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I was pretty quiet in high school, freshman and sophomore years. Took a while getting used to a class of 1000 kids (each year) when my primary school had 90.And John S. learned the hard way not to fuck with the quiet one.Baseball tryouts, freshman spring.Was changing out of sweats and John shoved me. My sweatpants were half off, so could not do much to prevent him.After I pulled up my sweats, I grabbed John and dragged him to the urinals, stufffed his face in one and flushed.Suffice to say, no one tested the quiet one again.Word gets around quick, I guess…

That you are not good enough, not living up to their expectations. My dad was an outstanding baseball pitcher who was invited for a tryout with the Dodgers (back in the 50's when they actually had "tryouts"). He so feared failing thanks to his father's pressure to succeed that he faked an arm injury so he didn't have to go.Fast forward to my childhood, he was living vicariously through me. He made me a pitcher from the time I could throw a ball. I was good, but not great and that bothered him. I recall pitching in a Little League game and I just didn't have it that day. I was walking batter after batter and just wanted to get off the mound. He was my coach and came out to the mound and instead of saying "You tried, but it's not your day" he told me "You're making a fool out of yourself, I'm leaving you out here, now start throwing the ball over the plate". I pitched the rest of the game and had a hard time seeing the plate through my tears and things got even worse. I wanted nothing more than to get off the mound, but he was punishing me for not being good enough.As a teenager I got better and better. In Babe Ruth league I threw my first no hitter. Dad was watching (he always did, give him that). When I arrived home I had a big smile on my face thinking he would be proud of me. Instead he ripped into me. "Why are you throwing so many goddamn curveballs?" he screamed at me. "You'll never make it in high school throwing all curveballs, you need to throw more fastballs to set up your curve". He was furious with me. I just threw a no hitter and that wasn't good enough for him. His advice was good, but the way he framed it devastated me. Not "good job son", but "you screwed up", after what I thought was a great achievement that would please him.In high school I also played varsity soccer. I was a GK and wasn't very consistent. One game I'd be lights out good and another I'd let up easy goals. The coach benched me. Instead of dad encouraging me he told me "You stink., why are you wasting your time playing this game? "Quit and get a job, you are wasting your time on the bench". I eventually left the goal mouth and became an "honorable mention” all county outside back my senior year. Did I get any "Good job son?" No. I got "All county in soccer means nothing, it's not going to get you anywhere". This was in the 70's when soccer wasn't particularly popular in the US and I guess being good in soccer wouldn't get me anywhere, so he was sort of right, but sheesh, your son was named all county and you can't find something good to say?20 years later I found myself in front of a psychiatrist in tears recounting these episodes.I'm not saying that parents shouldn't be critical, because kids need constructive criticism, but they also need encouragement. I'm now 57 years old and when I visit him I get "When are you going to get a haircut?" or "Its November why are you still wearing shorts?" I love my dad. He taught me so many things, fishing, sailing, baseball (he actually was a great coach and the other kids adored him) , but one of of his best lessons was how not to be a father.

Absolutely! Worse is doing nothing and the worst they can tell you is no.First a quick note, and this is not to scare you off. Stanford is one of the top baseball schools in the country besides being one of the top academic institutions. They recruit the best baseball talent there is; when they recruit they are battling the pros to keep drafted kids in school. While I would never discourage anyone from following a dream, it helps to have a healthy dose of reality infused. You will be looking to try and join a team with some of the best and brightest ballplayers in the country, bar none. It’s not an easy school to get into and not an easy team to play on. Hopefully you are enjoying some success in baseball and at least either getting a few offers or a few looks from some college scouts. It would be very difficult to go there and make the team if you aren’t at least playing well in high school ball and summer ball.That said, a quick story about a guy… played high school ball hit in the mid-.300’s his junior year, lower-.300’s his senior year; had only one major college coach look at him (along with a few junior colleges), had 3 different high school coaches in his 3 high school seasons, so he didn’t have any consistency and no one to champion him to college recruiters. His coach his senior year brought him and another teammate to the coach’s former college to see about a scholarship - the teammate got one, but the guy didn’t and was not encouraged to walk on. He went to school on a different deal, but missed baseball tremendously, so he transferred to LSU. This was back in 1986, when LSU was just becoming the LSU we know today as a college baseball powerhouse. They were recruiting the best of the best. The guy walks in and just asks for a tryout; they are very encouraging. The guy has a plus arm and plus speed, very good outfielder, good but not great bat. Walks on and makes the 5th ranked team in the country. Words like “freshman phenom” come from coaches, “overlooked”. For this reason, I don’t discourage people from walking on or talking to coaches. The worse they could have told me was no and I’d have been done. Instead, the best happened and I ended up playing with guys like Albert Belle and Ben McDonald - guys who were better than me (in my head) but coaches felt I could keep up with.So you contact the coach and speak to him. If you have game tape and statistics, work up a sheet and send it to the head coach AND to his assistants to ensure at least one of them gets it and opens it. Be cordial and to the point, be self assured but not cocky. Tell them your positive traits (and if you have any good leadership or service things you do - are you involved in school in student council or class officer? Are you captain of the baseball team? Are you involved in a service organization? Mention those). Tell them briefly about how hard you work and how you are willing to prove to them that you were an overlooked commodity in a vast sea of talent. Apply to the school and get accepted (or at minimum, be good enough to be accepted but maybe not be in that top 5% they take) and you’ll have even more of an opportunity.If you don’t have game film, now is the time to start putting some together, regardless what your age. If you are going into your senior season, you might be a bit behind, but it’s OK - if you can play, there’s always a place for you. You can still send a letter showing your interest and putting your name in front of their faces. Give them some stats to go with as well. Send them a schedule for your summer ball, and if you play fall ball, that too. If you are on a travel team, put that on as well, and of course when you get back to school and find out your schedule for next season, send them that.Your biggest advocate should be your high school coach. Speak to him frankly and tell him your thoughts. Be prepared for whatever he might say. If you are a role player on the team, you may not be encouraged to try out. If your coach says that to you, have an honest conversation with yourself about where you are. Always think to work harder to get better. But if there are people so much better than you on your high school team, while I encourage trying to move to the next level, you must realize that only a very small percentage of high school players get to play college baseball. If you aren’t one of your high school or summer team’s top 2–3 players, the chances of you playing ANY college baseball is slim (unless you go to a school that just happens to have a large number of recruits), much less at a school like Stanford.Here’s another thing. You sound like you are academically good to go for many schools - don’t limit yourself. Stanford isn’t the only school out there with great academics and a baseball team. And junior college is always an option - you can go juco for a year, maybe two and further develop your skills and then transfer to Stanford with a better opportunity. This is if the baseball part is so important, but you’re just a touch below the level they are looking for.Just my thoughts and .02.