So, you’re asking about Braxton Davidson and baseball, eh? Yeah, I’ve got a bit of a story there, a personal project of mine, you could say. It wasn’t about becoming a scout or anything, just something I got into, one of those rabbit holes you fall down.
It started a good few years back. I was casually following the MLB draft, as I usually do, just to see who my team might pick up or who the big names were. Braxton Davidson’s name popped up – first-rounder, Atlanta Braves. Big kid, lot of hype about his power. Something just clicked. Maybe it was the raw potential, or maybe I was just looking for a new player to follow from the ground up. You know how it is, sometimes you just latch onto a prospect.
So, my “practice” began. First, I started tracking his minor league stats. Every day, I’d pull up the box scores for whatever team he was on – Rome, Florida, Mississippi. It was a ritual. I wasn’t just looking at home runs and RBIs; I was trying to see the patterns. Was his walk rate improving? How was he doing against lefties? It became a little obsession.
Then came the baseball cards. Oh boy, that was a whole other level. I figured, if I’m following this guy, might as well pick up a few of his cards. Started with his basic Bowman Chrome. Then I thought, “Well, gotta get an autograph card.” That first auto, when it arrived in the mail, felt like a small victory. It wasn’t about the monetary value, not really. It was about having a tangible piece of this journey I was on, following his career.
Things got more intense from there. I started digging for rarer parallels, those low-numbered cards. Spent hours on eBay, combing through listings, trying to find a good deal. Sometimes you’d overpay a bit because you just had to have that specific card to complete a little mini-collection you’d set for yourself. My wife would sometimes shake her head, seeing me hunched over the computer, muttering about “refractors” and “grading.”
And let me tell you, following a prospect like Braxton, it’s a rollercoaster. He’d have a monster month, hitting bombs, looking like he was on the fast track. My little card collection would feel validated. I’d be thinking, “See! I knew this kid had it!” Then he’d hit a slump. Strikeouts would pile up. The online forums would get pessimistic. It was tough, because you get invested, you know? It’s not like he’s your kid, but you’re rooting for him hard.
I remember one stretch, he was struggling pretty bad. Read an article about him working on his swing, trying to make adjustments. And that’s the grind of it. These guys are working their tails off, day in and day out, trying to make it in an incredibly difficult sport. My “practice” then shifted a bit from just stats and cards to trying to understand the mental game, the perseverance required. It’s easy to cheer when they’re up; it’s harder to keep the faith when they’re down.
He eventually moved on from the Braves system, played in independent ball, even went overseas to play in the KBO for a bit, if I recall correctly. And I still kept tabs. Not as intensely, maybe. The card buying slowed down, mostly because there weren’t many new ones coming out for a while. But I’d still check his stats, see how he was doing. It was like, I’d started this journey, and I wanted to see it through, whatever “through” meant.
My collection of Braxton Davidson cards? It’s still here. Neatly organized in binders and boxes. It’s not the most valuable collection in the world, not by a long shot. But looking through it, each card brings back a memory – when I bought it, what he was doing in his career at that point. It’s a physical record of that period of my fandom.
What did I get out of all this? Well, it wasn’t about him becoming a Hall of Famer, though you always hope for that. It was more about the process. The dedication, the ups and downs, the tiny thrill of finding a rare card, or seeing him hit a clutch home run. It taught me a lot about patience, about the realities of professional sports beyond the highlight reels. It’s a tough road, and not everyone makes it to the very top, but the effort, the dream – that’s something I came to appreciate on a deeper level through my little “practice” of following Braxton Davidson’s baseball journey.
