When I was a kid I used to play a lot of competitive baseball. My grandfather played in at least a minor league and my father went far but never made it. So naturally I was surrounded by it growing up. We would go to games, we would play catch, we would play pickup games in the schoolyard. In grade 4 they started letting kids pitch. I couldn't tell you how many times I got absolutely drilled by a hardball and fell to the ground crying. I hated it. I wasn't having fun at all. But my dad still wanted me to succeed. By the time I was 10 playing baseball began to feel like taking out the trash or being told to eat my vegetables. So when I was 14 I started to refuse. I wouldn't do anything baseball related, not even for fun. I wouldn't even play catch with my dad. Could you believe that? A kid refusing to play catch with his own father? That's when I read The Boat Rocker by Terrence Mann.