Despite my love for baseball, I was always a mediocre player. In little league, I typically played second base or outfield, but lacked quickness, and my arm always seemed weaker than my size would suggest. At bat, I had some power and the ability to drive the ball deep, but no eye for distinguishing borderline pitches.
My pal Randy, on the other hand, was a natural. As a twelve-year-old, he pitched a no-hitter and hit three home runs in the same game. It came easily to him. In pickup games, I kept up with Randy, pitch for pitch, hit for hit. Yet, by the end of the little league season, Randy was first team All-Star and I was a spectator. Randy was a physically gifted athlete, but unlike some of us who fretted failure and embarrassment, Randy was fearless. He played little league like he was playing a pick-up game: always loose, with the goal of having fun. Making the right play seemed second nature to Randy, but I always found myself in my head, analyzing the situation, visualizing where to throw the ball if it came my way, only to have it whiz by just beyond my reach. Baseball is like that.
Baseball is hard. The best hitters in major league get on base only about one third of the time, and there have been only a handful of perfect games pitched in the history of baseball--where the pitcher doesn't allow anyone on base for the entire game. As a kid, I thought anyone who played in the majors must be a superstar. Yet, even at the highest level, most major leaguers seem average when compared to the few truly gifted players who possess all the proper attributes. Mind you, no major leaguer is an average baseball player. They are in fact, the best 750 or so in America, but compared to the few ultra-talented, most major leaguers appear average. These average players may remain playing at the highest level for years, often bouncing from team to team. This is if they remain healthy and capable of playing at the highest levels. The physicality of the game sometimes ends careers much sooner than we expect. Even a successful major leaguer can quickly fade into obscurity. They may finish their careers with an obscure statistic that gets buried in the annals of baseball, but all in all, they will retire in their thirties without much fanfare and move on to new careers.