L.A. Little's Blog, page 2

Pre-Order Outliers of Speculative Fiction

As of today Outliers is available for pre-order as an ebook on Amazon! It has already cracked the top 100 in Fantasy and Science Fiction anthologies. The trade paperback will available for order from Amazon or your local bookstore on November 30th! They’re both great but I must say, I have a proof of the TPB in my  hand and it’s pretty sweet! The cover by Mark Fussel is just out of control cool when you look at it on the front of a real book.

Outliers of Speculative Fiction – More Authors Announced

I closed submissions to Outliers on October 15th. If you didn’t make it this year there’s good news. The response has been so strong I’m going to do a second volume in 2016. Submissions for that will open March 1st, 2016. You’ll have a chance to see the sort of things I accept (good speculative fiction!) beforehand this time so that may help authors decide which story they think is best to submit to the anthology next year. I maintain my commitment to engaging with authors and having a dialogue about their stories whether they end up in the book or not.

For 2015, we have an exceptional group of authors and stories from around the planet! Let me tell you a little about them in no particular order.

“#BFF” by S. Kay is a special treat that has a uniquely contemporary feel but deals with bits of humanity that are as old as we are. S. has been working in flash and micro-fiction for some time and uses social media to tell her stories beyond the confines of the static page.

“A Muse of Fire” by Kayla Bashe is a wonderful piece of fantasy that creates a new mythology of its own while remaining powerfully relatable. Kayla is one of the youngest authors in the collection, but her skill as an author is far beyond her years.

“Harbour” by Amal Singh of New Delhi, India has the feel of classic sci-fi with a cultural flavor and perspective not often represented in mainstream spec fiction. Amal was previously unpublished.

“No Other” by Tim Jeffreys of the U.K. is a mixture of sci-fi and horror that explores other-ness and togetherness in a world reduced to just two people. Tim is an accomplished author with many publications in the independent press.

“Stepping on Sand & Gods” by Cory Skerry is a modern tale of the tides of history and their pull on humans and immortals alike and how they converge in a world which has lost its gods. Cory is an author of rare ability whose work has appeared in outlets large and small but not nearly often enough.

“When We Go Flying” by Kama Falzoi Post is a completely original story about consequences and the lack thereof. Kama herself does a masterful job of telling this story from a different gender perspective and captures impulses and themes that are universal.

“Good Fire” by Eric Landreneau is a story of friendship, devotion and transcendence in rural Appalachia. Eric’s range of knowledge ideas, and interest in the world around him is remarkable. Nothing seems to be off limits for this author and this story gives you a taste of that free-wheeling and wide-ranging sensibility.

“Liminal Hill” by Kelly Dwyer is a taut and clever techno-adventure. Kelly has been laying low for the last few years, but her very first published story was an Honorable Mention in Gardner Dozois’ Best Science Fiction of the Year, 2011. She’s back and spinning good yarns.

“Meanwhile On a Different Earth” by Anya Penfold is one of the shorter stories in the collection, so I’m not going to say much about it for fear of spoiling it, other than it is a story about fear and how we choose to react to it. Anya is our second U.K. author in this year’s collection.

“Reflections From Mirror World #57” by Cat Rambo is another of the very short stories we have in this volume. At first glance one would be tempted to disqualify Cat, a regularly published author and President of the SFWA, as an “Outlier”. The truth is Cat has been telling stories that venture into unexplored territory and experimenting with form and style for years. This is another example of Cat’s unique way of looking at not just the subject matter, but how she can present it. There’s only one Cat Rambo.

“The Banana Tree” by Gail D. Villanueva puts a different cultural spin on a familiar sci-fi theme–first contact. Gail is from the Philippines and her story takes place there. The setting and culture of a rural Filipino village add to the sense of otherworldliness and reminded me, as good spec fiction often does, how unknown we are to each other in many ways.

“The Boomtown Slurry Snatch” by Kristin Jacques is another near future adventure that is heavily imbued with cyberpunk themes and issues of social justice that are relevant right here and right now. Kristin does a lovely job of rolling you along in her characters’ fun, high stakes hustle.

