← Most Valuable Agent with Matt Hannaford
Most Valuable Agent with Matt Hannaford
Travel Baseball: How Your Son's Response Will Shape His Future
00:13:15
In this solo episode, Matt brings you inside the Perfect Game All-American Classic in San Diego, where he spoke to a room of baseball parents about the truth behind the draft, development, and success in this game. You’ll hear the story of two very...
Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:13]
A
All right, what's up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Most Valuable Agent Podcast. Now, today, I have something fun for us. This is going to be a little different. There's no guest today. This is not a Q and A. This is just me talking to you. But what you're about to hear is the exact message that I gave at the Perfect Game All American Classic in San Diego a couple weeks ago. Now, I was invited to speak to a room full of moms and dads. Their kid had been invited to play at the Perfect Game All American. Now, I will tell you, I think the Perfect Game All American Classic is one of the most prestigious events in all of travel baseball. So to be asked to speak, there was quite the honor. So alongside me on the panel were some of the sharpest minds in the game. So nil attorneys. There was a tax advisor there, a mental skills coach, a couple financial managers were present, a social media strategist, a D1 head college baseball coach, as well as a major league organization scouting director. So each of us were given about eight to 10 minutes to give these parents what we considered, or at least what I considered kind of the most clear, most impactful message I could in that limited time frame. So what I shared that day is what you're about to hear right now. Now, I'm going to tell you up front, just because your son, let's say, is 10 years old and maybe not going into the draft, don't think for a minute that this doesn't apply to you. This applies to really anybody, whether, you know, you haven't even started playing travel baseball or whether you're a veteran and you've been doing this a long time. And the reason for that is, I mean, the core principle, I would tell you, it's pretty simple, but it is critical. The journey. It's not about you, the parent. It's about your son. And it always will be. So, again, to summarize, I had a bunch of people asked me to send them the talk. So I thought, you know what? Instead of me just sending it to you, why don't I do this so I could share it with everybody else here on the podcast? So without further ado, let's get into it. All right, so yesterday I had the fortunate opportunity to talk to a really good friend of mine who's also a dad of a pitcher. And the reason for my call was actually to ask him how his son's outing went the day before. But before I could even do that, the very first thing he said is, Matt, I got to tell you, if we had a better umpire at the game, that outing would have been much better. Now, my question for you is, does that sound familiar? But I want to, I want to put that aside for a moment and we're going to get to that later. What I want to do today is I want to tell you the tale of two players. Now, I've intentionally omitted their names. These are real people. But I did so really just to protect their identity. So let's refer to them as player A and player B. Now, in your head, I want you to picture player A. If you've ever been to a dick sporting goods, player A. When you walk into a dick's, player A is that mannequin right at the front. I mean, the guy's a beast. Six three, 230 pounds, switch hitter. Now, his scouting report leading into the draft, it said things like, he's a rock in the lineup, extremely physical, with above average tools. He led his conference in batting average, home runs, RBIs and slugging. He was a plus defender. He even showed durability and leadership. Not to mention he was a two time All American. He had been to the College World Series multiple times. And most recently leading into the draft, player A was drafted in the first round and he signed for twice as much as player B. So can you picture him? All right, great. So if player A is the mannequin at Dicks, player B is the cashier. He was basically the opposite of player A. This guy was a five'11, 205 pound walk on. Now, like player A, he was athletic. He was hardworking with strong defensive reputation and leadership. But unlike player A, on his scouting report, you would see things like questionable power, average, arm strength. So player B, he would go on to be drafted by the same organization as player A at the same exact position, but only later. And he would sign for half as much as player A. So I want to play a game with you guys. I'd like everybody to close your eyes. Now. Humor me, podcast family. I understand I can't see you, so I'm going to trust that you're going to close your eyes too. All right, now, I want us all to pretend like we're going to Vegas and we are going to Vegas to place a bet with your very own hard earned money. And I want you to think of an amount of money that if you lost it, it would hurt. Not just like kind of sting, it would hurt bad. Okay? This is like, you know, money that you can't lose. So I'm not talking about tens or twenties or a few hundred bucks. I'm talking about tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, whatever that amount of money is for you. All right, now listen. I know we are not all gamblers here, but this is a game, so just do me a favor. Act like you know you're a gambler today. It's not a trick question. If you had to place a bet right now, which player do you feel would give you the best chance to keep your money, to not lose your money? Player A or player B? So eyes still closed. Visualize yourself with that amount of money and place your bet. All right, Open your eyes. Now, I can't see. Obviously, you know, you. You on the podcast, but I'm going to trust that. That you just did that exercise with me. All right? How many would assume that the better the draft goes, the better the career will be? And that makes sense, right? Because we've been conditioned to believe that the better the event, the better the outcome. The better the draft, the higher the pick, the bigger the signing bonus, the better the career, right? Like, that's. That's kind of what we assume. That's how most players and parents, at least in my experience, think about the draft. And while that may look true from a distance, it does not tell the whole story. That's why scouts, they don't just measure tools. They study character. They visit homes. They want to know who the kid really is. In fact, if you