Slumps are nothing.

A few weeks ago, as the global pandemic was beginning to make itself known here in the US, my son learned that his baseball career was over. He played college baseball at Missouri Western University. This was his final year of collegiate baseball. He knew this was his final season, and he had made peace with that. He is ready to graduate in May and move on with his life. But no one, least of all him, saw things ending the way they did. It was not a hit nor walk nor strikeout...a win or a loss...it was a virus that brought his career, and that of thousands of other collegiate athletes, to an abrupt end. This was the end of a journey that started many years ago, in our backyard.

A little boy learning to hit a ball. This has been repeated millions of times since the invention of baseball in the early 1800's. Fathers...mothers...sons...daughters....a bat and a ball.
Baseball is a ruthless game. It is failure with small bursts of success sprinkled in. At every level, failure is the norm. Yet it is a game that we love none-the-less. And Jack took to it immediately and never let it go. From that time to now, it has been a big part of his life. I couldn't even begin to calculate the number of swings, ground balls, fly balls, etc etc he has taken and fielded. And of course there is weight training, film study, and team building.
There is also injury, disappointment, politics, and rivalry. The little boy above had surgery on his knee in 2016 and suffered life-threatening pulmonary embolisms afterwards. All for baseball.

I too have a few baseball scars...taking line drives off my chins that I could not block coming off his bat. Getting hit hurts! But we kept going.
To say I am proud of him is an understatement. Regardless of batting average or any other baseball metric, I am most proud of his dedication, resilience, and work ethic. And his sportsmanship. He gives back to others and uses his talent to lift others up.
I remember a time when he was in a slump and looking for anything to get out of it. It is a helpless feeling for a player to go from hitting everything the pitcher throws to not being able to hit anything!
He kept at it...kept grinding and trying...and finally he connected for a home run to break the slump. He signed the ball and gave it to me.

"To Dad...slumps are nothing"