“The Breeding Dust” by Dennis Mombauer is an eerie magical fantasy that is not only set in a different time, but feels like it could have been written decades ago. It put me very much in mind of some of Robert E. Howard’s creepier tales. Dennis is from Cologne, Germany.

There are four other stories still under consideration/in editing and I’ll be adding my own trifle as well. That will give us 15 to 18 stories in the end. The book has slightly more women authors than men. The countries represented will definitely include the U.S., the U.K., Philippines, Canada, India, and Germany with one or two more still possible. The authors range from widely published, to highly regarded, to successfully self published, to previously unpublished and all points between, but all of top rung quality.

This is going to be an exceptional collection of stories and I’m so proud and grateful that these talented folks chose to participate and even accepted my advice here and there. Look for it digitally and in paperback right around the end of November!

New Story Out Today in Allegory

So this is out today. FYI, I did a lot of research on this story and put a lot of time into it, but I never felt like I got it quite “right”. After it was rejected a couple of times at other mags I sent it to Allegory because Ty, though he’d never published me previously, has always been good about giving useful feedback. My plan was to hear what he had to say and then either re-write, or if the re-write wasn’t too extensive, or to just file it and maybe drop it in an anthology in the far future. Turns out he liked it, had very nice things to say about it, and  led the issue off with it. The moral is that editors see things differently than we do and that you really never know what will strike the right chord. So keep writing and keep submitting. http://www.allegoryezine.com/index.htm     
That doesn’t mean that I don’t still think there are problems with how the industry operates, only in terms of taste, you never know. And also Ty Drago, as I’ve said before, is a good egg in my experience.
The image accompanying this post is the cover art for the issue and not related to my story in any way–still creepy-cool though.

Outliers Update: Submissions close soon & authors so far!

The Outliers of Speculative Fiction, Vol. 1 will close to submissions on October 15, 2015. No submissions will be accepted or read after that day so submit now for your chance to be included in the book!

So far we have a really terrific collection of stories and authors:

“Harbour” by Amal Singh of New Delhi, India has the feel of classic sci-fi with a cultural flavor and perspective not often represented in mainstream spec fiction.

“No Other” by Tim Jeffreys of the U.K. is a mixture of sci-fi and horror that explores other-ness and togetherness in a world reduced to just two people. Tim is an accomplished author with many publications in the independent press.

“Stepping on Sand & Gods” by Cory Skerry is a modern tale of the tides of history and their pull on humans and immortals alike and how they converge in a world which has lost its gods. Cory is an author of rare ability whose work has appeared in outlets large and small but not nearly often enough.

“When We Go Flying” by Kama Falzoi Post is a completely original story about consequences and the lack thereof.

“Good Fire” by Eric Landreneau is a story of friendship, devotion and transcendence in rural Appalachia.

“Liminal Hill” by Kelly Dwyer is a taught and clever techno-adventure. Kelly has been laying low for the last few years, but her very first published story was an Honorable Mention in Gardner Dozois’ Best Science Fiction of the Year, 2011. She’s back and spinning good yarns.

These first six stories are through the editorial process and locked in. Five others are conditionally accepted, going through the process now, and will be announced when they’re done. Two are currently in a holding status awaiting a final decision. Sadly, many others didn’t make it, but thanks for submitting and keep writing! If you’re in any of these categories, you’ve been notified. If you submitted but haven’t received an answer, you will get an answer very soon.

If you haven’t submitted, but want to–what are you waiting for? Fifteen days left. Make it as clean and as good as you can but don’t beat yourself up to the point you miss the deadline. Part of this project is giving writers the chance to actually work/have a dialogue with an editor. Corrections and story guidance, as needed, are part of that process but we can’t start until you submit and we can’t do it at all if you miss the deadline.

Thanks to all the authors who have submitted so far! There is a lot of really special talent in and out of this collection. I am loving the stories and working with the authors. It’s a privilege to see your work and try to help you as a writer. Thank you for your trust!

