what is your son doing when he finished with baseball?

Midlo Son was a very highly regarded prospect when he left high school in 2008.  Injuries in college derailed his college playing opportunities and his pro hopes as well.  He graduated on time with a business degree in May 2012 and is now having great success as a sales rep in Manhattan. 

I'm not sure if baseball caused this or just provided the vehicle for his pre-existing disposition for the years prior to graduation, but the main thing is, he came to adulthood understanding how to get up every morning, seek challenges, and do what was required of him and more; how to set goals, surpass them and then set new goals; and most importantly, how to overcome setbacks and make life decisions needed to find new life direction when necessary. 

It also certainly helps that he was conditioned to avoid wasting his days on FaceBook, excessive TV, video games, etc.

My son is still in college. My daughter is 26. She played college softball. In high school she played three sports including softball. Her softball training was year round whether the game or physical training. A college softball player has the same kind of year round playing, practicing and training schedule as a baseball player.

Playing and training taught her to go hard after her dreams and not let up. She learned time management and mental discipline. She learned when finishing the work, do one more. Do another one if it's in you. 

After college she went to work in a law firm. While other recent graduates complained about the hours and no overtime (they were salaried) she worked eleven, twelve hours a day without any thought. It was less work than college. She knew she was building a resume. The firm also set her up with her summer internship with a judge after first year of law school.

She's now married and in law school. Once again an overwhelming schedule doesn't faze her due to her college experience. She called me yesterday to say finals are over. Now she doesn't know what to do all day for the next few weeks.

My son graduated from college and played minor league baseball for two seasons. He grew up passionate about the game and everything about it. He was released last January and began the job search landing a sales training program at a very solid company.

  He is enjoying his life away from the game but is coaching young kids on the side. He is having a lot of fun and loving his independence and friendships. No regrets, baseball brought him so many great friendships. Life is very good for him, he is a very happy hard working young man. I am very proud of him.

I have three sons who all played ball. My oldest, now, 25, played through HS. He was a kid who cried when Griffie Jr. got traded from the Mariners. He was the kid who didn't like other kids messing around during practice.....in T-Ball. He researched and planned his summer camps at FSU, so he could be the best catcher possible. We played winter, spring summer and fall. He had the ability to go to the next level. His passion changed, or maybe emerged when he was 18. He is now a Weapon Systems Officer in the USAF flying B1-B Lancer's. Couldn't be happier.

My middle son( now 20 )played through his Sophmore year in college, where rotator cuff(sp) problems arose.(RHP) he was the kid who told me when he was ten that he wanted to go pro, and I figured he would. He is still in school and working full time, paying his own way. 

My youngest who is 18, finishing his first semester at D1 JUCO. He has the best chance of all three boys of going pro. He is still learning the lessons of Baseball. And how much harder the discipline becomes as you move up he ladder. He has his brothers experience and support to help him. He has been selected to play in the TCL summer 2015, so we are looking forward to a very exciting year that will definitely define his future. 

Wow!

This topic hits close to home...almost.  

Son just turned 29 and still in the professional game, this winter playing for Charros de Jalisco.  Baseball played in Mexico is unlike anything we can relate to..crazy!

Just so that you all know, the MLB scholarship plan allows a player two championship seasons not involved in affiliated ball before you lose the money given to you by the drafting team. Son has 32 credits yet to finish (two semesters and internship). His agreement with the drafting team allows him to finish school with minimal expense on his part.

If all goes well (will announce when the time is appropriate the exact plan) we will be parents of a college student involved with baseball once again!

Parents, its very important to discuss with your boys plan B or C.  For 99% baseball will not be their life time career.  Keep in mind that even for ML, the average time spent is 4 years in the game at the ML level.  Son was lucky as he had some $$ to continue playing. Never big MLB money but enough to stay in the game. We all know that milb has its career disadvantages, one being financial. 

The experience that my son has had could fill pages in a book.  Its not an easy life, the other day son said to me that he is not sure if this was the life he chose or the life chose him, either way he has no regrets. Doing what he has done has prepared him well for the next step (or adventure as he calls it). 

Midlodad, excellent post!

