My Baseball Blog

We have moved to our new digs on the Interwebz. Good riddance to our old host, and many thanks to our new host, Hosting Matters, where I have never experienced such excellent customer in all my years on the web. They put our old host to shame. Seriously, it's like coming out of the ghetto and into a master-planned community! There is simply no comparison whatsoever. And now because I know I'm in such good hands, I can move forward with my plans for this website.

I admit I have not been progressing this site as aggressively I'd originally planned, mostly because I was involved in beta testing a new social software I was very excited about. I wanted to wait until it was stable and then install it here. Well, that day came in December, and I got my hands on the software all right, but didn't trust my old host with the it. But promptly installed it on a client's website. You can see it at www.clearcreekbaseball.com, and it will soon be coming over here.

The issue I'm having now is over the future of this site. What do I want to focus on? My son has moved into 5A high school baseball, which is infinitely fascinating to me. My nephews and some of my son's friends are still involved in select baseball, so I've still got interest there...

I still think it's genius to have a review website for tournaments. That hasn't changed. Yet, I'm still mulling quite a few new directions. I'll keep chewing on it over the holidays and get back to you...

 

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If you're on IE, switch to another browser, immediately. Otherwise you might just get your computer taken over by hackers and all your stored passwords stolen.

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My son, like many of yours, has a personal goal of playing baseball at the highest level - in the Majors. Millions of boys have this dream, but there is a heck of a lot of work - years and years of work - between youthful daydreams and one day stepping onto the diamond in the Bigs. The reality is that very few ever make it to the Majors and even more rare is the player that becomes a legend. Talent is one component of Big League success, but even more important is the sheer quantity of sweaty work behind the scenes. And according to one British sociologist, it'll take at least 10,000 hours of such sweaty work to reach the pinnacle of success!

It is practice, however, that makes perfect, according to the sociologist whose books have become required reading within the Conservative party. The best way to achieve international stardom is to spend 10,000 hours honing your skills, says the new book by Malcolm Gladwell, author of the best-selling The Tipping Point.

The greatest athletes, entrepreneurs, musicians and scientists emerge only after spending at least three hours a day for a decade mastering their chosen field.

...“What’s really interesting about this 10,000-hour rule is that it applies virtually everywhere,” Gladwell told a conference held by The New Yorker magazine. “You can’t become a chess grand master unless you spend 10,000 hours on practice.

“The tennis prodigy who starts playing at six is playing in Wimbledon at 16 or 17 [like] Boris Becker. The classical musician who starts playing the violin at four is debuting at Carnegie Hall at 15 or so.”

The obsessive approach is particularly evident in sporting icons. Jonny Wilkinson, the rugby player, Tiger Woods, the golfer, and the Williams sisters in tennis have all trained relentlessly since they were children.

The simple secret is that "the years spent intensively focused on their area of expertise place the world’s most successful people above their peers." That translates into approximately three hours a day for 10 years. That's it. It makes perfect sense to me. Because as I've explained to my son, it doesn't matter how much talent he has, he WILL get passed up by boys who OUT-TRAIN him. It's up to him whether he allows that to happen or not. He has since developed the mentality that he will not ever be out-worked. That mind-set alone will take him to heights his natural talent can't reach. There will always be plenty of players who can pitch as fast as he can, but there will be far fewer of them who will train relentlessly to be The Best. That is where he will shine.

How many times have you watched a truly gifted athlete skate by in his early years on sheer athleticism and coordination alone - easily out-playing lesser-developed boys the same age? I have. But guess what? Those boys never developed a work ethic, or a self-discipline that pushed them to work harder the older they got. I always told my son that if he could out-work his peers, he would out-strip their early achievements. It's just fine to be a home-run king when you're nine years old, and it's quite another to parlay 400' high-school home runs into a college scholarship or professional draft! So what's in between the Little Leaguer and the Major Leaguer? Well, only about 10,000 hours of hard work!

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Heads up on a deal from Eastbay. I was forwarded this email from my son's coach this morning, who got it from one of the dads on our team:

Eastbay.com has Nike Monster metal cleats for 29.99 in their "Outlet". I purchased a pair this week and just received them and it is the real deal. This is a very good price so you might want to pass this on to the other parents. At this price you can purchase a larger pair for future growth.

Even though Eastbay is one of our advertisers, I didn't know about the sale and am happy to pass along the info. Click here to go to Eastbay, and then click on the red "Outlet" tab in the top right corner of the main menu.