This post will be updated with additional authors/titles as they are formally announced.

New Story Coming Out

My story “Last Train For Dasha” has been picked up by Allegory and will be available in the November 1 issue. I’ll add a link when it’s available!

It’s a supernatural story which takes place in present day Ukraine…On a train…But no fox…and no box.

The Philosophers’ Sport

Every sport has its key characteristic. Football has strength, rugby has toughness, soccer has stamina, and so on. No matter the sport, you can pick a characteristic that is essential to success and it is almost always dependent on physicality—except in baseball.

Baseball is unique among sports and often misunderstood. There is no one key physical requirement. It doesn’t take the strength of a lineman. Surely strength helps, but not as much as practice. Perfect form will send a hit ball much farther than perfect biceps. Speed is essential on the base paths or to chase down a hit to the left field corner, but it is not used all of the time. Touch, for control hitting, or flipping the ball to just the right place to make the out, is essential if you’re going to be good, but you can play nine innings and not use it.

People who don’t understand baseball watch baseball and see players standing still, not hitting each other, not sprinting across the field, not showboating under a backboard, and they think it’s boring. They are not seeing the whole game. Baseball requires so much more than mere physicality, so much more than memorizing a playbook. Baseball is a sport, like many others, that requires rigorous preparation, but in baseball you cannot focus on strength or speed or touch to the exclusion of something else, especially not to the exclusion of your mind.

You need it all. Like other sports baseball requires thousands of hours of skill development, but whereas a receiver runs and catches, every baseball player must be prepared to play offense and defense and, especially for young players, be ready to play any of several different positions at an equally high level. Baseball is just as physical as all other sports, but less specialized and more unevenly paced. A baseball player must be well-rounded physically to be at his or her best, but they need something more.

A baseball player has to have something that is unique among sports. They have to have the ability to be playing a game in which they are not part of the play for long stretches, and then perform to perfection without warning. In other sports, even if a player isn’t the ball handler, they are blocking, running, passing, supporting in some way. Ironically, the thing about baseball that makes the uninitiated see it as boring is its most difficult skill.

To be able to stand in right field, patient, quiet, and perfectly focused, as pitch after pitch goes un-hit, and hit after hit goes foul, or to the shortstop, or the far side of centerfield, and then suddenly, in that perfect moment, to be ready when the ball comes to you, to set yourself, to track the ball over distance or at high speed, to without thought flawlessly execute thousands of hours of practice, maybe for the only time, not just in that game, but perhaps in several games, is a skill unlike any other. But it doesn’t end there.

Once you have the ball your job is not done, the play is not over. After a long period of intense focus, ended by an instant of perfect responsiveness, like a trap snapping shut, you must now react to the play in the field. There is no playbook; there is only your knowledge of the game, the rules, the tactics, and your ability to correctly decide, in a fraction of a second, where the ball needs to go. No one can tell you what to do. There isn’t time. The thousands of hours spent tuning your body to react with skill must now be completed with your solitary decision, which is based on your thousands of hours of study of the game, of playing different positions.

As you stood there with the infield dust mingling with your chewing gum, as you shaded your eyes in center and breathed in the fresh cut grass at evening practice, as you sweated in the gear behind the plate, you watched every play, learned every subtlety and learned what was right. Then you learned, between plays, while you were so focused, to play out every possibility in your head in case this was your perfect moment. And when it comes you’re ready. Your body is ready, your reflexes and skills are attuned, and your decision is the right one. More than that the player at the other end of your decision, who also has no playbook, who had no idea a split second before what would happen, is in position and expecting your play, ready to partner with you perfectly to complete it.

Every baseball player needs a team as much as any other athlete and at the same time is as solitary as any player in team sports. There’s no play called, there’s no back door if you get in trouble. When your moment comes, body and mind must shift instantly from waiting to acting to deciding, but you never know when or if that moment will come. You must shift not just from standing figure to skilled athlete but from solo playmaker to decision maker and teammate, all in the blink of an eye.

