Disappointment

As a parent when your kids have a major disappointment you experience it right along with them. Case in point, Andrew's attempt to make the baseball team at his high school.

Andrew's been playing baseball since he was seven but in the past couple of years playing the game has become an obsession with him. He went from simply enjoying playing with his buddies to being determined to become a really good ball player and he began to dream about playing in high school and college. To that end he's been working his butt off, both on and off the field during both the fall and spring seasons, and the off seasons as well for the past couple of years.

Andrew's biggest strength has always been his hitting. He's got a good eye, is patient at the plate and makes contact with the ball pretty consistently. Since he turned 13 and started to grow like mad he turned into a real power hitter with a very impressive slugging percentage but he also recognized his weaknesses as a player and he has worked so hard to improve in those areas.

So last week he was both nervous and excited when try-out day came. As tempting as it was to go watch I stayed away, I didn't want to embarrass him. He came home feeling very satisfied, saying he felt like it had gone really well, he'd done better than usual in the fielding drills and hit every pitch he was thrown, driving three all the way to the center field fence which is 350 feet.

He was expecting to hear either way sometime this past weekend but no call. So yesterday afternoon the phone rings and it's one of the assistant coaches. Andrew didn't make the team. 28 kids tried out for two spots and both spots went to freshman players. Andrew is a sophomore. I knew how disappointed Andrew was going to be so I wasn't looking forward to telling him but he took it better than I expected.

As yesterday evening wore on I couldn't help but notice that Andrew wasn't acting like himself and as I suspected he was trying not to let on to how frustrated he was feeling. He has, I believe, a tendency to be too hard on himself, but I felt reassured after we talked a bit by the fact that he wasn't feeling frustrated with how he had performed at the try out. He knew that he had done the best he could and that made me realize just how much he's matured recently.

Sometimes in life, no matter how hard you try, your best just isn't good enough. It's not one of life's pleasanter lessons to learn but sometimes that's just how it is. He hasn't given up though, he's still determined to improve and continue playing even though it won't be for his high school. He'll age out of Pony at the end of the 2006 spring season but there are other leagues and as long as he still wants to play, I'll support him in every way I can.