← Most Valuable Agent with Matt Hannaford
Most Valuable Agent with Matt Hannaford
The Car Ride Home Is Killing Your Son's Game (An MLB Agent Explains)
00:37:09
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- [00:13]
A
All right, guys, welcome back to another solo episode of the Most Valuable Agent Podcast. I'm your host, Matt Hannaford, and I am a 26 year MLB agent. I created this podcast really to help guide, you know, really just a future generation of the game, but also parents of travel baseball players. Really, really wanting to help them navigate this, as I'm sure you would agree, crazy world of travel baseball. And so one of the things that we've done recently is we've done these Q and A episodes with my producer, Mike, where we've read very specific questions from you, the listener. And so this is going to be another one of those episodes. So, Mike, we got you, buddy. You here?
- [00:51]
B
Yes, I am. Check, Check, Mike, check. I am. I am wrecking and rolling. Yeah, we. These fire. These episodes, I should say, are just been absolute fire, man. So thanks to all of you guys for your questions, your comments. We do read every single one of them, so please keep on sending them in so we can.
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A
Yes, we do.
- [01:09]
B
Yeah. And you know what? You may just be lucky enough to get them on the Most Valuable Agent podcast. So with that being said, let's dive into our first question. This is from Jesse from California. Jesse writes. Hey, Matt, awesome podcast. I was wondering if you could speak to kids who are in their junior year already. They have an advisor. They have already committed to college. They still need help understanding what their next steps are. As an example, which summer event should we attend in order to get in front of MLB scouts? Any insight about things like this would be really helpful. Keep up the great work.
- [01:46]
A
Oh, yeah, Jesse, I do remember this question. Yeah. So happy to kind of jump into this now. And I apologize if it's taken so long. I know you messaged me a little bit ago about this, but. Okay, so son is a junior in high school. It's obviously the spring season. And so we are coming up to what in the industry is really known as one of the very, you know, I'd say, like kind of the most important points in a player's potential, like draft, you know, timeline. So you have this summer that is before the senior year in high school. And so what I guess where I would start first, and I know you have an advisor, so I would certainly encourage you to talk to him. I'm sure he's going to have his own opinions on this. There are various events that are, I would say, kind of more valuable given your son and what he's looking at in the future. Just a few that I guess I can just throw out for you. So you Obviously have the WWBA in Atlanta now. Something to kind of be aware of. Okay. So the draft this year, as it's been over the last handful of years is in the middle of July. Okay. The reason I'm bringing that up is because in the past, before I'm trying to remember the year it was even call, like the 20, 20, 19, 2020 timeline, the draft was actually in the beginning of June. The event in. In Atlanta is obviously before the draft. Okay. This year. And so that does. It kind of provides a little bit of an issue for these scouts because you have these scouting directors who otherwise would be going to this event in Atlanta who no longer do because they're getting geared up for the draft in July. Also, national cross checkers who are a very important piece to this puzzle, are also going to be tied up with the 2026 draft as well. So the reason I'm bringing up this event in Atlanta is it may not be an event where you're going to. To be seen by these scouts necessarily. Even though you're going to have a bunch of area scouts there, you may choose to go to that event really, so you can get ready for more important events as the summer unfolds. Okay? So think about. There's. There's multiple reasons to go to an event. If you are a draft prospect, there are events that you choose to go to because you want to be seen by all the decision makers. And when I say decision makers, I mean the, the scouting directors and like the national guys. The other reason to go to an event is, well, look, I want to make sure that I am ready to go at these events that I really need to go to to be seen. Right? So the WWBA in Atlanta is an event that you really are going to to get geared up for the summer. Okay. Because it's right at the beginning. Another event that a lot of guys go to and talk about. It's the PG National Showcase this year. I believe they just moved it. It's in. I want to say it's in Florida. Don't hold me to that. But this year's event, it's. It's not in Arizona. I don't believe. Why am I bringing that up? That event is important if you're somebody who wants to go to the PG All American game, and the PG All American Game this year is in August, and that game was moved to Philadelphia, which they just announced recently. Okay. So I say that because if your son says, you know, I really don't. I really don't care about going to the All American Game, then you don't know, need to go to the PG National Showcase. The PG National Showcase is an event that will be highly scouted. Okay? There will be a lot of decision makers there. But if you're. If you don't have the ambition of going to the All American Game, then you don't need to go. If you do have the ambition of going