ABOUT THIS EPISODE
🎥 Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/@HardKnockPress
⏩ In Episode 10 of Forward, Joe Clemente and Kevin T. Mulhearn welcome their first guest, Dean Bumbaco, for a straight-talking conversation about youth baseball parents, playing time, and what happens when a coach hands your son a paper that says "zero playing time."
Dean's son Nick played on a Don Bosco Prep team that won a state championship, but it didn't start that way. Dean shares how Nick turned that paper into a start, why he was once fired from a volunteer coaching job, and why he thinks the best thing parents can do is tell their kids the truth.
They discuss:
- Why so many parents think their kid is headed to the Yankees by age eight
- How youth baseball used to work, and what parents trusted coaches to do
- The "zero playing time" paper, and how Nick turned it into a start
- Why Don Bosco kids "choose hard" instead of leaving when it gets tough
- Why Dean was fired from a volunteer coaching job, and why he stepped back from coaching his own son
- Why effort is the one thing every player controls
Whether you're a parent, coach, grandparent, or athlete, this conversation is a reminder that playing time is earned in practice and in attitude, and that the best thing you can give a kid is the truth.
Forward: Better Athletes. Better People.
🎙️ Forward is a podcast from Hard Knock Press exploring the ideas, stories, and conversations that help build better athletes and better people.
📘 Get Joe Clemente's book, The Long Ride Home: How to Help Your Kids Shine in Youth Sports (Without Driving Them Crazy): https://hardknockpress.com
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