November 16, 2006
A mom's eye view
By Karlsie
Someone recently asked me, "Now that it's the off season, what do you do for your baseball fix?"
There's an off season? Oh sure, there's no ball being played down the street at Fenway, but that doesn't mean there aren't things to follow. Look at the insanity of the Japanese "posting" system that may bring Matsuzaka to Boston. Trying to explain how bidding is different from negotiations and that the 51 million is not what he gets paid but what the Lions get paid is really difficult for people to get their heads around.
I still spend my days checking the Sox website for news releases and then maybe poking my head in on a few discussions here and there. Mostly, right now, I'm watching something interesting happen with one of my boys. He has decided he wants to be a pitcher.
The funny thing is, he's not in that hard core category of "baseball is everything or I will die" mode so many of his middle school peers are moving into. He is being somewhat ... dare I say it? ... scientific about it. He figured out that there are some winter clinics nearby he'd like to attend. He has a plan to try playing for the middle school team to get "a sense of the pressure" he'd experience and is trying to figure out how this all balances with his other interests.
But I find it interesting to watch the one kid I never thought had a real affinity for the game demand I measure him daily because he believes, to be a good pitcher, you must be at least 6' tall and, at the age of 13, he's only 5'11." (Which he often states with the eye roll and disdain that a 13 year old can truly muster.) Almost like he doesn't want to let himself think about this seriously until he hits this magic mark he thinks he must hit. Sometimes I want to pinch myself to see if it's a dream - this is the boy that used to chase butterflies in the outfield during little league. His brothers were the ones that were intense about the game - not him. His brothers have gone onto to running and lacrosse while he stayed with baseball, quietly growing into the game.
Rather than take the approach "it's all about baseball" - he is interested in what else players do. For example, he took up golf this year. He knows that baseball players tend to be intelligent, so he studies hard. He asks about the physics of baseball - how does a curve ball curve and other sorts of questions along those lines. So you see what I mean when I say "scientific."
While I know the odds of making it beyond high school ball are slim and slimmer still beyond college - there is that piece of me that wonders if people will be talking about him the way we discuss players? Will people be discussing his fantasy baseball values? Will I turn on XM and hear people call him a bum or a savior?
I have to admit, if I spoke Japanese, I'd love to sit down with Matsuzaka's mother and say, "So how do you handle it? How do you handle the reports and the stories and ... well, everything?"
To be honest, I know better than to even consider all that for real. Around here there are certain rules: homework first, chores second and everything else after those are done. The one thing this whole thing has done for me is it really has me looking at players very differently because now i'm thinking like a mom and I view those men through new eyes.
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Karlsie,
Imagine how mothers of players from impoverished areas feel. The success of their son is important for the future of their whole family. If that mother's son makes it, then the whole extended family is saved from poverty. Talk about pressure.
That makes it that much worse sonshine.
I think about that a lot when I see these kids hoping for that big break in basketball or football particularly. I also think about it when I hear about schools that go out and offer these poor kids scholarships and then don't provide the education to them for when they don't make it to the bigs.
My oldest is currently looking at colleges and I was impressed with the xcountry coach at the school he really wants to go to. The coach said, "The xcountry team has the highest GPA on campus and I intend to keep it that way." He talked about how he sees his teams as scholars and athletes and why he expects my son to take "real" classes and do well in them if he comes to the school.
Why can't more coaches be like that?
Well karlsie, I see it like this:
The xcountry coach isn't under the same pressure as the football and basketball coach are. As much as I hate to say it, xcountry running is not bringing in the money that some other sports are. The schools themselves put a premium on their cash cow sports. It's easier to be altruistic when your job isn't in jeopardy from season to season.
But it is disgusting to see what happened at the Florida game when there was the semi-riot. Education or not that's just a bunch of meat heads who wouldn't have even gotten into a junior college if they couldn't play a sport. I think it is sad that these schools need to get "students" whose only education is in the sport they play. This is why I hate most of the NCAA except the hockey.
As a parent going through the process, I can honestly say the NCAA recruitment rules are ridiculous and open for abuse and loose interpretation.
We're looking Division III schools because the emphasis is on academics, not athletics. He could be a Division II runner, but I want his focus to be "what happens after college..." not just "win one for the Gipper."
K
I went to a D III school (DePauw University in Indiana). We had a HUGE football rivalry with Wabash college (over 110 years old), and still had a fair amount football players drafted by pro teams WITHOUT the spotlight that D I schools get. If the player has talent, they'll make it. Does a D I school help? Sure. But there are more and more pro teams scouting small D III schools to find hidden talent because those kids have to work HARDER, in my opinion, just to be noticed. Deion Branch is a quick example of someone who went to a real small school (anyone know exactly where he played?)
GOod for you for choosing academics over athletcis. As a teacher, and someone who graduated from DePauw's School of Music, it's refreshing to hear a parent say that about their student athlete.
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