MLB Attempts To Ease Prospects' Transition Into The Spotlight

MLB owners and the MLBPA last month held a three-day "rookie camp" for top prospects that was meant to "prepare them for life under the lights: how to live with the attention, how to make it last, how to enjoy it," according to a front-page piece by Benedict Carey of the N.Y. TIMES. The joint venture uses "psychological tools like role-playing and group discussion to demonstrate and deconstruct the pitfalls of living in the public eye." The camp included a "presentation dedicated to nutritional supplements and a stronger emphasis than ever on the power of video and social-networking sites to follow athletes almost anywhere." Therapists and former MLBers who work in the program "say the psychological challenges are the most daunting in its 18-year history -- even more so than when the chief problem was illegal drugs." In between various lectures, noted Chicago-based comedy troupe Second City "staged skits illustrating common traps that fame sets for its chosen vessels." Officials from the MLBPA and the commissioner's office "help provide content." Meanwhile, players go into small groups at the end of each day of the conference "to talk about their personal concerns in private, with a therapist and a former player on hand." MLBPA COO Gene Orza said, "These guys come straight from playing in Elmira, Duluth, Tidewater, to the big stadiums and the media. Their transition is far more abrupt than maybe any other sport." Astros P Bud Norris: "What I like about this is that it makes you think about the things you'll face in much more depth than you may have" (N.Y. TIMES, 1/30).