to the All American Game, then you must go. PG has made a pretty big point of saying we're not just going to invite guys who don't go to this event. They do say it's a prerequisite in order to get selected. So that is another event that you want to attend, if that is important. After that you have, you have the Team USA event, which there's actually two USA events. The first is with the travel ball teams. Now that may be an event that you want to go to. If your son wants to go play for Team USA and has not been scouted by them yet, okay, that can be figured out by having a conversation with the guys at Team usa. Maybe your son is somebody who's been seen a thousand times by the USA guys. Maybe he's played for Team USA before. And so that may be something that you don't necessarily have to go to. But if he hasn't been seen and he has ambitions of playing for Team usa, then it is something that you need to go to. For players that are on the east coast, and I know that your son is not, but I want to do this for everybody whose son is going to the East Coast Pro, which is an invite only event. You have to be invited by a scout. That takes place in Birmingham, Alabama at the very end of July, going right into the very beginning of August. That is definitely an event that you want to attend. It's arguably the best event there is over the course of the summer. Guys go there and they absolutely love it. They get a ton out of it. And that is an event where you will participate in front of every single decision maker in the business. Right after that is the area code event. Now the area code event is for players really nationally. But some players who go to the East Coast Pro choose not to go to the area code. Some players go to both. But think of the area codes is kind of like East Coast Pro for the guys that are middle of the country on West. Okay, that's a good, a good rule of thumb. But the area codes is again, that takes place in Long beach and that is roughly around like the first, second week In August, that event will be scouted by every single decision maker as well. Okay. I obviously already brought up the All American Game. That game is put on by Perfect Game. It is the, the game that takes place after the area code games on Sunday. Okay. Of. Of that week. And as I said, it's. Last year it took place in San Diego. This year it's going to take place in Philadelphia. After that. The only other thing is if your son was selected to play for Team usa. Team USA is shortly thereafter. Those are pretty much the events now, with a caveat. If your son did not have the summer he was hoping, maybe if he's a pitcher, and let's just say he didn't throw really well. And after the All American Game or Team USA stuff, let's just say he's performing a lot better than. At that point. There is an event that takes place in Jupiter, Florida. It's the Worldwood Baton Jupiter. It's put on by Perfect Game. That is an event that a lot of players actually choose to go to if they feel like there was something that I didn't do over the course of the summer that I want to show that I, you know, I'm. I've improved. I, I've kind of checked that box. It's the last opportunity before the spring season of that senior year where you can show these scouts how you look. So those are pretty much the events now as I started with. There could be events throughout, in the middle that aren't national events. They're kind of just the local regional stuff that you choose to go to. And that's totally fine. I would just want to make sure that the reason you're choosing to go to them is because you, you want to use them to get you ready for these bigger events. And so what I will leave you with as far as these, these events go going to is there are a lot of really, really good players that choose to go to maybe one or two events. And that's totally fine, right? Depending on the skill set of your son, that needs to be the thing that dictates what events you're choosing to go to. Okay. If your son is a pretty good player, he's not a great player. Let's just say he's somebody who has the chance to go anywhere from the fifth to the 10th round. If that's who he is, well, then, yeah, I mean, at some point you probably want to go or, or rely on going to a little bit more events. So, you know, than. Than otherwise. The guy who's Being considered to be a first rounder. The guy who's being considered to be a first rounder, if he's been seen by the right guys already. Yeah, you can be a little bit more selective. It's, it's less important that you go to every event under the sun. But I feel like what I just gave you is a pretty good baseline for the various events to consider. And if you have any follow up questions on that, I mean, I be happy to talk to you about it. So outside of the events, what are some of the other things I know you mentioned in the question, Jesse, that you as a parent kind of just need to be aware of? There's obviously many. I mean, so where my mind goes, obviously as, as you kind of navigate this draft process starting in the summer, you know, there's different things that you're going to be approached with, like questionnaires from these pro scouts. Right? There's something called a, a draft prospect link. And all of these teams, they upload questionnaires in there, they request your medicals, they upload these questionnaires, and your son is required to go on there and answer all these questions. That's something that you want to make sure that you talk to your