Taking Names and Keeping Score
Maturity and sports
Charlie Anderson
This past week I was listening to MLB Home Plate on my XM radio and got in on an interesting conversation about an outstanding young prospect that had been signed and brought into spring training by a particular major league team after they had picked him up from another team in a rule five draft.

A majority of the things being said about him were positive and focused on his athleticism and potential as a player. It was even suggested that he might be one of a limited number of players playing the game today that could be considered a five tool player. The only smudge on this otherwise beautiful picture that was being painted of him was the fact that he had been out of baseball for two years because of some problems he had had when he was with a former club involving among other things his involvement in substance abuse and multiple suicide attempts.

A history particularly hard to understand when you consider he had been drafted out of high school and signed for a reported $3.5 million dollars several years ago.

The more I listened to the discussion about this player the more I thought about how many times in the world of sports I had seen, heard or read about an outstanding athlete who for one reason or another had gotten side tracked on their way to stardom and never reached their full potential.

There were of course times when a specific injury or a number of nagging injuries, that haunted them throughout their career, relegated them to part-time playing status or ultimately ended their playing days prematurely.

More times than not though there were more of them whose failure to ever mature as an athlete and a person eventually turned the super star of tomorrow into a one day wonder. Sometimes in those cases being as blessed as they were athletically, things came too easy in the earlier years of their playing sports and they never really had to work for success.

For them, when it came time to work hard they weren't mentally prepared to do so. There were cases when a player's pure athleticism and potential for greatness attracted so much attention and drew such acclaim that they basked in the sunshine of their fame and quit working hard to further hone those God given abilities and talents they possessed. A lot of times those that fell into that category allowed themselves to be unduly influenced by things outside the world of sports.

Sometimes their downfall came from their involvement in substance abuse. Other times it was the delusion their achievement and fame put them under, that allowed them to somehow believe they were above the law and the basic rules of society.

For still others it was a case of not being able to handle all the money they were being paid that kept them in the negative spotlight and forced them to play the game they were getting paid to play under extreme pressure. In all those cases the athlete's lack of maturity had turned what should have been a formula for success into a formula for failure.

Unfortunately even at levels below those of professional sports we have young people who never reach their potential because they never achieve the maturity it takes to perform at that level. We hear and read about college athletes on a weekly if not daily basis who fall into some of the same traps their professional counter parts do and consequently never achieve the level of success they could. There is even a growing number of athletes now at the high school level who are experiencing some of the same problems and are falling short of the potential they have.

The question is, what can we do about it?

The first thing I might suggest is for all of us who are parents and/or grandparents of an aspiring athlete to avoid putting undue pressure on our child or grandchild to achieve at a level above where they should be. At the same time we need to be a realist and understand that each and every child playing sports is not going to be a super star and that quite possibly the ones we have the most interest in might be in the group that doesn't. Instead of telling them how good they are we probably should spend more time encouraging them to continue to work hard to improve the skills they have and support them in their efforts. While we're at it, we probably need to spend as much if not more time teaching them to be more selfless and a team player than focusing on what they can do as an individual. We should teach them to be the best person they can possibly be, including having proper respect for authority and the rights of others. We certainly should teach them to have respect for themselves as well and in so doing teach them to avoid those things that will negatively affect their mind, body and soul. We should remind them that "success is not always final and failure is not always fatal." Last but not least we should teach them that sports are only one aspect of life and that becoming a mature responsible individual in all aspects of life should be their goal. Then their maturity in the sports world will take care of itself.

Until next time.....be safe!

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