What effect did his fathers death have on Mike as an athlete?

Mike had been tutored relentlessly by his father in Little League and had developed a healthy respect for his own talent. Then, his father’s health began to slip and Mike began to doubt himself, question his gift, brood over it. Now, his father had died and when his brother, Joe Bill, refused to let him live with him, it was because he felt Mike needed to stay in Odessa and make his father proud.