“I don’t care.”
I guarantee some won’t understand this and some will say “You’re wrong!” But here you go. This was part of my growth as an athlete.
I was the same as dang near every youth athlete. I would hold onto mistakes. I would get upset with what I thought were umpires mistakes. I would blame my coaches. I would play scorekeeper in my head when my teammates made errors. When the game was over I would think way more about all of the mistakes everyone else made except my own.
These moments of weakness would turn one walk into two. Turn a bad inning into a bad game. Turn a bad game into a month long slump. And make seasons seem more like a roller coaster than steady progress.
Looking back on it, I had to go through these moments. They were completely necessary to get to where I would eventually get. I had to get knocked down enough times but get back up more. But when I finally snapped out of it and stopped being a weak competitor and teammate, everything changed.
I finally got to that point of “it doesn’t matter!” “I don’t care!” “So what!”
I walked a batter, so what, let’s get the next guy to hit a ground ball. Teammate made an error, so what, let’s get the next guy. The umpire missed a pitch call, oh well, let’s execute the next pitch.
For me, I became a better competitor when I stopped caring. I know that sounds weird and wrong but that’s the best way I can describe it, in the moment I had to not care how we got there to be all in on the next pitch. That was my job.
Founder of Baseball Dudes. Blessed with three beautiful children and an amazing wife. Baseball is my life, after my family, and I love sharing what I have learned from it. Thanks for taking the time to view what we offer here at Baseball Dudes.
