THE CREAM OF THE CROP
Becoming a professional major league athlete is a long shot. Just look at the numbers. While there are thousands of college, high school, and community teams that compete on the amateur level, there are far fewer professional sports teams.
Of course, not all athletes play on teams. There are tennis players, golfers, swimmers, ice skaters, and many others who compete individually. However, when these athletes compete in tournaments, only the top few finishers are paid the big bucks, leaving it impossible for lower-ranking athletes to train and compete full-time and still be able to afford a place to live and to put food on the table.
In addition, not all athletes who play professionally can do it for a long time. Injuries and age knock many strong athletes out of the major leagues and back into the “regular” world.
Train, Train, Train
Anyone who wants to be a professional athlete better be willing to work hard. The key to getting noticed and advancing in a sport is to win competitions. An athlete who doesn’t train has about as much chance of winning as a hamster racing against a herd of gazelles. Athletes need skill, but they also need stamina, flexibility, and strength. Training is the best way to accomplish this.
It is not the size of the man but the size of his heart that matters.
Evander Holyfield
BOXER
Athletes train all year, not just during the playing season. Training includes stretching and exercising the specific muscles used in a particular sport, as well as working with weights to build muscle strength and cardio to improve stamina and endurance. Athletes don’t want just to stay in top condition during the off-season—you want to improve every part of your performance. To do this, an athlete will work on specific muscle groups or skills. For example, a figure skater might practice jumps and spins, while a tennis player might hit hundreds of balls over the net to perfect forehand shots.
Training is not an activity the athlete does alone. Coaches, trainers, teammates, and even friends train with the athlete, helping you do better and encouraging you not to give up. In addition, athletes often videotape workouts and then watch the tapes to see where they could do better. Even the slightest change can make a big difference in performance.
What’s the point of mentioning all this training? It’s just to let any potential superstar know that being a professional athlete is not all fun and games. It’s hard work!
Names: Sisters Claire and Lydia Tembreull (with their mom, Ann, who has her own profile on being a swim official in chapter 5)
Ages: 13 and 10
Job (when not studying!): Swimmers, Northern Lights Swim Team, Escanaba, Michigan
What sports have you participated in and when?
Claire: Swimming since I was a baby.
Lydia: I’ve been on the swim team since I was five years old.
What are you doing now in terms of education/sports participation?
Claire: I go to practice three times a week for an hour and a half during the regular swim season, which runs from October to March. I also swim on the summer swim team, which works on technique.
Lydia: Like Claire, I go to practice three times a week for an hour and a half during the regular swim season from October to March. I also swim on the summer swim team, which works on technique.
Ann: Just this past year, our school district formed a high school swim team. It is a satellite program of our Y, which makes things convenient. It will be another nice option for our kids when they reach high school age. Girls who swim are much sought after for college programs. We have seen several girls who have done very well on the team and been offered nice scholarships even if they don’t swim on the A team at college. It does make staying on the team attractive for their future, but hopefully that isn’t the only reason to be there.
How did you get started in sports?
Claire: I’ve taken swim lessons since I was fourteen months old, and I joined the swim team when I was six.
Lydia: I started taking swim lessons when I was thirteen months old, and I joined the swim team when I was five years old.
Ann: I have always loved to swim and encouraging my kids to swim became a physical necessity when Claire started walking and developed problems with her legs. We ended up at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, where a geneticist told us Claire was super flexible and prone to sprains. His suggestion to strengthen her legs: swimming! We’ve pretty much been fixtures at the YMCA ever since.
Make sure your worst enemy doesn’t live between your own two ears.
Laird Hamilton
SURFER
I really never thought we’d be involved so deeply in a competitive sport. Claire went from the minnow level of swimming lessons to swim team at age six. She was so nervous at her first meet. She ended up receiving a heat winner ribbon, and that was all it took for her to be hooked.
Lydia ended up on the swim team after watching Claire swim during a summer practice. One of the coaches asked if she wanted to try it, and she did. She swam her first relay about a week later in a dual meet on a team with the head coach’s high-school-senior son, who was 6'3". The contrast of tall Zach and tiny Lydia was priceless. It’s one of our funniest swim team moments.
What do you like best about sports?
Claire: I love hanging out with my friends and cheering for them. I love swimming!
Lydia: I love to just hang out with my friends and try to beat my own time. I also like to cheer for the team.
Ann: One thing we really like about swimming is that even if you don’t place in the top three in your race, you often score points for the team as a whole. Not only are there the individual awards but a team award as well. We can often say to our kids that they helped the team win the meet. We try to encourage our kids to set goals and try their best. In our family, it’s nice to be first, but it’s also great to participate.
