West Sacramento Tutors Come To You

West Sacramento stands as its own city, separate from the city of Sacramento, the capital of California. West Sacramento has a long history of producing successful businesses, entrepreneurship, and being an essential arm of the state government. While many people may not recognize West Sacramento as a distinct city, they may recognize one of its famous athletes: Stephen Sax, who, over the span of his Major League Baseball career played for the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox, and Oakland Athletics. Sax played baseball for nearly twenty years, and still maintains his notoriety with a Sirius XM satellite radio talk show.

Sax was drafted to play for the Dodgers straight out of James Marshall High School (renamed River City High School) in West Sacramento in 1978. His talents on the field caught the eye of many MLB scouts. With the Dodgers, Sax would win two World Series rings in the 1980s, and enjoyed playing on the All-Star team five separate times while in the MLB.

As a second baseman, Sax was not without his trials. In 1983, in the middle of his career, Sax developed a breakdown of throwing mechanics in his arm and hand—this was eventually termed, “Steve Sax Syndrome,” which is also referred to as the “Yips” for baseball players who experience a loss of fine motor skills. Symptoms include twitches, shaking extremeties, and staggering. Sax saw a major reduction in his throwing accuracy, and even some fans turned against him; many seated behind the dugout would show up with batter’s helmets on as mock protection against his inaccurate throws.

Thankfully, Sax’s condition was temporary, and by 1989, he was back to throwing accurately. During the years that he suffered from the Yips, he worked through the difficulties and continued playing anyway. All said, Sax’s physical challenges were a small part of an otherwise illustrious career, playing for some of the best-known teams in baseball.

Sax retired from the MLB in 1994, but has gone on to work in several capacities, including sports analyst, making cameo appearances on popular shows in the 90s—including Sabrina the Teenage Witch and The Simpsons—and even entered politics when he ran as a California State Assemblyman. He currently resides in Northern California.

Sax’s story is instructive in a couple of ways: first, that many of our setbacks are temporary. Students in West Sacramento working with tutors may experience their own temporary challenges—perhaps a subject becomes more difficult than before, or maybe an assignment stumps you and makes you wonder if you really can succeed in a class. This is why we have tutors. They’re the people that believe in us and help us through the difficulties. Sax’s fellow players continued working together as a team, even when his throwing accuracy suffered, and were still met with success. The second is that persistence is key to success. Sax continued playing, working through his setbacks. Students working with tutors in West Sacramento should consider this when they’re thinking of quitting because it’s hard to turn grades around—it’s ultimately worth it to keep trying and not drop out when things get difficult.