Other sports have their physicality and in some ways are much tougher than baseball, but baseball is unique in its mix of physicality, mental acuity, virtuosity, and unscripted teamwork. I don’t mean to say baseball is a better sport. That depends on what you value—strength, action, speed, strategy. But if you value the ability to be calm and patient in one second, and then instantly be fast, skilled, and mentally sharp all in the subsequent half second, if you value understanding so clear that every player on the field is a play-caller and every teammate accepts and completes the play called without a single spoken word, if you value the balance of the prepared body and the focused mind as Classical civilizations did, only baseball has that combination. It is the sport not just of the athlete, but of the player that appreciates the sunset and the fresh mown grass the instant before he catches the fly ball, the player who smiles at the odd taste of infield dirt in her gum after laying down the tag. It is the Philosopher’s Sport.

Speculative Fiction May Not Be Broken

Fair warning, this is sort of my Jerry Maguire letter to the speculative fiction industry. It’s not a broken industry—it makes money and lots of it, but it is an industry with a noticeable gap in future development that is caused and worsened by misaligned incentives among the producers of the content it needs. It’s not broken but it’s running pretty rough.

Speculative fiction is a strange world in which to try to be a writer in the first place. On the one hand, its existence depends on ideas, stories, and people who tend to be outliers. Success in SF/F/H is predicated on writing something that is different and yet relatable. The successful editor must then take the further, and perhaps more difficult, step of recognizing these stories with some consistency. It is an area with an inherent dearth of data other than historical sales data and that creates a pressure to pull away from the new in favor of the proven.

On the other hand, there’s a wonderful shared history that reaches throughout science fiction, fantasy, and horror. It is a history of not just great literature from the likes of Kurt Vonnegut, Robert Heinlein, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Ray Bradbury. It’s not just a roll call of author’s like Philip K. Dick, Isaac Asimov, Stephen King, and Harlan Ellison who shaped culture and popular ideas about the future, the past, and the nature of humanity itself. Nor is it a merely the recent history of blockbusters like George R.R. Martin, adepts like Peter F. Hamilton, industry trailblazers like Hugh Howey, or stunning new talents like Alyssa Wong. Speculative fiction is, and always has been, as much a reflection of the editors as the authors—their biases, their peeves, their work ethics, and most importantly their ideas about what editors do and should do.

That reflection varies dramatically from the one cast by the editors of the Golden Age and from on outlet to the other. The Golden Age had names the likes of which we no longer have. There is no John Campbell, who saw his role early on as cultivating as cultivating young authors and helped to give us the likes of Asimov and many others as we now think of them. There is no Hugo Gernsback who not only pushed authors to put real science in their science fiction, but also coined the term. There is no Lester Del Rey who as an editor fought for spec fiction to be judged on its own terms rather than through the lens of the mainstream, so that it would have the freedom to explore ideas the mainstream could not.

There was a time, before speculative fiction was even a term, before we broke down imaginative stories into a handful of categories and dozens of fluid sub-categories, when the best editors didn’t see their roles as tastemakers, arbiters of worth, or even businesspeople betting on the surest thing. It does seem that these considerations compose the entire set of priorities for at least some editors today.

Of these three roles the last is probably the least considered by authors but the only one that is a valid role for an editor. The other two have no place in the business because it isn’t their tastes or their ideas of worth that matter, it’s the tastes and values of the reading public that should count. The role of the editor then with regard to taste should be to uncover what works for the audience and grows it. Of these three, none is a valid artistic consideration because none accept the art on its own terms. Yet almost any writer you talk to in the speculative fiction realms can tell you a story of one time or many times when they felt these were the criteria being used to evaluate work.

To be clear, it’s not that editors with Golden Age talent, vision, and dedication aren’t out there. They certainly are, but in my experience they either work at lesser known publications (perhaps they have to in order to achieve that freedom from mainstream concerns) or they are so far divorced from lesser known writers by their processes and infrastructure that all one has to evaluate them by is their editorial columns and the wording of their robo-rejections of submissions. I will say that the best stories I’ve read in the last few years were not in the big 5 (as I reckon it) and in the top 8 markets only one has contributed significantly to my top authors list.

