A conversation about being born into the game and what it does to a kid. Bret Boone was twelve years old when his father was catching for the Phillies. He was the first major leaguer whose grandfather and father had both worn the uniform before him. The expectations were not abstract. They were dinner-table-specific, hand-me-down, and earned by other people. He played fourteen seasons in the big leagues, had a three-year stretch where he was one of the best second basemen in the game, finished third in an MVP race on a 116-win team, and still spent most of his career, and a long time after it, trying to figure out who Bret was when he was not being a Boone. This session is for the kids in the room with a last name they did not choose, and the parents wondering what their own expectations are doing to their child.

What I learned growing up a Boone