Andy NearyI help insurance professionals turn brand awareness into business growth.

Have You Ever Felt Like You Don’t Belong?

15 Nov 2023 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:36

A first-person YouTube talk by Andy Neary recounting his debut in professional baseball. He describes being called into a sold-out game (stands filled, ~5,000 people) with his parents watching, warming up to face Andres Torres (a top pick in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization), and hearing the crowd chant “How can you pitch when you’re 5 foot 6?”—turning the pitcher’s mound (an 18-foot diameter) from a haven into a ‘mental prison’. The piece centers on feelings of belonging, self-doubt, and crowd judgement.

Questions this video answers

5,000 people.

Andres Torres.

Arizona Diamondbacks organization.

"How can you pitch when you're 5 foot 6?"

18 foot diameter.

Stands are filled. 5,000 people. My parents are in the audience to watch their son play pro baseball for the first time. I get called into the game. Third inning, I'm running into this sold out stadium. I get to the mound, I grab the ball from Dan Norman, our manager.
And I look to the on deck.
Circle who I'm going to be facing right away and it's Andres Torres, the.
Top pick in the.
Arizona Diamondbacks organization.
This is my chance.
To grab the attention, right?
To prove I belong.
So I start warming up.
And as I start.
Warming up, the crowd starts chanting. Little by little the chanting gets louder and after my fourth warmup pitch I.
Can hear what.
They'Re chanting.
How can you pitch when you're 5 foot 6? How can you pitch when you're 5 foot 6?
And in that moment, that 18 foot diameter of the pitcher's mound which had been my safe haven for years became my mental prison.