By Jimmy Robertson
Excerpt from Inside HOKIE Sports March 2020 Issue
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His career-altering moment took place on a baseball diamond, and Ian Seymour remembers every detail with the utmost clarity.
An 11-year old boy at the time and arguably the top pitcher on his travel team from Westborough, Massachusetts - just an hour west of Boston along the Massachusetts Turnpike - Seymour uncharacteristically got roughed up during his outing. His coach, Paul Brown, made a change before the first inning had expired, and Seymour made the painfully embarrassing walk to the bench.
Before he even reached said bench, he threw his glove, and once he arrived, he started yelling - at himself. This particular scene is not uncommon on ballfields across America, where competitive urges flow rampantly and mature ones often don't.
Brown patiently waited until after the game to address the situation. He knew Seymour well because his son, Parker, and Seymour were best buds, but he could not tolerate a poor reflection on his team or the game. So he pulled Seymour aside and delivered some stern words.
"You're never going to act that way again," he said.
A decade later, that message and the way it was delivered still resonates.
"He told me to watch Major League Baseball players and players older than me," Seymour said. "Watch how they act. From that perspective, just building a mentality that I'm going to be tough in every moment during this game no matter what happens. He was really the one that started that in me."
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