My daughter is in her senior year.  She is stressed out about this being her senior year and her last chance to get a national title.  Her team has done so well in the past with years of 45 and 47 wins.  (NCAA D-II)  She has been asked to tour France, Belgium and The Neatherlands with the coaching staff that took her to Italy two summers ago. As some of you might know, the teams in the European Countries have a couple of Americans on each team that play as professionals.  She has thought about that some but it is a pipe dream since she is a 1st baseman and almost always the Americans are pitcher and catchers.  

Daughter will gain a degree in elementary education and wants to teach and coach.  She currently coaches a TB team and has for the past 3 years.  I think she will do well at both IF she can find a job. 

After 4 years of college ball, son was fortunate to get the chance to play a couple years of minor league ball.  He got 5 or 6 offers to play indie ball, but reluctantly decided it was time to move on.  After 4 years of college he was 1 class short of graduating with a mechanical engineering degree.  He insisted on going back and getting that final course out of the way after his first year of minor league ball.

He now has a great job as a process engineer, whatever that is, with a major manufacturing firm.  He has also helped out a little at his old HS, but frankly would rather be playing than coaching.  I think going to the baseball field is still a bit painful.  

For the first time in his life he is actually flush with cash.  But, he has done a pretty good job of limiting his spending.  At times he seems flat out reluctant to spend money.   I think college and minor league ball taught him a lot in that regard.

He is also adamant about not becoming an overweight former athlete, and insists on working out several days a week.  He has also taken up golf.  I think golf is his way of filling the competitive void left by no more baseball.   

MTH, our son's sound very similiar.  My oldest son graduated in May 2014.  He took a mechanical engineering position with a Fortune 10 company which he interned for the last two summers.  He never got to play summer college baseball, but for him the engineering internship paid off in a big way.

He's living at home for now until he gets back from a European project he's been assigned to.  For the first time in his life, he's got cash.  His student loan will be paid off by the summer and he's saving for a car/truck.  He's also picked up the golf bug.  He shot the same scores right handed as left handed, so he's not really sure which side to play from (I've got the same problem ;-).  He played in adult wood bat baseball league this past summer.   He doesn't miss the college baseball workouts or the Upstate NY weather

My middle son was the bullpen catcher at his ACC school.  He had to give that up to focus on engineering studies which was a good decision for him.  It has been a difficult semester, but he's really been grinding it out.  It is pretty safe to say that he is done with baseball, but he'll be an engineer when he graduates

My youngest is gearing up for his last high school season after a late summer injury that affected his recruitability.  It was a tough thing for him to deal with, but he handled it well.  I'm very proud of him.  He wasn't a superstar.  He was my late bloomer who worked really hard and was starting to get attention.  Unfortunetly, he got injured.  A funny thing happened on the way to the forum...it looks like he is very focused on ROTC rather than trying to walk-on somewhere.    He's "driving the bus", so were going to see where this ROTC-thing take us.

Baseball has been a huge part of our family.  14 years of high school baseball, 4 years of D1 college baseball, 20 years of travel baseball, 6 years of American Legion.  My kids have learned a lot about the game, and they learned a lot about themselves.  Mostly, they've learned how to be a great teammate, and how to work hard at something.

Baseball has always been a part of my life.  In some ways, I lived vicariously through my kids as I was never good enough to play in high school.  I was given a choice my freshmen year in high school.   I could probably make the high school team but I was going to be a backup catcher at best or I was going to be the #2 singles tennis player on a high school team that was going to compete for state title.  I chose tennis.  It wasn't until I had kids that baseball took over from my tennis.   It is just going to be different after this years high school season.  I just don't know how much different yet. I realize I may have twisted the OPs question: "What is your son doing when he finished with baseball" but I can't help to think what will I do as well.  

Fenway,

I loved your post.  Kudos to you for letting your son drive the bus!

Fenway, you can twist my posts anytime. That was fantastic. Thank you for sharing. Best of luck to all your sons!

My son is 24 after finishing his college playing Spring of 2013. He tried to play his last summer ball after the season but unfortunately his college coach (who left after the World Series) threw his arm off and pitched one game and was done. He rehabbed his ailments and went to school to take more classes that fall. Thinking ball was all but over for him as well he got a call in May of 2014 to come play for a low-tier Indy league. He figured why not and packed his bags to go play. He hadn't faced a live batter all year long but still threw with some of his former college buddies regularly. By summers end he had gone from closer to the #2 Starter with a 4-0 record, 3 saves and led the league with the lowest ERA. And hit some velocity he never knew he had. Some affiliated teams called interested and has some irons in the fire for this Spring for some private tryouts. He threw today for a very good AA Indy team pitching coach today at our high school field. He's just trying to figure out if he still has a future in the game he loves like many others before him. I think last summer was really a litmus test for him to see if he still had anything left for the game. After a month in he said that if he was being knocked around, walking a lot, and starving (lol) he was going to pack it in and come home. He was quite surprised to find out that he could still pitch and succeed at a new level. We'll see.

