Daniel Bard had the gift to throw a baseball 100 miles an hour. One pitch he threw became famous online because it had never really been seen before – 99 miles an hour and it curved like a slower pitch, which almost never happens.
From 2009-2011 Bard pitched for the Boston Red Sox and became famous for his talent, but then things suddenly went wrong. Bard could no longer control where his pitches went. He missed the catcher’s mitt by feet not inches. He hit batters. His pitches sailed over everyone’s head.
Bard was sent to the minor leagues to regain his form, but it only got worse. After trying to make it back to the major leagues for five years, he ended up in the Florida Coast League pitching to teenagers and retired in 2017.
Bard eventually found work as a mentor to younger players in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization offering insights he had learned reading self-help books and meditating. He was a success. The younger players loved his stories of striking out Hall of Fame players. He found he was a great listener and could help other players along their journey.
Then one day Bard started to throw a baseball again and it felt great. He built a throwing net at his home to practice. He slowly regained his control. In a wonderful article in the New Yorker, Louisa Thomas describes how Bard began to see his story and life as the younger players saw it and put into practice advice he was giving them: “The way you talk to yourself and the way you view yourself is who you become.”
In 2020, at the age of 35, pitching for Colorado, Daniel Bard made it back to the Major Leagues and was named Comeback Player of the Year. This week he returns to Boston where he last pitched for the Red Sox over a decade ago.
How do you talk to yourself? How do you view yourself? Who do you want to become? Daniel Bard reminds us it is never too late to try again or to realize a dream. Anything is always possible.
On Emotions 