south paw hit it on the nail. Education is key to everything in life.
Looking for a professional sport’s life has many cruel reality checks for the young. Unfortunately, youth has that sustainable drive that experience, beyond the teen years, is blind to the horizons ahead. Being somewhat confrontable with one’s surroundings, being with, or above, the local talent, is just peachy waking up and walking out the door, knowing where one’s going. Then there’s having three meals of a day and roof over one’s head, that fit nicely into said confrontable zone, without having to pay for those items.
Unfortunately, those with real talent, and I mean real… honest to goodness talent, are treated differently, without having to worry too much about planning for a future in the world that the rest of us live in. These people are special, very special. They’re the privileged, the gifted, the people that just have IT. They’re catered to, patronized, and you know them just by watching what they do…just different.
So, without seeming like a dark cloud over someone’s head, raining on the parade…just listen to some advice from someone that’s seen life on both sides of the fence. So here it is:
If you have the gifted talent to play baseball like it was in you at birth, if you are sought after by a lot of people to be on their side, if you have people that will introduce you to one program after another (because it’s in their best interests, not yours), if you fit all the stereotypes of what you are - not what you should be, then go for a life with the flicker of a road flare.
On the other hand… if you have to work your butt off, practice till the sweat is no more, live a life of solitude because you’re just not good enough to somebody, in addition to no one really cares who or what you can do (you know what I mean), then I strongly advise everyone to hit the books, prepare for the realities head … because fella… you’re about to hit a stop sign that’ll have you doing the dance-of-the-seven-break pedals. Whatever your banking on today, I don’t care what it is, plan on it not being there tomorrow.