Nick Van Stratten and the Fact of Failure

and yet I still liked it. Good piece of writing

I don’t know if I should laugh, cry, or shoot myself. Same probably goes for Nick.

I doubt he’s that introspective.

I’m probably a bit older than you and most of the posters here. I’m on my 4th career, and I suppose I’ve never actually “made it”, and probably never really will to my satisfaction. I learned quite awhile ago that I essentially “suck”, but the one thing I didn’t suck at was saving money and living within certain limited means.

I would suggest NVS keep playing as long as possible because he’s actually getting paid to do something I’m sure he loves doing. By that standard, I think NVS has already “made it”, compared to most people. From my perspective, 26 is a very young age, and he’s got plenty of time to either bounce back with another affiliated team, perhaps extend the dream by playing in one of the many independent leagues, or move on to the real world where it’s likely that he’ll end up doing something he cares far less about. But no matter what he does, if he saves his money and doesn’t have delusions of a MLB paycheck in the future, he will have perhaps avoided sucking, and can proudly point out to anyone who will listen that he was good enough to have played professional baseball. How many of us would love to be able to say the same?

…but a diss-defended PhD should get an invite for an interview at most positions. My wife and I are both tenure-track professors at the same institution. There were some hard years, but we lived on the “Chronicle of Higher Ed” and “Higher Ed Jobs” long enough to find someplace that worked for both of us. We later found out that most of the people we were competing against in the market were A-ABD and B-weird. I think one is only SOL if their doctorate is in some terribly obscure off-shoot of some terribly obscure discipline. The only barrier a solid PhD candidate faces is that s/he has to be willing to move to pretty much any city/state/country where the right job is. Not always practical, I can certainly understand…

…which is play baseball for a living. Now he’s not in the majors yet, and he may never be, but he’s still playing baseball everyday as his real job while the rest of the lemmings in the world are working in cubicles updating TPS reports. That’s awesome.

Personally, I think he’s already made it. No matter what happens in his life from now on, he will always be able to look back and smile thinking about the carefree days of playing baseball for a living. He gave it his best shot, and that’s all any of us can do. He may not have this attitude now of course, but eventually he will hopefully realize that the journey was the reward.

Please make sure these are not in the same place

…first played 2 years of minor league ball…washed out….then went to grad school? i just love punishing myself in thankless high failure situations. of course now i’m and assistant professor and really like my life most days. so sometimes persistence pays off.

Nice Post Will, a little depressing, but very well written. speaking from experience….i really like the minor league/grad school analogy. although, i made more money as a grad student than i did in the minor leagues.

But I don’t necessarily agree with them all.

There’s not enough for everyone to be successful . . .

I guess the question there is one of define successful. Certainly in the USA we define success higher than say in Kenya, but that in and of itself should be celebrated. Think of all the opportunity, knowledge, and experience we can experience today as opposed to people less fortunate than us in other countries or even in comparison to our own ancestors of 100 years ago.

Plus, I don’t like the idea that there is not enough for everyone. That sounds like there is a pie that everyone must take a piece from and some get bigger pieces than others. If the world is like a pie, then it could be continuously enlarge to make more for more people.

and many of us just don’t have anything to offer the world even if we could.

Everyone has value, although it is true that for whatever reason, all of us will not reach our potential. But, it is rough to compare life in general to the way professional sports works because unlike Baseball, in life you aren’t limited in your opportunities based upon whether you were born an athletic freak of 1% of the population.

There are a tremendous amount of opportunities out there and it is my hope that we still live in a country that allows us to pursue them. I’ve been as down as anybody over the last year. I had a fiance end things with me and I’ve been unable to break in to us the degree I spent thousands of dollars and 7 years of my life to earn. But, I’ve found a new way forward. I hope anyone else that needs one, can find their own.

Don’t be ashamed of the gray in your hair
Just think about the fun you had putting it there

Francis Fukuyama once wrote a widely misunderstood book called The End of History. His point was Hegelian (not that I know anything about that): people (and nations, and classes, and races, etc.) seek a state called thymos in Greek, which means something like balanced self-esteem.

If people think less of you than you think of yourself, you feel shame. If people think more of you than you think of yourself, you feel guilt. You’re only really happy when your opinion of yourself corresponds with that of others, and then you’ve found thymos.

So if Fukuyama and Hegel are right, we’re all doomed to be miserable.

And basically wrong. Trust Nick Van Stratten to make the decision best for himself about his baseball career. It is his life. He may be happy. He may make the big leagues. He may wash out. Let him find his way without strangers calling him a likely failure.

All of us can find a life to enjoy. Will is flat wrong in stating, “There’s not enough for everyone to be successful and many of us just don’t have anything to offer the world even if we could.” The world is not a zero sum game. There is plenty for anyone to be successful as defined in their own terms. And everyone has something to offer the world, even if some might think it is a modest offering. Small things are actually a big thing if they bring joy, happiness, good feelings or even just a laugh to someone.

Regardless of whether he should be playing against right handed pitchers (he should not), he seems to bring happiness to people and is a pleasure to be with. So, in addition to being a rich major league baseball player with skills that the rest of us can only dream we have, he it me seems to be a successful guy.