Throughout my own baseball and sports career, I was always trying to fill gaps for myself. I was in constant pursuit of just trying to get one percent better in any area I could. I tried to gain strength in all areas including mental/emotional training, physical training, and skill training. If those three areas were not specific enough, I dove deep into each category, I researched and found the best coaches in the world in those specific areas. Now this mindset was great for gaining knowledge and building a work ethic that was resilient to any situation, but the only problem was that as I was trying to “fill these gaps” I never felt whole. I always felt like I was missing something. For example, I would say to myself, “well once I fix this, then I can become that.” The problem with this is that I was more than enough to achieve what I wanted. It sounds like a sad story, but I am so grateful I had the opportunity, and I didn’t feel that I was enough until my last competitive outing.
Going into my 2020 senior baseball season at the University of Pacific I had a sports agent that had spoken with scouts, and they had me as a late round draft pick LHP, in the baseball community it would be considered a “senior sign.” These players do not get much more than a bus ticket and a sandwich. But what they do receive is a chance to further their dream, athletes live and die for opportunities. Well, everyone knows what happened in the Spring of 2020, a global pandemic shut down the world. Including baseball, now this happened to everyone, so I did not feel sorry for myself one bit, but the fact was that the MLB cut around 1,500 minor league players and shortened their draft in 2020 from 35 rounds to 5 rounds. That means they took 2,400 opportunities away from baseball players in my demographic in the year 2020. To give a little more perspective, there are only 7,500 jobs in MLB baseball as a player and 2,400 of them were taken away.
However, people have ability to make decisions for themselves on their own. I was pretty much in a scramble of what I was going to do. I applied to the top MBA programs across the country to see if I would want to further my collegiate career since college athletes gained 1 year of eligibility as a result of the shutdown. Even though I tested into the 95th percentile, I was declined from these programs for not having enough work experience. So, my next move was to create my own work experience, so I started an LLC called “VMA” with a partner. We purchased software and supplied a marketing service for in-person businesses that would take individuals from a social media ad and directly schedule them in the company. Basically, we created something out of nothing and provided myself with an outlet which allowed me to put all my heart into during the pandemic. While all of that was going on, I had a stranger reach out to me on May 1st, 2020, they knew I was a college baseball player and asked me for a pitching lesson. So, I said sure that would be fun. I helped the kid and provided him with a great one-hour session that he really enjoyed. Fast Forward to September 1st, 2020, and I had over 85 pitching and training clients. I didn't realize that all the hard work I had put into my own career trying to fill gaps was doing the same for others. I followed simple steps in my own business that helped it accelerate. I showed up 20 minutes early to every session, I was present for each person, and made sure I kept diligent track of each person's progress. At that point, I was taking the money I was making coaching and training and putting it into my marketing business. I then realized that I should just follow my passion and fully pursue coaching and training individuals.
As I was coaching and training athletes all day long, I was actually getting better at baseball myself. Throwing multiple times a day, teaching weighted ball programs, lifting weights etc., I was in the best shape of my life. Then I got a call from my college roommate in late December of 2020, he had spoken with a Red Sox scout, and he told him that he should go out to the west coast to play in the California Winter Ball League. This was basically a showcase for 150 invited players that were either in the same situation I was as a college baseball player, looking to sign professionally, or a minor league player that had been released looking to get back in the game. The scout had asked what I was doing and said it would be a great opportunity for me as well. So, I asked my friend when it started, and he told me that it began in 3 weeks. So, I said I am in, I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. In those 3 weeks I started working with an area scout from the Dodgers and he had helped me gain that confidence that I needed to be ready to compete at the professional level.
I arrived at the showcase and pitched on the first day, which was a Wednesday. I felt I did well in my outing but also felt like I could have done a lot of things better. To my surprise, after only 3 innings of pitching, scouts really liked my stuff and I was the first out of 150 players to receive a professional contract. I was ecstatic, the contract was not for an MLB team but rather an Independent Ball club. Regardless, I was the first to receive a contract which put me at the top of the list for the MLB scouts. My next outing came during the same week on a Saturday. Multiple MLB teams came ready to watch me pitch. As I previously mentioned, I felt whole when I took the mound, I felt I was more than enough to compete and put my best stuff forward. I pitched extremely well that Saturday. I had 4 strikeouts and had only thrown 2 balls over the course of 2 innings pitched. I then walked back out for the third inning and felt excruciating pain in my throwing arm. I left the game and found out a few days later that I had completely torn my UCL in my left elbow. For those of you that are unfamiliar with baseball, if I wanted to further my playing career, I would need to undergo Tommy-John Surgery. The Orthopedic looked at me and advised that I would need to undergo another elbow surgery if I wanted to continue playing baseball. While this was terrible news, and it still hurts me as I write about it, I was grateful that I felt at peace on the mound during my last outing. When I knew in my own mind that I was whole and that I had enough skill to not only compete, but dominate, it was a great way for me to leave my playing career.
I share that story because it is important for people to realize that they are more than enough for their current circumstances. In order to change circumstances, yes you need to get better in areas and always be improving, but it is easy to misinterpret not getting better. for not being good enough. You are good enough for what you currently do, so have confidence in what you are doing! Just know that to achieve future goals you will need to continue to work on yourself to accomplish to get where you want to be. As I work with people, I try to constantly reiterate that message because as we are always working to fill the gaps in our life, we must realize that the work we have put in has gotten us to this point, so that we prepare ourselves for the current moment.
