I was a really bad teenager and I got my tongue pierced. I don't even remember where I did it, but it was under very surreptitious circumstances.
If I had to name the number one asset you could have for any sport I'd say speed. In baseball, all a guy with speed has to do is make contact.
To be completely stripped bare of any image power or my hair. To step onstage and get the response that I got blew any problems I had about self-image out the door.