Don's not stupid. Nor is he oblivious. He knows that his parents are worried about money, about how they're going to pay to send two sons to college at the same time. Charlie may have gotten a full ride to Princeton, but his mom's going too. So they're going to need a place to live. They're going to need to go back and forth between California and New Jersey. They're going to have to pay the cost of living in two states, on two different oceans. He knows that the tutors that have been parading through the house for the past ten years have drained any college fund his parents may have set up.
He knows that his parents, if forced to make a choice, would value Charlie's education over his.
Don's not stupid, even though everyone thinks he is. It's easier to play the brainless jock than it is to try and compete with his younger brother. Even if he did compete, there would be no way to be close to equal. So, he focuses on what he is good at. Baseball.
Holding the acceptance letter to USC, the letter stating that they'll give him a free education if he'll agree to play baseball for them for the next four years, gives him a bit of satisfaction. He knows for sure that he has a chance for the future. While his brother's future holds mathematics and the Ivory Towers of academia, his holds baseball.
But still, at the age of eighteen, he wonders if baseball will be enough. He pushes that thought out of his mind as he makes his way into the kitchen where he knows his parents are. The time for that discovery is still far off. For now, baseball will have to be enough.
