It's been almost a year...

There was talk around Cleveland water coolers about why Trev didn’t start their final game against the Yankees i.e, just make it a bullpen game from the start because it was the strength of the team.  You can’t play baseball if you cannot deal with failure.  I am sure the pitcher’s family of the guy who did start felt awful and none of us know if things would have been different.  When your son fails, someone on the other side is happy and conversely when you are happy  people are dying inside on the other side.  It is the best of games and at times can be devastatingly painful.  John Smotlz pitched one of the greatest World Series games ever and lost to Jack Morris who was a little bit better that day.  Sometimes both sides “win” and those tend to be the best games to watch and remember.

It’s an honor he was in that discussion, and I’d have liked it to have ended differently, but I’m thrilled, and thankful Trev was able to build on his rookie season.

I would say it’s hard to be great at anything with a fear of failure, it’s just failure is so inherent in baseball. I don’t know if we as baseball parents and/or coaches make it as safe enough to fail. I’ve heard the argument that the Dominican culture handles fear of failure, creativity of technique and the joy of playing better than we do in the states.

It’s funny, we want it both ways. As fans, we want the athletes to really care about the results – to be totally invested and impacted by the results. As parents we want them to give their absolute best effort, but if they fall short, we want them to quickly move on and be in a healthy place for next time…

And this is why your contributions to this site are so helpful, even for non-professional players!