advisor about. Above and beyond that, you also kind of just want to be mindful of these in home visits by these scouts, which will start taking place in the fall primarily. And those visits, you know, I think a lot of times kids assume, hey, I'm going to meet with every single team. Not necessarily. You may have meetings with 20 teams, 25 teams, you may have meetings with five teams, but you want to make sure that your advisor, you know, educates you and walks you through. What are those meetings like? We've talked about it on this podcast. I've had Mike Wagner, the national scouting director with the Yankees on. I've had Alex McClure, the West coast cross checker with the Tigers on. Um, I've had Chris Gross, the scouting director with the Mets on, and we've talked very specifically about that subject. And so by all means, feel free to take a look at that, Mike. Hopefully we can maybe put the link here in this video. Above and beyond that, though, I think part of, part of what an advisor's role is is really to manage expectations through the entire journey. One of the most frustrating things for any parent to experience and any player to experience through the draft process is what do people think? What do I need to be doing? What is the industry saying? How are things looking for me? And what a player in a family ultimately wants is to be told that as soon as humanly possible. Right now, the problem with that is, you know, it's a little bit like an organism. It's going to change shape and it's going to form based on how your son performs through his performance over the summer, into the winter and through the spring. Right. If you, or if your son rather goes out and has a great summer and terrible spring. Yeah. Just because he performed well over the summer, sure, like, maybe that helps him a little bit. But the fact that he struggled in the spring, that's going to have a negative impact on him. The reverse is also true. He may have struggled in the summer, but now come springtime, he looks like a completely different player. Sure, maybe he helped himself out. So the hardest part about any advisor giving you every bit of information, you know, as early as possible is, well, our job is also to manage the expectations. So what I don't want to do as an advisor is to tell you you're going in the first round because it's January. And frankly, what you do over the course of the next couple months is going to have a really, really big impact in what the result of your draft process or what the results of your draft results look like. So there's a lot that you, you need to be mindful of as you navigate this all to say, your advisor, he's the one guiding you through all this stuff. So if you have questions, make sure that you're getting the answers to your questions. There's also various other things. Financial advisors, the tax work. Right. What, what, what is the effect of taxes on my signing bonus, disability insurance mean? There's a whole host of things, you know, managing the mindset for a player as they're going through the, you know, summer, fall and spring season, the college process. Right. You obviously have nil, but you, you have rev share. Do you understand what all of that means? You need to be really buttoned up and it needs to be very clear how all of this works. And then the last component that I'll leave you with is you really need to get clear with your advisor on and, and this kind of relates to signability, meaning the, the, the value that you believe you hold in the draft and whether or not you could sign for that. But there's a managing of, of your mindset and how you're going to come to making the decision on do I want to sign or do I want to go to college? And you want to make sure that you get very clear with your advisor well, in advance of the draft, you do not want to get up to the draft and only then start thinking about, okay, should I sign or should I go to college? What are the things that are important to me? Like, that stuff needs to be handled in advance of that. And so, you know, that can be done in a lot of ways, but it really stems from the relationship that you have with your advisor, the communication that you have with your advisor. And all the while, recognizing your performance on the field is going to be the biggest factor, but you still need to make sure that you're getting answers to a lot of your questions. And so that's just where, you know, people oftentimes talk about the importance of having a relationship with your advisor. It is very important, but this is why it's important, because come draft day, there's never been a more important day in your life, arguably. And a lot of what you're going to be, you know, navigating is going to be coming from your advisor, what he's telling you, right? What teams are saying. And so you just want to be aware of that. I just had a conversation not too long ago with a. A player in college who had a bad experience with his advisor, and they haven't talked to him since. And it's, you know, it's April 7th, the draft was almost a year ago, and they have not talked to their advisor since the draft last year. And it was a terrible experience, and they felt like they had no information. And this is a very good player. So it's just something to be aware of. I'm glad, Jesse, you're asking the question because it means you're thinking about it. If I can help you at all, specifically, happy to do so. Just let me know and reach out to me and be happy to talk to you.