Do you plan to stay in sports for a long time?
Claire: Yes, because I love swimming, I will try to continue down the road.
Lydia: I think sports will always be a part of my life because I think swimming is so much fun. I will continue to swim.
Ann: What I hoped they would get out of swimming was a lifelong physical activity. There really aren’t that many sports that you play as a kid that can follow you no matter your age or physical limitations. Plus, living on Lake Michigan, it is so important to have a respect for the water and the lake. I hope that even if both girls decide to stop swimming competitively, they will always enjoy swimming for fun. If that happens, my goal has been achieved.
What advice or tips can you give young people thinking of a career in sports?
Claire: Go for it and don’t worry about messing up or not winning. Go and cheer for your team and be the best you can be.
Lydia: The advice I would give is just have fun and don’t worry if you don’t win because you can always try again next time. I would also tell you to try your hardest.
The Path to the Pros
So you’re ready to accept the challenges and hard work. You think you can beat the odds and make it to the pros in your particular sport. Good for you! The question you’re probably wondering now is: How do I start?
It seems obvious to say this, but the best way to start is to play the sport you love. Most athletes who turn pro have been playing since they were little kids. Did Derek Jeter play Little League? You bet he did. Was Mia Hamm kicking a soccer ball when she was barely out of preschool? You know it. Most athletes didn’t just start playing when they were little—they also showed a great aptitude. This is especially true of athletes who participate in individual sports, such as gymnastics and tennis. In these sports, high school students can become internationally known stars and receive lots of money, either for winning competitions or for endorsing products. They don’t need to wait until they are fully grown up to turn professional.
For team players, being on a high school team is especially important. Talent scouts hear about the best high school players, and they are eager to see what these players can do. A good athlete might be noticed by a professional sports team and be drafted into the organization’s minor league system. However, it’s more likely that the athlete will attract the notice of college scouts. This can be a very good thing. Many athletes receive hefty scholarships—sometimes the cost of their entire college education—just to play on a school’s team. And for many sports, especially football and basketball, a great college playing career is the way to get noticed by the professional teams. It’s no accident that the top draft picks in the NBA and NFL are almost always key players on college teams. It’s a win-win situation—a free or low-cost education at a top school, a chance to play your favorite sport, and the possibility of being noticed and drafted by a pro team.
Going to college is a plus in many other ways besides providing the opportunity to maybe play pro sports. Even if you are lucky enough to have a pro career, the odds are that you won’t be playing in the big leagues for more than a few years. That means that you’ll have to find another job. Having a college degree can prepare you for that day. In addition, college courses in accounting, business, law, marketing, or medicine can help you handle the challenges and opportunities that will come up during your sports career.
A pro athlete has to have a very special personality. You have to have unbelievable levels of determination. Giving up, taking a day off, or quitting because you are tired or sore or frustrated is simply not an option. If you want to be a professional athlete, you have to be 100 percent committed to succeeding, and you must work nonstop to improve your skills, do your best, and get noticed so you can move up to the next level. Self-confidence and ambition are key aspects that are almost as important as raw athletic ability. As a baseball scout commented to a player, “Attitude is everything! Act like you own the place. When you walk off the field, hold your head high and act like you’re a star. That confidence will get you noticed and improve your game.”1
Sportsmanship is also important. You don’t want to be the piece that doesn’t fit. You don’t want to be the guy or girl who your teammates groan about or who leaves a sour taste in everyone’s mouth. Good sportsmanship is not only a good personal quality to have—but it can also make you money. Sponsors don’t like athletes who get into trouble or act like bullies or whiners. The big endorsement deals and the fat contracts aren’t going to go to the athletes who get in trouble with the law or who have scandal and bad news following their every step. Ability + determination + class = success!
A Cautionary Tale
In 2003, eighteen-year-old Eric Duncan was a first-round draft pick for the New York Yankees. The shortstop was a power hitter with a strong work ethic. During a workout at Yankee Stadium before the draft, scouts saw Duncan hit home runs into the second deck. The scouts reported that Duncan was the most exciting player they’d seen. He was focused, prepared, mature, and ready for the big time.
Most pro sports—football, hockey, basketball, and soccer—draft their players out of college and have them play in developmental leagues before moving up to the big time. However, baseball is unique in that it has an established system of minor league teams (also called farm teams). Players usually start at the lowest level, which is called A, and, if they’re lucky, advance to AA and then AAA. The next stop is the Major Leagues.
