Great story about Kurt Warner!
Trent Green had an uphill battle himself imho. Being the quarterback at Indiana is not the most sure-fire method to find your way into the NFL - as a starting quarterback no less. No offense at all to Indiana football, but it is one thing to say you play baskeball at Indiana, and quite another thing to say you play football there.
PG, you are truly the Garrison Keillor of the HSBBWEB...except your stories are true!! This is some great reading.....keep 'em coming!!
This was sent to me, and I thought this was the perfect thread for it to be posted. EH
FROGS
Once upon a time there was a bunch of tiny frogs.... who arranged a running
competition.
The goal was to reach the top of a very high tower.
A big crowd had gathered around the tower to see the race and cheer on the
contestants....
The race began....
Honestly:
No one in the crowd really believed that the tiny frogs would reach the top
of the tower.
You heard statements such as:
"Oh, WAY too difficult!!"
"They will NEVER make it to the top." or:
"Not a chance that they will succeed. The tower is too high!"
The tiny frogs began collapsing. One by one....
Except for those, who in a fresh tempo, were climbing higher and higher....
The crowd continued to yell, "It is too difficult!!! No one will make it!"
More tiny frogs got tired and gave up....
But ONE continued higher and higher and higher...
This one wouldn't give up!
At the end everyone else had given up climbing the tower. Except for the one
tiny frog who, after a big effort, was the only one who reached the top!
THEN all of the other tiny frogs naturally wanted to know how this one frog
managed to do it?
A contestant asked the tiny frog how he had found the strength to succeed
and reach the goal?
It turned out....
That the winner was DEAF!!!!
The wisdom of this story is:
Never listen to other people's tendencies to be
negative or pessimistic.... because they take your most wonderful dreams
and wishes away from you -- the ones you have in your heart!
Always think of the power words have.
Because everything you hear and read will affect your actions!
Therefore:
ALWAYS be....
POSITIVE!
And above all:
Be DEAF when people tell YOU that you cannot fulfill your dreams!
Always think:
God and I can do this!
Pass this message on to the "tiny frogs" you care about.
Give them some motivation!!!
Most people walk in and out of your life......but FRIENDS AND FAMILY leave
footprints in your heart
In two days tomorrow will be yesterday. Today is no special day and I have
no particular reason for writing to you... I have no news to tell you....
nor any problems to discuss with you.... or gossip to tell you... It's only
one of those happy moments when I thought of you... and I would like to
share these thoughts with you...
MANY SMILES BEGIN BECAUSE OF ANOTHER SMILE...
To The World You Might Be One Person;
But To One Person You Might Be the World.
You have been Tagged by the Froggy, which means you are a great !!
¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»§«¤»¥«¤
If you fall down 10 times,
Stand up 11.
¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»§«¤»¥«¤
FROGS
Once upon a time there was a bunch of tiny frogs.... who arranged a running
competition.
The goal was to reach the top of a very high tower.
A big crowd had gathered around the tower to see the race and cheer on the
contestants....
The race began....
Honestly:
No one in the crowd really believed that the tiny frogs would reach the top
of the tower.
You heard statements such as:
"Oh, WAY too difficult!!"
"They will NEVER make it to the top." or:
"Not a chance that they will succeed. The tower is too high!"
The tiny frogs began collapsing. One by one....
Except for those, who in a fresh tempo, were climbing higher and higher....
The crowd continued to yell, "It is too difficult!!! No one will make it!"
More tiny frogs got tired and gave up....
But ONE continued higher and higher and higher...
This one wouldn't give up!
At the end everyone else had given up climbing the tower. Except for the one
tiny frog who, after a big effort, was the only one who reached the top!
THEN all of the other tiny frogs naturally wanted to know how this one frog
managed to do it?
A contestant asked the tiny frog how he had found the strength to succeed
and reach the goal?
It turned out....
That the winner was DEAF!!!!
The wisdom of this story is:
Never listen to other people's tendencies to be
negative or pessimistic.... because they take your most wonderful dreams
and wishes away from you -- the ones you have in your heart!
Always think of the power words have.
Because everything you hear and read will affect your actions!
Therefore:
ALWAYS be....
POSITIVE!
And above all:
Be DEAF when people tell YOU that you cannot fulfill your dreams!
Always think:
God and I can do this!
Pass this message on to the "tiny frogs" you care about.
Give them some motivation!!!
Most people walk in and out of your life......but FRIENDS AND FAMILY leave
footprints in your heart
In two days tomorrow will be yesterday. Today is no special day and I have
no particular reason for writing to you... I have no news to tell you....
nor any problems to discuss with you.... or gossip to tell you... It's only
one of those happy moments when I thought of you... and I would like to
share these thoughts with you...
MANY SMILES BEGIN BECAUSE OF ANOTHER SMILE...
To The World You Might Be One Person;
But To One Person You Might Be the World.
You have been Tagged by the Froggy, which means you are a great !!
¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»§«¤»¥«¤
If you fall down 10 times,
Stand up 11.
¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»§«¤»¥«¤
It takes talent and heart. In some cases it's unfortunately who your family knows as well. 
quote:Originally posted by theEH:
If you fall down 10 times,
Stand up 11.
Love the story, but especially this quote! Thanks for the advice.
quote:Originally posted by gogolf18:
It takes talent and heart. In some cases it's unfortunately who your family knows as well.
Yup, agree with this, too.....
Love it. Plus, I am originally an Iowa girl, so I perked up at the mention of Cedar Rapids.