My son uses the Nike Air Zoom 5-Tool metal cleats, which are also on sale for $29.00 (down from $104). He wears a size 15 1/2, so I have to buy the cleats when and where I can find them. $29 is an unbeatable deal.

Great off-season deals! I think I'll do a little shoppin' tonight.

Thanks Kevin and Robert for the tip!

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The component that features some videos on the front page is not playing the videos. There is a disconnect between the video on file and the player itself. I'm working on a solution this week. In the meantime, you can still watch all our videos on the Video Main Page, found under the Community tab. Unless you are still stuck in the hinterland of IE7. Then, no, videos will still crash your IE7. Please be patient while I work on these glitches.

It would help the world immensely if people abandoned the grotesqueries of Internet Explorer and instead enjoyed the smooth customization of Firefox. The site runs like a dream in Firefox because Firefox is slick and intuitive, unlike IE. Try it and see, people!

 

UPDATE: August 27

All video is now working in ALL browsers. I still highly recommend you switch to Firefox3. In my effort to understand the IE7 anomalies, I've been haunting quite a few programmer and developer forums and they are not impressed (rather disgusted) with the upcoming IE8. So, it doesn't look like it's going to get any better. Here, I'll make it easy for you:

 

 

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We are two Texas families...and baseball is our addiction life.

Hey! You're here because the same can probably be said of you. So welcome, pardner! We're about to tell you as much as you could possibly want to know about us...

We come from a military background (one family Army, the other Air Force). One of the things we've all missed since we re-entered civilian life (lo, these many years since kids were born) was the sense of camaraderie we shared with all other service members - a close bond with other folks who shared our all-consuming lifestyle.

Well, we've since re-discovered that sense of camaraderie with folks just like you! Families who are just as absorbed and consumed as we are with a life of baseball. Think about it...it really makes sense: we spend many longs hours together at practices, games, and on the road. We dine together as often as not, and boys are cheerfully passed between households when schedules get too hectic.

We share mind-numbing tension during championship games, butt-numbing days on bleacher seats, the hand-numbing frenzy of victory, and the soul-numbing tragedy of defeat. Best of all, we share this most glorious time in our son's lives - their development as athletes and sportsmen, their maturation into young men, and the evolution of their character - together.

But sadly, just like military families move on, so do baseball families. It's hard work staying in touch, and keeping up with former teammates. Sure, email helps, and we love getting updates on the accomplishments of our friends. But it's not the same as being there.

So, out of our own need for a better way to stay in touch, we decided to build the next-best-thing-to-being-there: an online community built to accommodate everything baseball. A place where we can post about our sons' exploits - complete with photos and video - so that our friends and family can keep up with our goin's-on. A place to gather and share ideas, vents, opinions with other families living the same lifestyle. We wanted an online "home" to showcase it all and invite our friends and family to. And...make new friends, of course.

There's nothing like this online - that we've found after countless fruitless searches (and our Google-fu is strong, people...very strong). So we figured, "Why not?" And then... we heard those magic words...

IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME.

Yes, yes we did. Heard it plain as day.

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Anyways...

Of course, the whole concept - like everything else in our frenetic lives - has taken on a life of its own! We started thinking,"Hey, what a great way for ballplayers to showcase their skills for prospective coaches and scouts." And "Let's make it so that kids can have a safe online presence without the dangers and pitfalls of MySpace or the like." Also, "Let's write articles and editorials and interviews - put all that schoolin' to work." Then someone said, "What about sharing opinions? Inquiring minds want to know!" Which was followed by a shout of, "INFORMATION IS POWER MWAHAHAHAHAHA!" Ok, not really on that last part - but you get the idea.

So, anyway, that's us in a nutshell. Literally - nuts. (We're not that freaky, don't worry - even if we did just quote a line from Field of Dreams in utter seriousness.)

We love our boys, we love our country, and we love the sheer magic of our nation's Greatest Pastime. Put it all together with good American folk like you and we are happier than pigs in mud.

BaseballNation.US is built BY baseball families FOR baseball families. This is a family place - we are baseball moms and dads, just like you. It our greatest hope that this will become a thriving online "nation" devoted to this sport we all love.

So join us - and invite your teams, your friends, and your family, too. The only pre-requisite is that you love baseball.

~The Thiess Family and the Nevala Family

(Picture coming soon. You can't wait.)

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Hello,

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