The editors of these magazines, these top eight, might be fantastic, but how can we know? I honestly am not interested in sales figures (a luxury that writers have and editors do not, I admit), but they haven’t been fired so they must be doing okay. Most of them cry overwork to justify their distance from writers. Fair enough except that some of the mags near the top, very popular and featuring major authors, have literally, absurdly short response times. So which is it, “we’re so busy it takes six months to send a form rejection” or “we’re so busy you’ll get a form rejection within 48 hours”?

It makes no sense from the outside. It begins to look like some pubs take the time to review many if not at all subs on merit, but don’t spend the few minutes it would take to craft a response that would begin to build a relationship which could benefit them down the road. It’s such a wasted opportunity and bad business*. The very fast responders, it seems, either have an extremely low volume of submissions or must be using a process that sorts according to criteria other than merit of the story.

There’s no other way they could respond so much more quickly. It takes time to read a story, it takes time to consider it, to live with it, to discern and ponder the subtext. Not long ago I submitted a story at around 1a.m. Twelve hours and sixteen minutes later I received a robo-rejection. That’s absurd. There’s no way that story, which has gotten a very positive response from editors who still edit in the Golden Age sense, was read and considered on merit, not because it wasn’t accepted, but because there wasn’t enough time.

Then there’s the fact that the other magazines, the not-top-5, seem pretty busy too. So busy they black out submissions in order to catch up. Yet they often manage, in just a few words, to teach, inspire, and encourage. It should seem obvious then that aspiring writers should go first to the smaller, well edited, outlets (I’ll provide a list below). The reason it isn’t obvious is because the backwards spec fiction market system pushes authors of all quality in to the narrow chutes of just the few mags at the top.

I don’t want to use the term “blame” here, but there is certainly some accountability to be had. Certainly some goes to authors who look at per-word payment rates and submit in descending order. If you do that, as a writer, and you’re not brutally and desperately impoverished, it’s a foolish error. Even if you are trying to keep the wolves from the door, you’re probably better off spending your stamp money on a lottery scratcher.

The SFWA plays a role as well. By basing membership for authors on how much the author is paid by a publication, rather than judging the worth of the pubs on their contribution to the field, they add an incentive for the authors to go into “the chute”. It clearly sets a pressure to discriminate against less wealthy pubs, pubs that are more likely to develop new talent, and thereby puts an unnecessary additional barrier between them and the writers. This makes it harder for these mags to survive and reduces the range and depth of story, of thought, and of future stories by reducing the paths for authors to develop.

Agents contribute to the problem, not all agents, but the agents that rank writers noteworthiness on the basis of which of the big 5 publish them and whether they are members of the SFWA. Again this is more likely a measurement of safety than quality—a valid but not necessarily long term way of thinking in that field. That’s not to say the big boys don’t publish wonderful writers, they certainly do, but usually not until those writers have been sweating it out in the minors for quite a while. This waiting period hurts the writer, the agent, and the pub in two ways.

First of all, the fresh voice that writer brings is squelched until they are herded through the chute and molded into something safer, not by good editing but by rejection and humiliation. In the old days if the technique was lagging or the ending was bad or the voice was off—enter Campbell, Bates, or Gernsback. Today that doesn’t happen very often and the industry, the author, and the fans must wait indefinitely while the writer struggles through.

By then the author’s voice is likely much different and possibly not better. Whatever she would have brought to party in the early days is long in the rearview mirror. Her new stuff may be great, may be better than the old, but the value of the earlier work is lost not for lack of talent or worthy ideas, but for lack of a system that would have allowed it to be developed. Some of those early stories will surely be revisited by the later, successful author (many won’t), but who she is and what she has to say will be different, so that opportunity deferred is most likely lost for all.