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B
All right. The next question we have comes from Brian, and Brian says, all right, Matt, here's a situation. My kid goes.04 with three strikeouts at a recent travel baseball tournament. I'm in the car with him. As a baseball parent, what do I actually say to him after a bad game? Like, what do I use for the words to speak to him? Because I know scouts and college baseball coaches evaluate how a player handles failure. And I don't want to make it any worse.
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A
I love the question. I think a lot of people want to tackle this car ride home and want to.
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B
That seems to be a common theme. Like, everybody talks about the car ride home. Like, what do I say to my kid?
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A
I. I think, again, I, I don't like being formulaic here. So I'm certainly not going to say this is how you need to speak to him. This, for me, it's, it's all about, you want to be aware, right? You know your kid better than anybody. So if someone says you should handle it this way and they don't know your kid, I wouldn't even listen to the advice. What I would encourage you to think about is as you're in the car ride home, what is the energy in that moment? Do you feel like that is the right time to even address whatever the problem is? Right. And maybe because there's, you got to keep in mind there's many reasons why a player has a bad game, right? He got no hits, he struck out every time he was embarrassed. You know, maybe scouts were there to see him, colleges were there to see him, and he struggled. Maybe his girlfriend was there and he looked like crap. Maybe it was an important game and he didn't step up when he needed to. There's a lot of reasons why a player would have a bad game. Maybe if he's a pitcher. Yeah, he walked, you know, he walked the house, he walked a bunch of guys in. He, you know, lost the game, came in in relief and gave up a, you know, game winning home run a lot. So I just think it, it takes awareness, right? Like pick and choose when you want to have that conversation. Just because it's the car ride home after a game doesn't mean it's the right time to talk to them. With that being said, the awareness piece that I'm talking about, the reason it's so important and what I would encourage you, questions are the most important thing that you can do and for yourself too. If you want to get something across to your son, the first thing that you need to ask yourself is, why do I feel so compelled to tell this to my son? And if the answer is because I need to get it off my chest because we spend a lot of money, if it is about you, that is not the right time to talk to your son about it. Save that for later. Okay, but let's assume that's not what you want to address with your son. Let's assume you're actually wanting to talk to him in a constructive way. You actually are going to be calm, but you still want to talk to him. You feel like I got to say something, I got to address the elephant in the room. If that's the case, I would encourage you to ask questions, right? Things like, and this is going to be funny because you're initially going to respond with a certain way and, like, things like this, hey, how do you feel? And of course, he's like, how do you think I feel? Right. So just. You, you want to, like, temper it is not your concern what his response is. He could get frustrated with you if your intention is the right thing. I want to, I want to make sure that I hold a space for him to be able to get things off of his chest in this moment, ask questions, hey, how are you feeling? Is there anything I can do that'll make you feel better? I, I can sense that now is not the right time to talk about this. Is there a time this week that we could, you know, kind of decide, commit to have this conversation? What would be helpful for me to, to, to do for you right now? Is there something that you feel like you need? Like, these are things that you're not, you're not putting his back against the wall. And again, like, the thought that comes to mind is actually gravity. Like, if you come in telling him things like, you're, you're. You're pushing against them, he's gonna want to push back, right? What are you doing? Get out. Like, really? That's what you want to say to me? What am I doing? I don't know. I'm trying to perform. I'm trying to, to have success. What am I doing? What kind of question is that? Like, that's, that's what happens, right? But when you ask him, hey, how does that feel? Sure, he could get frustrated in the moment, but then he's having to listen to, well, how does it make him feel? Yeah, frustrated. Why does it, like. And just out of curiosity, I'm, I'm curious why. What about it makes it frustrating for you? Because I didn't perform well? What about the performance is. Is the most frustrating? Is it you didn't feel like you were prepared or maybe a. They're bad. People have bad games. I brought it up on a different episode. One of the things that I do with all of my clients is I'll go back if a guy, let's just say, is in a bit of a slump with his bat. I'll go back and I'll go find the best