I'm not sure what it is about baseball but I love it. I love the sound of it - the slow hum that cascades imperceptibly into a crescendo of action; the sharp clash of wood beating leather and the strong snap of the glove catching a fly ball. I love the cheers of the crowd and the buzz of the lights. Oh, the crackle of the radio in the dark heat of summer; how I love those old, deep voices that bring to life the story of the game; that open our hearts to the humble heroes of America's game - the original ball players.
Let's take a dive into the talent pool. America’s got talent. A lot of talent. What it doesn’t have though is time and a cohesive system to identify and develop that talent to maturity. The short timeline for the development of talent undermines the country's ability to succeed at the highest level. A multitude of factors play a role, yet the most influential is the win now mentality driven by the demands of college and youth sport. This mentality - and the money behind it - dominates the American sport landscape; it leads to early selection and deselection, myopic views of talent, and the narrowing of the playing pool before most athletes have time to emerge and fully develop. Recruiting accelerates the timeline. We expect more from athletes at an earlier age. We evaluate them at an earlier age. We select and deselect them at an earlier age. The consequence is that an abundance of talent drops out of the pathway, or goes unidentified and undeveloped. A number of factor...
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