njbb-very well said

What else is there to say except best wishes and prayers for your son and his future endeavors.

Heybatter ...

Have been silent as this thread has grown ... and have enjoyed the wonderful posts about your son. Seems as tho God has given him some wonderfully mature insight for a young man and that he knows he has been blessed in many ways, not the least of which has been his baseball life.

Hope this doesn't mean you will be silent here, tho, as I too have enjoyed your posts and feel that you have a lot to contribute.

Best wishes for a wonderfully blessed future for your son and your family.

Heybatter,

You have an incredible son!! I think this thread has to immediately go GOLDEN !

Catchersdad

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

------Robert Frost
The Road Not Taken

Frost....my favorite poem.....thanks PAmom....think from all the postings...we are all acknowledging that our sons will stop playing some day.....we will all get that call....Can only hope we go about it with as much understanding, love and appreciation for each other....and what is really important in this life... as HeyBatter and his son have shown.....

HeyBatter, was watching one of my all time favorites, Field of Dreams, when I read your posts.
Dr. "Moonlight" Graham, talking about his short career, put things in a very nice perspective. In response to a comment that "it was a shame" how his baseball career was limited, "Doc" ,talks about "what would have been a shame" was if his being a doctor of medicine was limited to 5 minutes.
Sounds like your son has had a wonderful and rewarding baseball experience. Sounds also like he may well have a future as enriching and fulfilling as Dr. Graham and realizes what a "shame" it might be if he does not experience that life to its fullest. Think he deserves a huge round of and wish you and he all the very, very best.

HeyBatter:

My heart goes out to you, and my hat is off to you. We've tried hard in my family to help our children understand the importance of not moving away from something, but rather moving forward to something. It may simply be the other side of the same coin, but in a nutshell... Set your goals, set your strategy, proceed, revisit, alter as necessary, procede. But always forward. ...always positive.

It sounds like your son has a great handle on that. It sounds like you've taught him well. All the best to him, and to you, for future memories together.

FloridaHokie:

quote:

...always forward. ...always positive.

Absolutely agree! Nice post.

Theres nothing that i can say hear that hasnt already been said excpet for, not only is this thread been a wake up call for parents to take nothing for granted because someday their child will "hang 'em up" but I would also like to add that it is a wake up call for each and every ballplayer out there. Someday it will end and for me being a junior in highschool it seems like my baseball career will go on till im 90 years old because, heck I'm a teenager I'm invincible and i will always play baseball" This thread just planted a seed in my head that, for every game I play is one game closer to my last.....HeyBatter I'm sorry to hear about your son, but i would also like to thank you for personally teaching me the importance of playing hard every game. So thank you and good luck with whatever your family and son decides to do.

BD2579:

You've got a good head on your shoulders...I'm not going to worry about you...keep up the good posts kid.

Hey Batter,

When I made that same call to my folks, they were very disappointed. My own son took his last swing in HS last year - I knew it, and I was a bit sad, but also thoughtful about his liberation from the sports yoke.

Your son has decided to be LIBERATED. and that is a good thing. Celebrate for him, if you can.

My mother recently had a serious heart disease issue. After several decades, she finally said "Thanks for the memories, not baseball, just you, your wife and my grandchildren." She finally got it. Perhaps that is why I have gotten it, ahead of time, with my own son.

we are going through this same thing with our son who is a Senior in highschool. he went to a Shocase camp in Nov. and then decided that he did not not want to play after highschool. He does still want to play summer ball though. but we did tell him it makes no sense to play for the same team as last year if he has no desire to go farther. the cost and travel will not be worth. All of the other boys are playing college ball. He did agree. We hope that he has a GREAT highschool and change his mind but we doubt it.

We are looking forward to see what he fills his time with and what direction he decides to go. It is scary and depressing that this time is over for him. But we have to realize that he needs to make the decision that is right for him. His summer coach understood be cause he did the same thing as your son. He was in his sophmore year I believe also and decided he just didn't want it anymore. He loves the game still but would rather coach.

It has been a touchy situation for us a littel though. be cause our son did tell someone else that he thought we were pressuring him to do college ball. whaich I don't think we ever were. But we did want to know if he still wanted to play his senior year this year. He did say he does. I told him to be sure he is doing it because HE WANTS TO. He assured me he is. The last thing we ever want is for our boys to feel is pressure to do anything.

I commend you for the way that you are handling this situation and I know what you are going through and how hard it can be. And I loved your comment."I can't thank him enough for all the good times and all the memories". I will share that with my son also. So thank you for posting this when I didn't have the courage.