hitters in baseball, and I'll look at what stretches they went to or went through, rather, and I'll share those with my client, and we'll talk about it and we'll like. What oftentimes happens is these players, they. They lose sight that this is a game of failure. Naturally, you're Going to fail at this level, at any level. It happens. It's not a matter of can we avoid it, it's when we fail, how do we make whatever adjustment we need to make if there's one that needs to be made? Because maybe it was just a bad game and how do we move on from this in an empowering way? And that's the key. So your questions ultimately bring that out of him. Right. They lead and guide him into this place of empowerment rather than this, like, I'm the victim. Woe's me. Feel sorry for me. And oftentimes parents, after a game, they have the wrong conversation and all it does is it reinforces what they already think. Right? I don't want to talk about it. I'm annoyed by talking about it. You're bringing it up because it's annoying to you. Well, you're annoying me and I don't want to talk to you about it. And so again, ask questions. And so start with, why am I wanting to talk to him in the first place? Does it have anything to do with me or is it really about him? And be honest with yourself if it's about him, if I'm truly putting him first here, is having the conversation right now after this game. Is this the most impactful time I could have this conversation or should I save it for another day? And I would be willing to bet that if you saved it for another day, assuming that that was what your gut told you when that day comes, and then you have a conversation in a very constructive way that he's going to recognize. Oh, you actually didn't have it right after the game. Thank you for that. And you could even say that, look, there was a moment in time after your game on the way home where I, I really wanted to talk to you about this, but I saw how frustrated you were and I just recognized now is not the right time. And so I didn't want to have it then, but I wanted to come to you now. Is now a better time? Are you okay if we talk about it now? And I'm not meant. This is not meant for you to feel bad, actually. I actually want to support you. And what my goal is by having this conversation is at the end of it, you feel more empowered to have success, not less. And you feel more supported by me. And if your son says that or thinks that after you do that, I think it's going to reinforce everything to you and you'll never want to have that conversation at the wrong time ever again.
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B
So, yeah, I Think that's a really solid piece of advice. And. And hopefully that's just not applicable to the one person. It's applicable to every parent out there, that your kids are going to have a bad game, that it's just going to happen inevitable.
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A
And you.
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B
And you know this better than anybody else. Like, baseball is one of those sports where you lose more than you win just because of the. The numbers and the average.
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A
No. And I think sometimes, look, as human beings, we all want success. Not playing well and failing is miserable, right? And there are some players that work so hard because they love working hard, and then there are other players that actually work so hard because they don't ever want to feel failure. That's okay. But we just need to understand the game that we play. We're playing a game of failure. So if what I've done is I've built. You know, we've talked about vision before on this podcast. If my vision is built around not failing, I need to see that as well. That's probably not realistic. I'm playing a game of failure, and every time I fail, I have a meltdown, right? If every time I'm playing I'm having a meltdown, then maybe my vision is off, and maybe the question needs to be, how can I move through my experience in baseball in an. In a more empowering way? And I recognize that failure isn't something to be avoided. Failure is something to be embraced. And so my view of failure and my relationship with failure actually is the thing that we need to kind of spend some time with and chew on. And so shout out to my buddy Joe, because we talk about this oftentimes is like, there's what you want to achieve, and then there's kind of where you are right now. And in between both of those things is a gap. Right? And what Joe oftentimes talks about with a lot of the clients that we share together is, well, how do you. How do you. What is your relationship with this. This. This gap, right? How do you move through this gap, period? Because right now, you're not as good as you want to be. This is how good you want to be. And if you never want to fail, well, then you're going to be miserable in this gap. And how are you ever going to get better? You could get better, I guess, but you're going to have a terrible time playing, and you're never going to want to play again. So instead, the question then becomes, how do we make sure that we're interacting with the gap in an empowering way? Well, it's recognizing. It's