As former major league pitcher and baseball executive Tom House says, "If a ball player fell off the mound, his mom would come to his defense after the game and say 'my son fell off the mound better than any other boy today!'"
Recognizing Important Role of Moms
For many years my family's baseball business has recognized the important role that moms play:
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We have gone out of our way to find interesting magazines to preoccupy them when they endure the monotony of watching their child during repetitive drills.
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We have always insisted on sparkling clean bathrooms just because they deserve that simple courtesy.
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We go to them for counsel on how best to communicate with their child.
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We share their compassion, concerns and joys.
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We need their inspiration, as well as wisdom, to become better teachers.
Moms are fascinating to watch
It's fascinating to watch moms at games. Just when a child thinks his mom isn't paying attention, because she is chatting with other moms, she sees him do something really important. Mom can actually continue her conversation and with peripheral vision see what her child did, how he did it, and grasp the feelings he experienced. She does this all at the same time, without skipping a beat in her conversation.
Dads can't do that.
Moms have a unique way of looking at success. Success to a mom is not the fact that their child went 3-3 or pitched a 1 hitter, or even whether his team won. It doesn't matter to a mom whether her child won or lost. She knows it's only a game. What matters to a mom is that he had fun doing it and that he gained knowledge about his life and walked away with more self esteem.
Moms get really irritated at coaches and players who don't understand that and who take it upon themselves to require proficiency without training; mastery without education. Moms have very little patience, although they conceal it quite well, with the dad, the coach, or the player who places her son in a caste system and won't permit him to move up because of a preconceived notion.
