Better Luck Next Year
I always read the Washington Post every morning. Love the Times, but there's nothing like your hometown paper. I always go right to the sports page, after a quick perusal of today's headlines.
Today, there was an interesting article about getting cut from your high school team. This one focused on a soccer team but it doesn't matter. The feeling is the same. Whether it be soccer, or football, or the school play.
Brent(my twin brother) and I tried out for baseball freshman year at West Springfield High School. WSHS is known for being a baseball powerhouse. We have obnoxious bumper stickers that say, "We don't rebuild, we reload". We have a sprinkler system for the varsity field. So we knew it was going to be difficult.
Baseball was always my favorite sport. When we played soccer, we always lost. One year, our parents gave us trophies simply to give us trophies. (So we didn't feel like losers?) But it had the opposite effect. The Purple Panthers all felt pretty low that day.
But then we played baseball and our luck immediately changed. Our single A team the Athletics went all the way to the playoffs, and won! We won the regular season and the playoffs. And all of our teams did really well. Brent and I were even bumped up to the 'majors' at the end of our triple AAA season for their playoffs.
Unfortunately, on the day of tryouts it rained. And we had to go through the various drills in the basketball gym. It's stressful enough having to throw a ball 90 feet, but try throwing it in a basketball gym where there's so many obstructions! It makes you nervous. And also, try fielding balls off a gym floor. It sounds like it might be easier but just the strangeness of it throws you off.
Needless to say, we got cut. We didn't even make the first cut. And that hurt so much we didn't try out the next year. I bet the next year, we could have made it. Freshman year they just took pitchers and catchers anyway. I bet maybe we could have done well. But we'll never know. We gave up.
I don't think I ever got as crushed about not making plays because there were always so many more chances. At least two big plays a year, and then many small ones. So there was always a chance to be in something. But for baseball it was just the one chance. And we blew it.
So read this article. And how this one kid also blew it. But the best part about it? He's going to try out next year. He didn't make the team freshman year or sophomore year and he's actually going to try out as a junior for the JV team. That's persistence. There's something really quite awesome about that. Dusting yourself off and trying again. It's like Joe Cocker sings, "Who knows what tomorrow brings?"
Who knows?
Today, there was an interesting article about getting cut from your high school team. This one focused on a soccer team but it doesn't matter. The feeling is the same. Whether it be soccer, or football, or the school play.
Brent(my twin brother) and I tried out for baseball freshman year at West Springfield High School. WSHS is known for being a baseball powerhouse. We have obnoxious bumper stickers that say, "We don't rebuild, we reload". We have a sprinkler system for the varsity field. So we knew it was going to be difficult.
Baseball was always my favorite sport. When we played soccer, we always lost. One year, our parents gave us trophies simply to give us trophies. (So we didn't feel like losers?) But it had the opposite effect. The Purple Panthers all felt pretty low that day.
But then we played baseball and our luck immediately changed. Our single A team the Athletics went all the way to the playoffs, and won! We won the regular season and the playoffs. And all of our teams did really well. Brent and I were even bumped up to the 'majors' at the end of our triple AAA season for their playoffs.
Unfortunately, on the day of tryouts it rained. And we had to go through the various drills in the basketball gym. It's stressful enough having to throw a ball 90 feet, but try throwing it in a basketball gym where there's so many obstructions! It makes you nervous. And also, try fielding balls off a gym floor. It sounds like it might be easier but just the strangeness of it throws you off.
Needless to say, we got cut. We didn't even make the first cut. And that hurt so much we didn't try out the next year. I bet the next year, we could have made it. Freshman year they just took pitchers and catchers anyway. I bet maybe we could have done well. But we'll never know. We gave up.
I don't think I ever got as crushed about not making plays because there were always so many more chances. At least two big plays a year, and then many small ones. So there was always a chance to be in something. But for baseball it was just the one chance. And we blew it.
So read this article. And how this one kid also blew it. But the best part about it? He's going to try out next year. He didn't make the team freshman year or sophomore year and he's actually going to try out as a junior for the JV team. That's persistence. There's something really quite awesome about that. Dusting yourself off and trying again. It's like Joe Cocker sings, "Who knows what tomorrow brings?"
Who knows?
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