The second way this system hurts the field is much simpler. Authors quit. The Hunger Games process that leads to publishing a good short story is solitary and demeaning. Many good writers find a more uplifting profession and put their creative energy into that work or other interests. More and more they continue to write, but self-publish because they could do no worse than they probably will by throwing themselves into the faceless meat grinder that is the mainstream SF markets. This not only depletes the available content for the markets in the future, but saps the creative strength now and generates virtually infinite competitors for the fan base, which is large, but finite.

Hugh Howey is the latest shining example of this and I, like so many writers I know, am following his example and leaving the traditional markets bit by bit. We have no worse chance of being successful on Amazon or Smashwords than we do at the Big 5 and people read our stuff. Isn’t that the real reason we write? To be read? The downside to this of course is that many authors going this route are without editorial input and they’re stinking up the internet. But they were without editorial input in the first place weren’t they? Maybe the question should be, “Why do editors edit and have they gotten away from that reason?”

Until the editors of today take responsibility for the genres and engage more authors, not just the eight appearing in this month’s issue, they are going to increasingly drive the content producers away, resulting in overwhelming competitive force on the web and reduced quality overall that will alienate the pool of consumers for all outlets. It may not be fair to lay this responsibility at the feet of a handful of editors, but they did set themselves up as the gatekeepers of the realm rather than the custodians it had in the Golden Age. And, a funny thing about economic markets, which is what we’re really talking about here, is they don’t have a single f**k to give about what’s fair to an editor, any more than a robo-rejection has a single f**k to give for a writer.

4 Behaviors of Big Outlets That Should Earn Your Boycott

The sit on your story for months and months insisting that you not send it to anyone else and then robo-reject you. They are tying up your asset for months and you don’t even get advice or a hint as to where you went wrong? To quote my 17 year old daughter, “Ruuude!”
They have a reasonable published response time, but then don’t live up to it—then they robo-reject you. See #1 and add that they’ve started your relationship by showing you blatant disrespect in that they do not honor the terms they set or have any regard for you as a person. In writing, as in business, that’s a partner you’re better off without.
They send you an absurdly fast robo-rejection. I touched on this one above. If they’re rejecting you before they’ve had time to seriously consider what you’ve written, they have no respect for you. You’re a literary booty call. You read the magazine, subscribed to the newsletter, looked at their online ads, did all the nasty stuff they wanted you to, and they were never ever going to buy you dinner. They didn’t even put in the time to get to know you and now they’re going to publish their real author.
Response time is good, they honor their commitments, but they repeatedly reject your work without explanation. You end up wasting just as much time and more effort, but over many more stories. You have to decide the right number for you, but when an outlet hits that number without useful response, drop them to the bottom of your submission list. Whether you get published or not you’ll become a better author and advance your career more by going to smaller magazines that respond to you personally or publishing online and taking the reader reviews to heart. When you’re the talk of the town in the future and the Big 5 come calling, you should definitely forego the extra three cents a word and give first dibs to the small pubs that actually helped you.

Spec Fiction Pubs and Editors I Recommend

Shimmer – currently my fave, E. Catherine Tobler rocks and was more helpful and encouraging to me in under 50 words than the Big 5 have been in the last 25 years.
Allegory – Ty Drago and friends provide remarkably detailed and specific feedback. In one case Ty’s advice led me to completely re-write a story and the result was a much longer, much better novella that I’ll be releasing soon. In another he challenged me on a couple of points of style. Although I ultimately stuck with my more unconventional form for the rhythm of language and flow, he got me to seriously consider his points which did help me make some improvements and have stuck with me as I’ve written subsequent stories. Ty has also helped me more in the last two years than all of the big boys have in forever.
Apex – Great communication to authors so you know where you stand.
Lackington’s – quick turn around and personal response.
Penumbra – They’re gone now but deserve a posthumous mention. Wonderful folks.
Other Writers – Though not currently with a pub, my friend Heather has helped me workshop my stories for over a decade. She is my sounding board and mentor and you need one! Her challenges to my work have made me a dramatically better writer and that’s what you want in an editor—to be challenged.

*I should mention here that I am an MBA who has studied economics extensively and spent most of the last two decades working as a world class turn around, customer relations, and process improvement expert. When I talk about issues of economics and business it is as an educated and experienced expert.

