As Requested:

This was written at the end of the Fall season last year as all of the boys were involved in High School try outs throughout the Houston area:

Baseball

The end of January with the cool Winter weather showing signs of improvement brings certain memories to people.  As for myself, I am always given to fantasies of baseball.  The slightly uncomfortable, yet euphoric feeling of throwing  the ball back and forth with an ever increasing intensity as you slowly distance yourself from your partner, ever increasing your efforts, watching the steam as you exhale warm air from your lungs as it is introduced to the cool morning air as the muscle and tendons in your throwing arm loosen and become acclimated to the stress required to throw harder and harder in an effort to show others around you that, hey, I'm strong than you, I can throw harder than you, I am special.

The end of January brings the stress and excitement that can only be experienced with the impending spectacle of Texas High School Baseball tryouts.  A time when the thousands of Freshmen throughout the state contemplate showing up on Friday afternoon when all of the other students are heading home after a long week of school work, to put their baseball skills on display in hopes of securing one of the coveted spots on their high school baseball team.

Of the many who think that they have what it takes to make it to one of the final teams, only about one in four will actually make it through the cuts, and only about 60 to 70 percent of them will play regularly throughout the spring high school season.  Yet, they will go straight to the ballpark right after school on Friday and compete until 7 or 8pm, go home and sleep a few hours before showing back up for a long grueling day of workouts on Saturday that are designed to separate the weaker players from the ones who have been dedicated for years in order to be successful on this particular weekend, thus making the coaches inevitable decisions a little easier.  

At the end of the weekend, after all of the hard work that has been put in, and all of the data and film has been reviewed, the coaches have to determine who will make it through the first cut, which is usually posted for all to see on Monday morning.

Even those boys who have worked in high level baseball programs throughout the entire Fall and Winter off season have to go home and spend the rest of an extremely stressful weekend wondering if they performed well enough to grab the attention of one or more of the coaches.  Did they run fast enough, throw hard enough, swing the bat well enough or even display the proper attitude that would impress the coaching staff, making them believe that you are that kid...  The one that they want to dedicate their time, talents and efforts to attempting to turn you into a real college, or possibly even professional prospect.

It is a difficult thing to watch one of your own children have to deal with this level of stress for probably the first time in their life.  Walking around the house with an uncharacteristically surly, quick tempered demeanor, with an obvious fear in his eyes that you have never seen before.  Watching him struggle to sleep, while trying to hide the fact that the longer the wait, the more fear and anxiety emanates from his voice as he goes through his every day activities.  

The first cut is devastating to the 40 or so boys that are unceremoniously removed from the program on Monday, given the standard speech attempting to inspire them to continue working hard so that they can come back next year.  

You feel their pain, but underneath your stoically calm exterior, you are incredibly relieved that your son will live to fight another day.  You know in your own mind that his talent level is on the upper end of the spectrum and on the level with the best players on display, but there is always that reservation that something could go wrong, that there could be some type of unseen forces at work that could derail his hard work after he has gotten so close to achieving this goal, allthewhile knowing that this in only the first step in a long term goal toward which he has been working unceasingly for the past few years to conquer. 

He has worked incredibly hard by pushing himself past all of the others around him and has outdistanced each and everyone who he has been pitted against simply due to his tenacity, hard work and raw talent.  You know in your heart that to fall short at this point would be totally devastating and could cause irreparable damage to his confidence and spirit, so you worry and lose sleep over it, regardless of how much you try to think about something else in order to take your mind off of it or convince yourself that there is nothing to worry about.  

As for now, we continue to wait, hoping that he will show up after school with good news.   And wait...  And wait... And wait...

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