I think it can often be a difficult thing to truly see something through someone else's eyes. We don't have the same experiences, dreams, or expectations.

My now college son, was sharing some very deep feelings with me last summer when his HS career ended. He was tearful over several things including telling me how he felt so bad for the guys that weren't going on to play college ball and that he would "do anything to keep being a part of this game". I understood and respected his feelings and concern about his teammates. However, I pointed out to him that all of his teammates didn't have that same desire to play college ball. Some of them were completely satisfied with going on to college and pursuing other dreams in their lives. It can be difficult for us to understand when we enjoy something so much and want it to continue to be a part of "our" lives how someone else feels differently.

Hey Batter,
Your post about you son had an impact on myself as well. Over the past 2 years I have been working hard to become a Major League Baseball player and becauce of that I have also missed out on a few things. Now I don't regret doing that though because I REALLY want to become a big league ballplayer. But, your post made me realize something, I need to start enjoying every baseball game I play even more than I already do. I am only 15 and I don't want it to become a job just yet.(it isn't, BTW) You never know when it might end due to, injury, better opportunities, etc. Thank you for sharing that with us, it brought a tear to my eye also and it made me rethink the way I am treating my games. That is exactly what it is, A GAME. Thank you and I wish the best of luck for you and your son.

-Kevin

Pamom: - My favorite poem - thank you for posting it.

Whichever path your son takes, if he is happy and healthy, it just gets better and better. Treasure each day that you share your lives.

Sue54:

Thanks for finding the courage and posting your story...there are some good lessons in your story for all of us.

I have never thought about the call until this post....

Don't know why, maybe I love this roller coaster of emotions in the ever shrinking baseball world.

HB: Thanks for the post, but it seems that you have nothing to fear...Your t-baller has become a man. That's what all of us want in the end.

Bullwinkle

HeyBatter---

My real post on your touching thread is in AParent's thread, Where have all the young men gone, in the General Forum. Our situations are (WERE, for me) so similar I could only muster my mantra for the past three years, The Road Not Taken. Your post took my breath away.

YOU already have a have a handle on the situation. You will be FINE, as your son is already. Life goes on without baseball...it simply veers down another path...

Since my "real" post belongs here, I will reproduce it below:

--------------------------------
Three years ago nearly to the DAY, my son returned to campus after Christmas break his sophomore year, walked into his coach's office, and after agonizing over his decision for MONTHS, exited a baseball program that had brought him more grief than fun---grief that none of us saw coming (YES, TR, we did our homework!). He thought about transferring, but since his choice of schools was based on academics FIRST, he decided to stay---without baseball for the first time in his (and Mom's and Dad's) life.

I don't care to rehash the circumstances again (still an open wound for me three years out), but many of you real old timers on this incredible website literally saved me from losing my mind at the time. I have been FOREVER grateful to my friends here for reaching out in my time of quiet (OK---not so quiet!) desperation. I DID have to step away for awhile to catch my bearings again, but I just couldn't leave for good, despite the occasional twinges of nostalgic pain. I haven't been able to post in HeyBatter's thread (except for the Robert Frost poem, The Road Not Taken), "Got the CALL"---about his son's decision to hang up the cleats, because I have a lot of trouble reliving that period of time in our lives---but I SO know what he is going through. And it is absolutely TRUE that we parents take "the end" so much harder than our sons do.

Mike (my son) didn't skip a beat and moved on to other interests and talents. He played baseball in a local semi-pro league for a couple of years when home those summers for his baseball fix. On campus he turned to passion #2, which is theater and the creative arts. He graduated from John Carroll University in suburban Cleveland last May with a BA in Communications (theater, writing, broadcasting emphasis) and a minor in English---and not the MVP baseball trophy he'd maybe envisioned at the start, but the university's equivalent of "Best Actor" award after starring in many campus productions. He remained in Cleveland after graduation, working part-time while half-heartedly hunting for a "real" job (writing, advertising, marketing)---but really was a practicing starving-artist-in-training.

Just last weekend, Mike moved back home to PA for the short term (with our "permission" and full support) after making the gutsy career decision to "go for it while the window of opportunity is open"---the one he didn't allow himself to make with baseball. Eventually, he will enroll in an acting school or studio in either Chicago or New York (he is researching both), and give it a shot. No rose-colored glasses...no grand illusions of fame...just pursuing a challenge and a dream and a love...with NO REGRETS.

Baseball lives forever in our heart space, but I am here to tell you that there IS life after baseball, and that "way (DOES) lead on to way," and that sometimes "the road less traveled" is the one that can "make all the difference."

As Ever,
PAmom