Kids on the Road

I'm in transit at the moment. I'm returning from the Junior Pan Am Baseball tournament in Ixtapa, Mexico. It was an interesting event to witness, especially for the first time. The games were played on three very simple fields in very small towns located throughout the small coastal communities. At one of the fields each morning they would have to chase the goats off of the field before the players took the field to warm up.

Also interesting was to see a selection of the some of the 'Americas' top talent. I over heard many U.S. kid's parents describing different events they had attended throughout the summer in various cities across the country. It is unreal to think that many of these kids spent no more than 2 weeks in their own beds throughout the summer. How their parents afford it I have no idea but the committment level on all sides, by the parent and the kid are unreal.

It got me thinking about my own youth and the level of seriousness with which I approached the game. I was borderline nuts about it. I used to stand under the streetlight outside my house and practice my swing, using the shadow from the light as a sort of feedback tool to see my mechanics. I used the same streetlight to practice pop ups, particularly good I thought for training to play in dimly lit amateur parks throughout Minnesota.

Along the way my parents were very supportive. My father threw me batting practice nearly ever day until he had a heart attack. My mother worked hard and made sure that I always had money for new spikes and made games whenever they were remotely near. I don't however beleive we could have afforded to send me on a summer long tour to play in various events geared toward getting kids signed into professional baseball. I'm not sure I would've wanted to.

After all, there were real games to be played, against real opponents, in small towns where winning and losing was more important than how fast you ran to first.