not that failure needs to be avoided. It's that it needs to be embraced. Well, how can I embrace failure? By looking at failure not as something that's happening to me, but that's something that's happening for me. Oh, so then that means if I go over four with four strikeouts today, that's certainly failing. But if I'm looking at it from a place of. Of it's like unemotion. Okay. It's not that I'm a failure. It's that today I didn't do well. And you could say that I failed today. But again, one of the things we oftentimes talk about is this is why your identity in baseball is so important. And it's one of the first things that oftentimes you uncover and realize whenever you struggle with failure is it's. You're. You're identifying yourself with, oh, no, I'm somebody who always has to have success. Well, then if you play baseball and those days come where you don't perform well, then if you wrap up your identity in your level of success, when you fail, it's not that you failed that day. You will look at yourself like you're a failure. And that is a scary thing. And so a lot of times what happens is the work needs to be done in your identity. Right. Are you a baseball player or is baseball what you do? I'm a human being who plays baseball. Or are you saying I'm a baseball player? If you're a baseball player and that's all you are, when you struggle, you're a failure. Right. So there's all of this work that I'm describing is work that, you know, a lot of these mental skills coaches will do. And, and, yeah. So long story short, that's. That's kind of how I would handle that. That's what I would think about as you navigate this car ride home.
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B
Well, speaking of, you know, mental. Mental toughness. Mental, you know, just mental acuity. This the last question, Matt, I think you're going to really enjoy, and I think it's a great way for us to wrap up this episode with this question from Ron. Ron says, matt, my son's nine years old and he plays travel baseball. He's getting to the age where he gets really emotional after a bad game. Like, he goes on into a full meltdown mode in the dugout. I know mental toughness is something baseball scouts evaluate later on. How do you build that mental game in youth baseball at this age without either Coddling him or breaking him down.
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A
So you said he was nine?
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B
Yeah, nine years old. And he looked. Yeah, reading these Ron saying his kids having meltdowns in the dugouts.
- [29:13]
A
Yeah, I mean look, I, I think on some level the responsibility at nine, a lot of it does fall on the parent and this is where parenting, you know, I'm, I'm not somebody that, that always wants to encourage the parent to like step in and to like take charge of their kids attitude. I think there's a lot to be learned when they don't. However, when Your son is 9, if he's having meltdowns in the dugout, like, yeah, you may need to pull him aside and have a conversation, a hard conversation and say this is not how we do things. This is unacceptable. Like if you want to play baseball, you will no longer do that. And if I see that happen again, you're not coming back. And, and I think through that experience he needs to learn like what the proper way to behave is. I think if you try to rationalize with a nine year old and say, hey, do you know how people are viewing you when you do that? I think oftentimes a kid like he doesn't get it. You know, he, that's not the first thing that's coming to mind. He's acting out for a reason and most of the time I believe it's, he's learning his emotions and, and he's learning that like something is making him feel a certain way and he's attaching it to his performance. So like oh, when I strike out, I don't feel good. I feel embarrassed. And so he is, he is exuding all of that energy that he has through his freakouts. And so yeah, I think he needs to understand that that's not how we're doing it and it's unacceptable. And there's not even a ounce of like you can get away with it a little. You could throw your helmet, but just not twice. Like, no, we're not doing any of that. And so if that happens again, we are not playing on this team. In fact, we're not going to let you play baseball for a year. And then yeah, sure. Is he going to freak out after that? I'm sure he is. But then he at least understands like how no, you're going to, you're going to hold them accountable. Right? I think that is, that is one of the most important ways parents can, can show value in those moments is not to let their kids get away with that because all you're doing Is you're just growing somebody who down the road, you know, if, let's just say you coddle them or you feel bad for them in that moment, you're just reinforcing the wrong thing. And I think that that potentially is going to do more harm than good.
- [31:29]
B
Do you feel like, you know, maybe. Last point before we get out of here. Do you feel like kids can learn mental toughness at that age around sports or how much is this is them? That's just how nine year olds are. Like nine year olds are going to get emotional. Nine year olds are going to get mad.