After joining the Yankees organization, Duncan moved quickly through the lower levels of the minor leagues. Surely it was only a matter of time before he made it to the major leagues. But, as a news reporter later wrote, “A baseball contract offers no promises. Not for the organization. Not for the player.”2
Eric Duncan played for the Yankees minor league team until 2009. Then he went to the Kansas City Royals and played in its minor-league system until 2012. Over his ten-year career, Duncan had almost four thousand times at bat, but he never made even one appearance in the Major Leagues. After the 2012 season ended, Duncan quit baseball and enrolled in college at the age of twenty-eight.
What happened? Many factors combined to stop Duncan’s climb into the majors. His hits and at bats declined. He had trouble hitting curveballs. Then doctors discovered a vision problem that made it hard for Duncan to see the ball under the lights during night games. Slowly, Duncan lost his confidence and left professional sports, telling people that he didn’t want to end up resenting the game he loved so much.
Duncan’s story is not uncommon. Most of the players who are drafted by major league teams never play in the major leagues or play only a few games. A player might spend his whole career in the minors, or he might only play a few seasons. As long as you understand this and play for the love of the game, you can enjoy your time as a professional athlete. But if you enter the draft feeling that being a big-shot player is the only way to succeed, odds are you will be very disappointed.
SPOTLIGHT
Jeremy Lin: Most Unexpected American to Play a Great American Game
Jeremy Lin is the first American of Taiwanese or Chinese descent (he’s both) to play on an NBA team. But even outside of that, it’s pretty amazing that in 2012, he signed a three-year contract with the Houston Rockets. He made it to professional basketball without a college athletic scholarship, without being drafted right after college graduation and after being sent multiple times to the D-League, the NBA Development League.
Though Lin inspired a fan frenzy dubbed Linsanity after he became a starter for the New York Knicks, his first NBA team, Lin prefers to lead his life as plainly as he can. He earned a degree in economics from Harvard University, slept on couches in his brother’s and a teammate’s apartments even after joining the NBA, and has said he’d like to become a pastor after his professional basketball days are over.
Show Me the Money
How much can a pro athlete make? The sky’s the limit when it comes to the very best in the game—we’ve all heard about the multimillion-dollar contracts commanded by the superstars of baseball, basketball, football, and other major sports, and the fat endorsement deals snatched up by Olympic champions and other sports heroes. However, not everyone is making that kind of money. For every top athlete who earns millions of dollars a year, there are hundreds of athletes earning a “regular” person’s salary. But those hundreds of lesser-paid athletes are still being paid to play the sport they love, and that is not a bad thing!
LIFE IN THE MINORS
Many farm teams are associated with Major League teams, but there are also independent baseball leagues that are not affiliated with specific teams. Players in these leagues do have the opportunity to be seen by Major League scouts, however. Many of the players in the independent leagues are college age or older and just enjoy playing baseball. Most minor league seasons last from late May or early June until Labor Day.
The five S’s of sports training are: stamina, speed, strength, skill, and spirit, but the greatest of these is spirit.
Ken Doherty
SNOOKER PLAYER
Life in the minor leagues is far from glamorous. Most do not make enough to live on their own, and the league will set you up with host families who charge very little for room and board. During the off-season, some of the players will go to Puerto Rico or Central or South America to play winter ball. It isn’t the money that drives you—it’s the love of the game.
Name: Danielle DeStaso
Age: 20
Job (when not studying!): Pitcher, softball, Seton Hall University, New Jersey
Dream Job: Coach
Why do you think it’s important for young people to get involved in sports?
In high school I played softball and basketball. I’ve always been a part of sports. I love the family you get out if it. The friends I make through it are ones that are always there, and they become family because of the time and work you put into it together. I also enjoy sports because they are fun and they provide something to keep me going.
Do you plan to stay in sports for a long time?
I know sports will always be a part of my life. I’d love to play professional softball, but there isn’t a good league for that, so after college I don’t know where I will play. What I’d really love is to coach in a high school. I want to teach children to love something as much as I do.
What advice or tips can you give young people thinking of a career in sports?
Teenagers looking to continue in sports need to be willing to work hard. It is definitely a lot of fun, but they have to realize what comes with it, especially in college. They will have to learn to make sacrifices if they want to be the best. In the end, their hard work will pay off and they will learn to love what they do, just like I do!
Notes:
1. John Burns, conversation with author, March 18, 2013.
2. Chad Jennings, “He Looked the Part,” The Journal News (February 10, 2013): 1C.