He's off - Spring 2024

My husband and son drove down to FL on Jan 2. It felt more weighty sending him off this time. He was locked in in a totally different way this offseason. We will be in FL Feb 23-26 and then again around March 15. But mostly feelings of pride and love!

Very exciting, good luck!  These weeks in January and early February always seem to go very slowly...

Son is heading out for a week to meet with his trainer on Monday, and do some final prep after an off season where he's been working out four or five hours a day. I'm excited to see what the new season brings. And as I look at the 10-inches of snow we got yesterday, I'm super tempted to go try to see him during spring training!

On the JUCO side — we looked at a lot of JUCO's and they had some great offerings on the baseball side. For our son, academics were the challenge. His high school offered so many combined HS/college credit courses that he went into his four-year school as a sophomore and would have finished the two-year programs he looked at at the JUCOs in a year. That and getting an offer from his dream school steered him toward the four-year route.

@PTWood posted:

My husband and son drove down to FL on Jan 2. It felt more weighty sending him off this time. He was locked in in a totally different way this offseason. We will be in FL Feb 23-26 and then again around March 15. But mostly feelings of pride and love!

Good luck to James! Because of this board, I added him to the people I collect baseball cards for. When I was asked why I collect his cards, I say because his mom is on the same baseball forum I visit.

Congrats! I agree on juco. I would say most kids going straight to D1 today would be better off starting at a juco. A lot of 2023's I know figured that out in advance. More than half of the 2023's I know figured it out after arriving to their D1 in the fall and are now at a juco or are taking the spring off and trying to go to juco in the fall as a 2024.

@PTWood posted:

We will be in FL Feb 23-26 and then again around March 15. But mostly feelings of pride and love!

We will be in Gainesville March 15. Hoping maybe we can come to a game when you are here.

@Iowamom23

Best of luck to Duncan. He has a great story. Tell him to keep working hard!

@Long415 posted:

A lot of folks here are (and should be) thinking about JUCO route. It is not an easy option, and I think it's kinda misunderstood. I misunderstood it. But he texted me today that he had stopped by his old JUCO en route to his new D1, and that he had unexpectedly spent 2 hours talking with his old JUCO coaching staff and some younger members of the brotherhood. Juco was the best experience he would never do again.

This is such a great quote!

The kids that live the juco life together are always brothers.

Mine took a flight this week to the complex in AZ. I can't help being happy and sad at the same time!  At least it's 60 degrees (and not 120) in Tempe this week. Best of luck to all our players this season!  Thanks for being such a supportive group for a nervous parent.

Moving him in this weekend. I really have no idea how this season will work out. This could be the greatest baseball experience of his life. Or, he will be miserable with the housing situation, miss his girlfriend too much and not respond well to the grind of playing a jam packed season while also having the demands of being a full-time student. I keep reminding myself to have the Zen Warrior mindset: Expect nothing and be prepared for anything. I sincerely hope that it all works out for him and this is a very positive experience and it's everything that he wanted and has worked towards achieving. But, I'm also fully aware that there's a lot in play here and that there's more to it than just playing baseball. And, the playing baseball part is the one thing that I don't think about because I am pretty confident that won't be an issue as he's more than capable there.

I need these doting posts as I have 9 more days before the knucklehead and his several big bags of crap gets returned to college by the 5 star uber dad. It has been an emotional roller coaster over the past several weeks but I think the Christmas holiday was the peak for me and it feels like a deep gorge lately with no bottom  in sight even with the kid spending several days in the sunshine state to visit his teammate. I will likely need FEMA to help with the house  clean up once the kid is gone.

@2022NYC posted:

I need these doting posts as I have 9 more days before the knucklehead and his several big bags of crap gets returned to college by the 5 star uber dad. It has been an emotional roller coaster over the past several weeks but I think the Christmas holiday was the peak for me and it feels like a deep gorge lately with no bottom  in sight even with the kid spending several days in the sunshine state to visit his teammate. I will likely need FEMA to help with the house  clean up once the kid is gone.

lol! Just visited my son’s house - really great trip, but I did smile a bit listening to him complain about a friend spilling a beverage on his carpet… Apparently there is such a thing as karma, who knew?

Kidding aside, I miss the earthquake that is teenagers/young adults disrupting everything. Enjoy it while you got it, cause you’ll miss it when that phase is completely gone.

@2022NYC posted:

I need these doting posts as I have 9 more days before the knucklehead and his several big bags of crap gets returned to college by the 5 star uber dad. It has been an emotional roller coaster over the past several weeks but I think the Christmas holiday was the peak for me and it feels like a deep gorge lately with no bottom  in sight even with the kid spending several days in the sunshine state to visit his teammate. I will likely need FEMA to help with the house  clean up once the kid is gone.

I can relate. During the fall, when we went and visited him at school, it wasn't really hard to say goodbye. But he came home for the holidays, also with his huge bags of crap, and then we had a really awesome family vacation with my parents. He went back to school directly from our vacation destination, and that was a rough send off. Things are full steam ahead for him. As soon as he got to school, they got their final roster uniform numbers, he threw a pen yesterday and today was their media day. No stopping this train now. First game is 32 days away. Cool thing is that we are spending three weeks out in Knoxville and get to pretty much see all his games leading up to the beginning of conference.