The one thing that I found interesting as I read this discussion was those players who had played a couple of years of MiLB and are now out of the game pursuing their new lives and careers. Some I know had played D1 baseball and were stars while others were drafted out of high school. It is just surprising to me I guess that they were able to hang the cleats up and not go after that chance to play the game like through Indy ball. Not these players in particular but in general. Where or what makes some players give it up while others continue to pursue the dream? Just an interesting thought that I was thinking. (which is a dangerous thing for me some days!)

YGD

I think age has a lot to do with it. And the realization that the goal is no longer attainable, starting on a MLB team. My son loves the game and will be playing at least one more year, but he is playing because he believes he can still attain his goal. He feels he got a bum deal with untimely injuries. He is one season removed from affiliated ball, and hopes to play well enough this season to get another shot. If it does not come, there is only so long you can earn 1200 a month for 6 months or so...

I am looking forward to a great season and will watch in person as many games as I can afford to, just in case this is the final season.

Wow....what a great topic.

My son is in his junior year and hopes to be drafted.  As a recruited walk on as a parent I spent many hours worrying because he simply refused to discuss anything other then making it to the mlb.  He said a back up plan is a plan to allow for failure.  There has been no movement in discussing a future outside of baseball.

What has changed is the way I look at him and his future.  I see how his pure work ethic and ability to fight through TONS of disappointment, adversity, unfairness and any other adjective you can use for baseball has led to his prospects at being drafted becoming legitimate.  

As a practical person, I fall back on the fact that he has promised me he will finish his degree from a solid, regionally prestigious school.....hopefully after giving pro ball a shot.  I have respect for him I didn't have before and now look at what I once characterized as being short sighted or not living in reality, Determination, a trait that has allowed him to exceed far beyond what many expected and it is those traits and the lessons he has learned in this process that allow me as a parent to universally have faith in him.  Whenever the time is, whatever he chooses to do, he has the skill set to succeed.....because of college baseball.

What a great ride it has been to gain that clear faith in my son and his future.  Nothing will surprise me.  He could be drafted this year, and I want that for him as he deserves it.  He could be overlooked, not for the first time....the down side of that is that he gets his degree and another season to have a shot at his dream. If he's not drafted then, he will use all this experience and apply it to life/career other then baseball.  It's hard for me to see the negative now when we seemed surrounded by it for so long.  

For 2015, I wish you all the peace and satisfaction that has filled me.  

The goal to play on the ML field is very unattainable for most. Lots of times it has to do with being in the right place at the right time. Injuries are probably the biggest reason why most dont attain their goal to play on the ML field.  

The older the player becomes the less and less the chance becomes.  It is very very hard for an older free agent not on a 40 man roster (but with affiliate and ML experience) to make the ML team, and it is even harder for a free agent never drafted to get on one as well. You find these type of former players in the winter leagues playing for a chance to get picked up with a decent milb free agent contract and an invite to big league camp and it only happens for a few.  

The importance of big league camp for any milb or free agent player is so that the decision makers can evaluate you in person.  Very rarely will a player not ever seen by the manager and coaches get up to the ML field.  This is hard for most to understand, it took a long time for son to figure this out. 

I understand it all, I have a player that is looking at the possibility of never playing again in proball, its very difficult, but you do have to let them figure it out for themselves.

Indyball is very difficult, but there are some leagues (Atlantic for example) that are very good and run successful teams. The pay is horrible, and if you need money that is not where you are going to make a living. So therefore some do find it easy to give it up and begin new careers, unless you have some money stashed away or a fantastic job in the off season.  That is the only way you can survive.  On my sons Indy team last summer there were guys making some serious money, former ML players.  AA and AAA guys didnt get paid very much.  These leagues, because of roster restaints and no farm system,  use pitchers very poorly. 

Calisport, if your son is drafted and they will pay for him to finish school, then he should sign, no matter where he falls.  If they will not, he has to understand the importance of returning and finishing what he started.