Polish

This is a quotation from "The Only Rule Is It Has To Work", by Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller, a book about how two baseball stats guys take over operations of a non-affiliated (lowest level) pro baseball team for a season.  In this quotation, one of the authors is recounting an explanation by a veteran (we'll call him The Vet) to a rookie (The Rookie) about the growth process in low level pro ball:

"[The Rookie] was inside the dugout; [The Vet] was outside it, leaning over the rail, and he stepped back and pointed at the fishnet, a series of small squares that protected all of our shins from foul balls.  'You think you're this whole big screen, like a big rectangle," [The Vet] said.  "But you're actually a collection of all these little squares in here.  And each one is part of the game that you have to learn and polish.  In affiliated ball, they start with the first square and they polish it until it's perfect.  Then they go on to the next square, and they polish it until it's perfect.  Eventually you've polished every spot and you're a complete ballplayer, you know how to play the game.  But nobody does that for you here.  If you don't do it yourself, you never learn all these little ways that you should be better.' "

"This is profoundly sad if you're the guy who is signing twenty-two-year-old ballplayers who dream of reaching the big leagues, because it means that just by being here they're falling behind their peers.  [The Rookie] and some dude who was drafted in the thirty-ninth round last year might have started the season at the same talent level, more or less.  But that other guy, by luck of having been seen by a scout, or having a slightly more promising frame or repertoire or profile, or a dad who played minor league ball, gets the benefit of dozens of the world's best coaches, who are dedicated to spending sixty hours a week training him, teaching him, polishing him, and compelling him to spend sixty hours a week on the same.  But [The Rookie] was here.  For most of the season [The Rookie] essentially had one player/coach, and that coach had no experience coaching, and a full time job on the side playing center field.  Every day that [The Rookie] spends here, impressing the hell out of us, blowing our minds at how much better he is than we expected, is a day he's falling behind Mr. Thirty-Ninth-Round Pick."

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I like this quotation for two reasons:
1. Thinking about the game is a lot of smaller pieces that require polish is useful, because I think it sheds some light on how the self-improvement growth process works.
2. I think the second part highlights the importance of environment and structured growth in player development.  In addition, regardless of how much better a player might be than we expect, I think the right thing to do is to continue to push them to be a complete player, rather than just sit back in awe.