skip navigation

Reflection and Planting the 'Seeds'

By Johnny A Arnold, 04/12/19, 1:15PM CDT

Share

Normally I like to write my own message to kick off the season, but Ryan Rohmiller nailed it.

Chargers,

I typically like to start off the season with a note to bring some perspective to the start of the season. We can always use a reminder of what we are really doing here. Remember we have volunteer men and women who have given up a lot of time to coach your child. They are doing more than teaching baseball they are planting 'seeds' they will use in life. This is far more important than the swing or fielding a ball. Sit back cheer them on and after games, tell your child, "I love watching you play."

Ryan Rohmiller, a former player, Head Coach, Rawlings Tigers  Player Development and co-founder of Tourney Guy,  wrote a blog that said everything I had in my head. I felt why not just share. Enjoy the read.

 

Let's have a great season. Go Chargers!!

 

Johnny Arnold

 

The Most Impactful Unwritten Rule In Baseball

Reflection and Planting the ‘Seeds’

Written by Ryan Rohmiller

 

Baseball is in my blood. It’s one of the few things I have grown attached to throughout my life. I had some success throughout my playing career, but I do not consider that to be the reason for my attachment. It was not until after I had hung up my cleats that I began to develop a true passion for the game.

Baseball was all I knew. From my first experience to my last, I am grateful to have spent eighteen years playing the game I have so thoroughly enjoyed. Throughout those years, I had considered myself a baseball player, rightfully so, until one morning I woke up and everything was different. In what felt like a blink of an eye, years of what I had considered myself to be was no longer. At 22 years old, and for the first time ever, I had felt lost and confused in an unknown world. All that remained were the reminiscence of my career, the unforgettable memories, and much needed time to reflect.

It was in this time of reflection that I began to realize what baseball had given me. I had come to understand the game had been providing me the seeds to be successful in life. The seeds to a better understanding of failure, patience, solving problems, leadership, and countless other essential qualities one must possess in order to find success beyond the game.

Throughout my career, there were moments I wanted to quit before my time was up, but I chose not too. Looking back on each of those moments now, I can say, without a doubt, the only reason I even weighed the idea of quitting was due to increased failure and a lack of mental toughness in the current moment. Thankfully, I was self-aware enough to understand that spontaneous, irrational decisions without thought never turn out well. My gut told me to keep going, and so I did.

Baseball did not and it will not hand over a colorful road map to success, but what it will leave us with are the seeds that will provide us the best opportunities to become successful beyond the game. It is through the constant failures of the game that players will learn to become mentally tough, and mental toughness is the key ingredient, the water, that each individual seed will need to grow and blossom.

As a player, I was focused on the small picture. As an ex-baseball player, I am now focused on the big picture, life itself. What was once a game that I enjoyed as a player has turned out to become a game I’ve grown to love as a coach and a fan.

Giving Back What The Game Gave Me

 

Of all the rules in baseball, there is none greater and more impactful than the unspoken and unwritten rule of giving back. My job as a coach is to develop players, but it is in that opportunity I am able to give back what the game gave me throughout all my years. It’s in this opportunity I am able to help players better understand the seeds the game is planting within them. There truly is no greater gift than the gift of giving back.