- [31:47]
A
That's a great question. No, look, you say mental toughness and what I would if I had to, if you asked me, Matt, what is mental toughness at 9? Mental toughness at 9 is something totally different than what mental toughness is it. Let's just say 18, right? Mental toughness at nine, for me is you ultimately understand that there are good things in the game that happen and that's exciting. There are bad things in the game that happen and that's frustrating. But regardless, there's a certain way to act and this is what's expected. Right. I did an episode about expectations and agreements. If you haven't seen it again, maybe we can link to that episode here. The whole point of that episode is oftentimes parents have expectations for their sons, but they're not communicated. And so what I would encourage every parent to do is actually to communicate with what mental toughness is at whatever age their son is and what the expectation as a parent you have for them in this sport. So in this instance, it's a good opportunity for the parents say, hey, son, so listen, you know, if this was my son, as Hannafords, we have an expectation that we are always going to work hard, we are going to treat people with respect. And, you know, and in this instance, let's just say, and we're not going to, you know, show people up, we're not going to throw our helmet, we're not going to get frustrated, we're not going to be disrespectful. And on some level you need to respect the game, right? When you throw your helmet, you're disrespecting your coach, you're disrespecting me, you're disrespecting your team, you're bringing the attention away from everybody else and you're putting it on yourself and you look terrible doing it. I expect you to do all of these things and as long as you do that, I don't it doesn't even matter how you perform. You do all that. That's a great day for us. That is my expectation. Do you understand? Yes. Okay. Are you willing to do that? Yes. Okay. So we have an agreement, right? I've now articulated this is my expectation. And you've agreed now? Sure. In some instances, the kid doesn't want to agree, but then you have to keep working with him. You have to get him to agree. If he doesn't agree, it doesn't matter what you expect. He. He never signed it. Right. He never mentally said. I acknowledge that. That's what you expect. And so what happens when there's a lot of frustration sometimes for families is these parents have these unspoken expectations. Expect my kid to work hard. I expect him to show up on time. I expect him to do his homework. I expect him to wake up on his own to eat his food, whatever, right? To take ground balls after practice, whatever it is. But they don't tell the player this. And so when the player doesn't do it, the parent gets really frustrated, and the kid looks at the parent like, why are you pissed? You didn't do this. What are you talking about? Did I say I was going to do that? No, but you should. You. You said you wanted to achieve all this stuff. Well, yeah. So why wouldn't you take ground balls after practice? Well, because I'm. My defense is good. I don't need to take around balls after practice today. What are you talking about? If you want to be the best, that's what you have to do. So there's all these things that happen by not communicating. Just because the kid's nine and he's throwing a tantrum. That doesn't mean, like, you shouldn't get clear with him on what the expectation is. And so I think you start with the expectation as a baseball player for this family is it looks like this. And I need you to commit to this. And if you're unwilling to commit to this, well, then we have to address this now because we are not, as a family, going to continue to commit. Time, energy, money, you know, missed vacations, all this other stuff. If you can't even commit that you're going to work hard, if you're going to, you know, show up the right way, if you're going to respect your coach. So that's how. That's how I would handle that.
- [35:43]
B
Yeah. And I think this is a great way for us to wrap up today's episode. Thank you, guys for all of your questions. And, Matt, take us home.
- [35:51]
A
Yeah. So, everybody, thank you. If you like this episode, make sure that you like it. Subscribe to the podcast that does a great deal for us. And if there's a parent that you feel like this episode was perfect for, that came to your mind as you're watching, please share this episode with them. You know, at the end of the day, we want to make sure that we're making a positive influence and impact on the next generation of players and their parents. We know that the industry is crazy. We know that it's hard to navigate, and we just want to make sure that we're doing our part. So however we can help, let us know. Also, I've said this before. If you are a parent out there and you want to be featured on this podcast, we do podcasts, and we. We literally have families, the players, and we. We address your specific instances and your challenges and things that you're trying to achieve. And any questions that you have live on this podcast, if that is of interest to you, make sure that you send us a message. DM me, comment on YouTube, whatever you need, we are here for it. So other than that, man, it's just. It's nice to see everybody again. We will see you next time.