When I was growing up I wanted nothing more than to be a professional athlete. To tell you the truth, that dream still exists, but now my prospects are a little less hopeful, to say the least. If you ask any guy you know, chances are pretty good that they feel the same way. Everyone that you would ask probably believes that either they were never given the opportunity to truly shine in their sport; or that they weren't playing the right sport. Both are true for my self, if I had made the 12 year-old travel team my career would have really sky-rocketed, and I'm pretty sure my true calling was in either tennis or soccer.
For some of us, those missed opportunities really were unfortunate happenings that stunted the beginning of a fabulous career. But for the rest of us we just never could accept that our uncoordinated, gangly, short, slow, fat, etc.... selves could not become the next Derek Jeter or hell, even the next David Eckstein. But lo and behold our collective laziness, disinterest and poor general health kept us from being superstars, or is it. In order to not blame my lack of ability, I'm going to blame it on the advent of super athletes.
Mel Ott, Willie Mays, and Mickey Mantle all 500 HR hitters. Baseball players forever etched into the very fabric of America's pastime. All three under 6 feet tall. Three of the most dominant players of their respective generations and all three were no more than 3 inches taller than me. In fact only two of the members of the 500 HR club that finished their careers before I was born (1989) weighed more than 200 pounds (Babe Ruth and Ted Williams). Of all the players that played while I have been alive only two weighed less than 200 pounds, Gary Sheffield and Mike Schmidt. Quite a shift, eh? The reason I am going to focus on baseball is because it is the sport that anyone could most reasonably expect to play in. You don't have to be tall like in basketball. You don't have to be a finely tuned human battering ram like in football. And you don't have to be able to skate on ice as in hockey. Baseball is America's pastime, something everyone played, whether it be t-ball, coach pitch, or high school ball, everyone experienced it in some way or another. But now it is getting to the point where the average sized man (5'9" 168lbs according to http://www.halls.md) cannot expect to be on the same plane as these super athletes that currently populate the MLB. Of course there are exceptions like David Eckstein, Rafael Furcal, most 2nd basemen. But for the most part those players are stuck playing the traditional light hitting positions and usually not playing much longer than 5-8 years.
Basically, what I am getting at is that these super athletes now eat sleep and breathe their sport. Pro sports isn't a part time job like it used to be considered. It's a 24/7 365 job, and it's something that only the best of the best can afford to spend all their time working toward. These kids, who usually start in middle school, are travelling training and playing so much at such a young age that the kids who don't have the means or the raw talent at such an early age are just left in the dust. We all dream of hitting that game winning home run in the ninth, or scoring that game winning touchdown in the super bowl, or even scoring the game winning goal in the Stanley Cup, but the truth of the matter is that unless your parents are ready from the second that you pop out to train you into one of these super athletes, you chances of going pro are slim to none.
Depressing I know. But ask your think about this, these athletes who do nothing but play their sport, lose their passion for the game. To a lot of them, it's not fun anymore, it's a job. And we'll be there on the sidelines when they are complaining about trying, yelling at them, "you have the greatest job in the world, quit bitching!" But the game just completely changes for these guys. In the end, I would never give up how I feel about sports, winning and competition in general to be a professional athlete if it meant I'd lose my passion for the game. Which ever game it may be.
