain for his American Legion team by the players. He never talked about himself so if he had to deal with a newspaper interview, he would've said the right things.


I think most kids gets do. Kids have seen enough interviews on ESPN or read about players to understand whats P.C and whats not. I think, what they may or may not get, is how their accomplishments fuel the competitions desire to take you down. A few may celebrate your success a majority will have contempt, especially for the "me" guy. In a nutshell, it's hard to get fired up over a kid who is humble about his achievements who differs the spotlight to others.
Last edited by dswann
zombywoofzombywoof1,000+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by dswann:
I think most kids gets do. Kids have seen enough interviews on ESPN or read about players to understand whats P.C and whats not. I think, what they may or may not get, is how their accomplishments fuel the competitions desire to take you down. A few may celebrate your success a majority will have contempt, especially for the "me" guy. In a nutshell, it's hard to get fired up over a kid who is humble about his achievements who differs the spotlight to others.


I would agree that a player too humble differing the spotlight might be taking it in the other extreme but a kid who does get what the team concept of sports is and isn't full of himself.

To be fair though, while baseball success is tied in how others do on the team, moreso for football where everybody depends on each other on every single play, sports like golf, tennis and others where it's you against whoever, there would be more mention of "I" in the conversation since it is about a specific individual and to be a successful competitor ,athletes have to have an air of confidence about themselves to compete and have some level of success.

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