haven't done so yet, you can go back and you can watch the episode I did on the scouting directors portion of this exact panel at this exact event. And he mentions the same thing. The reason teams spend so much time getting to know the person that the player is. Or as the director put it in his talk, the reason they're a part scout and part investigator, is because there's something missing in this equation. There is something beyond the event itself. And that's why I started with the bet. The draft, it feels like certainty. First round means success, right? Lower round, long shot, doesn't it? No. The draft isn't the finish line. It's just the starting point. Once the draft is over, all those accolades, all the hype, all the bonus money, it doesn't guarantee anything. What matters, what always matters, is how your son is going to respond to the event. So that's the missing variable. So E does not equal O. E plus R equals O. Event plus response equals outcome. Now, I've been absolutely blessed in this business to have worked with five hall of Famers, seven MVPs and three rookies of the year. And I can tell you, this formula, the one I just went over with you, it never fails. The players who make it are the ones who respond well consistently. The great ones. They don't see setbacks as the end. They see them as opportunities. They know it is always about the response. So player A and player B both started their career at the exact same level, playing the exact same position with the same organization. And on paper, you would assume the player A out of the two players would probably have had a better career. Safer bet, right? So by show of hands, how many of you guys bet on player A earlier? Now, I know I can't see you, so humor me here. And obviously, as there were this event, I'm sure there are out here today, there's going to be some risk takers out there who are going to say, no, no, no, player B. The whole time I knew it was going to be player B. So what I want to do now is I want to go back and I want to look and I want to see how did their careers ultimately pan out. So player A, he would go on to play in parts of three major league seasons. He would earn $1.45 million. He would retire in his early 30s, having spent the last two seasons in the minor leagues. So not a failure by any means, but certainly not the career I would imagine he expected. Now, compare that to player B. He would go on to complete 15 major league seasons. He would be an all star World Series champion. He would earn $52.5 million in his career. He would retire on his terms at the age of 39. And by the way, once he debuted in the big leagues, he would never go back down. So when players think about the career they ultimately dream of having, like, oftentimes it looks like a version of this, right? So again, both drafted the same year by the same team at the same position. Very different outcomes. So I'm sure you're now thinking, matt, I get it. You know, you never know what's my point. So I'm talking to you, parent. Why does this matter to you? Because right now your phone is ringing off the hook. Everybody's calling you, telling you, I can help, right? I have, I have this to offer. And you as a parent are like, I don't want to make a mistake. I want to listen to people. How do I navigate this? How do I do this? Who can I trust? Who can I trust? And the reality of this is that maybe all of these people reaching out can help. Lord knows there is a lot of help that is needed. But one thing that I want to make clear is over the next 11 months, it is going to be you that is the constant. It's not the scouts. They were going to come and go. It's not going to be the coaches. Coaches are going to change too. And look, it's not going to be the agent. Even I, if I were fortunate enough to be his agent, we may have hundreds of thousands of calls and meetings, but at some point that phone call is going to end this year. The meeting is going to be over, but it's going to be you that is going to be there before every day and at the end of every day, before every game and at the end of every game. And despite how it feels now, because I recognize these guys are kids and probably feels like they don't listen to you right now, on draft day, when it matters most and they will need to hear somebody shoot it to them straight, it is going to be you whose voice that he trusts the most. So let me say it in a different way. You know what a lighthouse is, right? I'm assuming you do. But do you know the purpose of a lighthouse? So let me tell you. When there's a storm at sea and a ship's captain can't control the waves, can't control the wind, can't, certainly can't control what's underneath the surface of the water, but what he can rely on is the lighthouse. The lighthouse is that steady light that never moves. The lighthouse does not calm the storm. It merely gives the captain confidence to navigate it. So for your son, the storm is the draft and you are the lighthouse. He is going to look to you for that steady light when the water gets rough. And here's the thing, the draft, it's not going to go as planned. If the offer isn't what he dreamed, if someone else gets the spotlight, he is going to look to you to understand what all of this means. And I don't mean logically like, oh, what's this mean? I mean emotionally like, oh, dad, mom, like, what does this mean for me? I wasn't drafted. What does this mean for my career, all of what I just committed to and, and the sacrifices that we made, like, what does this now mean for me? And you may think, well, yeah, but he was a first round pick. Yeah, but he was still. He saw buddies get chosen before him. Maybe he wasn't drafted and given the amount of money that he wanted, maybe it was to a different organization. There are going to be things that go on where he is going to be looking to you. What does this mean for me and that is the moment that matters most. Will you be the parent who says if only we had a better umpire and watch him learn to make excuses when things don't go his way or will you be the parent who says at the next level son you won't be able to control everything. You got to find a way anyways and then watch him learn that no matter what the event is in his career it's going to be his response that is going to shape his future. So here's the bottom line. The draft, it's not validation. The draft doesn't go well does not mean he's not going to make it and frankly if it does does not mean his work is done. It's merely an invitation. An invitation to prove every single day that the team that drafted them just made the smartest bet of their lives.