NMJ – Short Stories – Out Now!

My newest release is now available as an ebook from Amazon. It collects two of my most acclaimed stories with an older one. It’s a good, quick read. Please check it out!

Order NMJ on Amazon!

The Gift of Baseball

I wrote this last year but with the Little League World Series firing up I though it would be an appropriate re-post.

As I’ve watched the Little League World Series over the last week or so I’ve reflected a lot on my own relationship with the great game of baseball. As we watch the Series play out in Williamsport, PA, it’s easy to draw on the all the old lessons about teamwork, good sportsmanship, and even learning to lose. But those great lessons aren’t really unique to baseball. In fact these sorts of themes are repeated so often that I wonder if they don’t become somewhat cliché. I wonder if we say them so many times as adults that the kids stop listening. Yet as I watched the back and forth battle between Westport, CT and Sammamish, WA on August 13, as I saw the will to win in both teams and the true sportsmanship in both the overjoyed victory and the crushing defeat, it was obvious that those lessons are being taken to heart. This is a special game.

For me it started when I was a boy of six. I played my first season of T-ball with a hand-me-down glove from one of my mother’s cousins. I was a small kid, skinny, and a terrible runner. At school I was always the last picked for everything. In that first season of T-ball things didn’t get much better. It was the beginning of two or three seasons of stints in right field.

Two great things happened in that first season though. For the first time ever I was on a team, and a winning team at that. This was huge. I was not a strong player and I was picked on a bit by the older, more talented boys, but I got to play and I got to be a part of something I could never have done on my own. Of course every team sport teaches teamwork and it could be argued that some make a kid feel even more a part of a team because the positions don’t stand out so obviously in an offensive line or a group of soccer midfielders. In baseball, where you play is immediately obvious and you are immediately accountable. It is a team sport that sharpens rather than dilutes the individual, not just for superstar performance, but for their overall contribution to the team. Is it any wonder that this is the Great American Pass Time?

The other great experience was that I got better. I swung the bat more, I threw and caught more, I ran more and with every practice and game I got a little better. I liked getting better. I liked it so much I would take my second-hand glove and a tennis ball and bounce that ball off the back of my house for hours almost every day. I learned that depending on how I threw the ball I could make it come back as anything: line drive, grounder, one-hopper , or pop fly. I started out just trying to catch ten in a row, then twenty, then fifty. I made the catches harder on myself by making the ball come back further from my starting spot or come back faster. Of course to do that my throwing accuracy had to improve. Ultimately I played whole World Series out against the back wall of my house every afternoon for months. I got good, really good, over just a couple of seasons. More importantly, as I got better I believed more in my self. I believed that I, as an individual, had something worth contributing to a team and to other people. This is a belief I have carried with me as an athlete, professional, father, coach, and author.

After that, on any day that was warm and dry enough, and on which I didn’t have practice or a game, I was on my bike. And my mother’s cousin’s old glove was hanging from my handlebars as I rode far and wide looking for someone to throw, to catch, to hit with. I wanted to share baseball everywhere I went and I did. I was still skinny and not so tall, but I had learned the skills of the game and more importantly I had learned that I could be more than just what was given to me.

In time I would become an outstanding catcher, I would throw more runners out at second than any catcher in my district and in one season in Junior High I hit over .700. I never hit six feet tall, I stayed skinny almost all the way through high school, and I was never a Presidential Fitness Award winner. I just learned the skills and did them the right way.

Baseball didn’t care that I wasn’t big. It just required me to put my heart into it and to practice and play with passion. As a coach and a fan of youth baseball I’ve seen the smallest kids on the field stand head and shoulders above everyone, as players and as leaders, time and again. Some people refer to a sport as a “love” or a “friend” but I see baseball as a teacher and constant reminder that we can be more than what we are given and that sometimes, something as unassuming as a worn out, second hand glove, hanging from bicycle handlebars is a gift that lasts long after it has been lost or passed on to the next generation.

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