Here's our "how it really is," story, just in case anyone else out there has ever felt they were ill prepared to advise their son, or that they had missed the boat completely.
I found this site in the summer prior to son's Junior year of H.S. We live in a small town and were completely inexperienced in what you do when it turns out your kid might have enough ability to take him beyond high school. A few kids from the area have made it to the pros over the years, but you don't grow up around here thinking that you might have a shot at that, even if you dream of it your whole life.
Despite all the awesome resources available on HSBBW, son and his dad were unconvinced and disbelieving of some of what I read here on the recruitment timeline, in terms of getting to showcases, sending letters out, etc.
The letters from D1's started coming in on schedule, as well as and some invites to things like the Stanford Camp and PG events, etc., but no one else we knew had ever been to anything like that. We even asked a former big leaguer we met who lives her and he hadn't heard of PG or Stanford, so... We couldn't sort out the prestige events from the others, and still son didn't believe he was at that level, so he discounted all of it as junk mail. (I know, can you even believe that?!?)
The upshot was that son had a few good opportunities due to pure good fortune, not due to any great planning on our part:
1. Super JO experience, thanks to his wonderful HS coach who recommended him
2. Played on a good traveling team that fall,
3. Arizona Sunbelt
4. A terrific senior season, drawing attention from MLB, seemingly out of the blue.
Things he second-guessed later, when he began to think it was too late:
1. For some reason (modesty? self doubt?)when he started getting recruitment letters he didn't think they were the read deal, so he failed to respond to a lot of them, figuring that every baseball player in the world was getting them;
2. Ditto when the Stanford and PG invites came
3. Opted not to play any more summer ball after Sunbelt Junior summer when dad was sick
4. Grudgingly attended a small PG event Fall of senior year with us dragging him all the way; because he didn't think it was legit, didn't put his heart into it and it showed
How things are today for him:
1. Drafted as a 2006 Draft and Follow (who knew it would be the last group of those)
2. Playing at Yavapai College now and having a great season
3. Has a letter of intent and some $ to go to Arizona next year
The point is, we (mom and dad) felt really incompetent in terms of providing guidance and advice when the recruiting interest started. And after that we felt guilty that we weren't better equipped to guide him so that he could have had earlier and better exposure.
This whole thing comes out of nowhere at you so fast and it's hard to digest all the info, but even without doing everything right, despite our ignorance, son is in a nice place now, and I'm sure he has at least a few more years of baseball ahead of him.
He has natural talent, is a hard worker and is extremely coachable, so if that's you or your son, I'm here to tell you that "Good Lord willing, it will all work out in the end." (thanks to Crash Davis for that line from Bull Durham)
ktcosmos
Here's our "how it really is," story, just in case anyone else out there has ever felt they were ill prepared to advise their son, or that they had missed the boat completely.
I found this site in the summer prior to son's Junior year of H.S. We live in a small town and were completely inexperienced in what you do when it turns out your kid might have enough ability to take him beyond high school. A few kids from the area have made it to the pros over the years, but you don't grow up around here thinking that you might have a shot at that, even if you dream of it your whole life.
Despite all the awesome resources available on HSBBW, son and his dad were unconvinced and disbelieving of some of what I read here on the recruitment timeline, in terms of getting to showcases, sending letters out, etc.
The letters from D1's started coming in on schedule, as well as and some invites to things like the Stanford Camp and PG events, etc., but no one else we knew had ever been to anything like that. We even asked a former big leaguer we met who lives her and he hadn't heard of PG or Stanford, so... We couldn't sort out the prestige events from the others, and still son didn't believe he was at that level, so he discounted all of it as junk mail. (I know, can you even believe that?!?)
The upshot was that son had a few good opportunities due to pure good fortune, not due to any great planning on our part:
1. Super JO experience, thanks to his wonderful HS coach who recommended him
2. Played on a good traveling team that fall,
3. Arizona Sunbelt
4. A terrific senior season, drawing attention from MLB, seemingly out of the blue.
Things he second-guessed later, when he began to think it was too late:
1. For some reason (modesty? self doubt?)when he started getting recruitment letters he didn't think they were the read deal, so he failed to respond to a lot of them, figuring that every baseball player in the world was getting them;
2. Ditto when the Stanford and PG invites came
3. Opted not to play any more summer ball after Sunbelt Junior summer when dad was sick
4. Grudgingly attended a small PG event Fall of senior year with us dragging him all the way; because he didn't think it was legit, didn't put his heart into it and it showed
How things are today for him:
1. Drafted as a 2006 Draft and Follow (who knew it would be the last group of those)
2. Playing at Yavapai College now and having a great season
3. Has a letter of intent and some $ to go to Arizona next year
The point is, we (mom and dad) felt really incompetent in terms of providing guidance and advice when the recruiting interest started. And after that we felt guilty that we weren't better equipped to guide him so that he could have had earlier and better exposure.
This whole thing comes out of nowhere at you so fast and it's hard to digest all the info, but even without doing everything right, despite our ignorance, son is in a nice place now, and I'm sure he has at least a few more years of baseball ahead of him.
He has natural talent, is a hard worker and is extremely coachable, so if that's you or your son, I'm here to tell you that "Good Lord willing, it will all work out in the end." (thanks to Crash Davis for that line from Bull Durham)
ktcosmos
quote:To The World You Might Be One Person;
But To One Person You Might Be the World.
What an insightful thought!