The best hitters in history fail seven times out of ten. That makes it one of the hardest places for a kid to keep his head — and one of the best places to learn how.
The best hitters fail seven times out of ten. A kid has to keep walking up to the plate through an 0-for-a-month stretch.
Long pauses between pitches, all of them spent thinking. What he does on the walk back from a strikeout decides the next at-bat.
An outfielder can go three innings without a ball. Then one comes, and he has to be ready for it.
Errors go in the scorebook with his name next to them. Owning one without blaming the hop is a skill.
A season will put all twelve of these in front of a kid somewhere. These four come up most often in baseball, and they come up hardest when it's going badly — which is why they're the ones worth naming first.
His coach is working on his swing and his glove. The car is where he works out what an error or a strikeout means about him. That part is yours.
You“You have to get your glove down on those.”
You“After that error, what were you hoping on the next ball?”
Kid“That it wouldn't come to me.”
A field can't give a kid twenty “where's the play?” decisions in ten minutes. The first inning shows him the answer and can't cost him an out; the hints come off as he proves he doesn't need them.
Baseball is where these show up in a particular way — long gaps, a lot of time alone with a mistake. Other sports put the same twelve qualities under different pressure.