Dug In
Theme of the Week: Buried Feelings
Sunday, August 14, 2005
 1 of 1
Who Said It…Jim Sundberg
Jim Sundberg spent 22 years in major league baseball. In 1985, he won the World Championship with the Kansas City Royals and was voted "World Series Hero" by the Chicago Sports Writers. He spent the last six years of his baseball career as an award-winning broadcasting analyst for the Texas Rangers. Jim is the founder of Sports Training Systems, which produces training products for coaches, children who play youth sports, and their parents.
What He Said…Dug In
I made the varsity baseball team as a freshman at the University of Iowa. But when I came back home to play in the summer league in my hometown, I got off to a lousy start, hitting under .200. The coach benched me.
Well that did it. I remember seeing him and my dad standing by the left field line arguing right in the middle of a game. I sat there in the dugout, feeling horrible, my emotions all tangled up.
I made sure they stayed bottled up, too. Whenever I felt tired or anxious about something, I'd just turn off whatever was uncomfortable for me. I reacted with a sort of survival instinct, turning off my emotions and isolating myself from any potential hurt. I'd even turn off the input of love and acceptance that I desperately needed.
That kind of reaction to pressure helped me cope at a time when I didn't feel I had much control. But it hurt me later on, affecting my relationship to my wife, Janet, and our children for years.
Adapted from Sports Parenting (Waterbrook, 2000) by permission.
Copyright © 2005 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity. 1 of 1
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