The Fellas...

I was eating dinner tonight with a guy who has played professional baseball for 11 years and we were discussing what it is that keeps guys doing this; what keeps guys around the game, around this lifestyle. There were many factors that we both threw in but there was one thing that trumped them all....the fellas. Spring Training brings guys from all over the world ranging from Japan to Florida and Venezuela to Canada. Accents vary from a fast talking New Yorker to the slow draw of a country boy, lifestyles from living in Compton in California to the flat plains of the Kansas farm land, and languages that include Spanish, Japanese, French, English, as well as a few others. The guys might be as different as the east is from the west, but there is a common thread, a common piece of us that brings us all together...the game of baseball. There is a special bond that is created from being with a group of guys for 180 some odd days in locker rooms, dugouts, buses, hotel rooms, different towns, and many other places that you will go together. The shared experience of minor league baseball is so unique that it is hardly duplicated elsewhere in life. From the wins and losses, to the bus breaking down, hotel rooms not being ready, the pranks pulled in the locker room, or the countless other memories that are built from this experience, it's being with the fellas that make it what it is. Looking back on my two years of playing professionally I am blown away at the amount of things I have learned about people, places, languages, cultures, and life just from the guys I have played with. Baseball might be the game, but it's the guys who we play with that we remember the most. A Hall of Famer was asked following his induction speech what will you miss the most; and with tears in his eyes, he simply replied, "I'll miss the fellas." Whenever that day comes that I have to hang up my spikes I think I'll say the same...

1200 miles of concrete

There is just something about driving across the country. Maybe it's the open road, maybe it's the freedom, or maybe it's the tire and hub cap that shoots across the medium from a blow out on a car going the opposite direction and barely misses totaling your car and ending your trip...and maybe your life. True story. On a trip that consisted of 1200 miles, 3 states, 5 gas fill ups, and a really bad truck stop buffet, it's the experiences along the way that will edge the lines of my memory. Besides experiences, I found myself thinking a lot during my time staring at the concrete ahead of me. Thinking about the off season, Spring Training, my baseball career, my life, people that I care about, and the Lord. Life gets so fast and so crazy that it's just hard to stop, get quiet, and look inward to see where it's wrong and where in my life that I desperately need to ask God for mercy. But on a road trip, you have all the time in the world and you are forced to think. I wonder what would happen if we as people did that more? I wonder if that's why everything around us keeps us from doing just that? Maybe there is a battle playing out right in front of us...fighting over silence. Never thought 1200 miles of concrete would lead to a war, but if staying where you are at keeps you from the quiet then hit the road!

Two bags and a carry on

Packing for Spring Training is rather stressful for me. It can be really tricky, because at any given minute during the season they can put you on a plane to play for another team in the Dodgers farm system. If you have more stuff than two bags and a carry on then you will have to leave it or...ship it. Some of you might say well that doesn't sound so bad, but imagine all the clothes, baseball gear, bats, books, bibles, computer, toiletries, shoes, basically everything you need to live on for 6 months, and fit it into those few bags. It becomes an art and by the time you leave it's a beautiful one at that. Zipping that last bag shut last night was such an incredible feeling since it's finally happening. The stress of "what am I going to forget" or "what am I going to have to leave home" is now over. It's so freeing. Now the only thing left before Spring Training...is the 17 hour drive over the next 3 days to get there! Road trip....1-10 for as far as the eye can see, what do you say now!!!!

Get...Jacked?!

During the off seasons one major goal is to get stronger by lifting weights and staying in shape by running and doing different agility exercises. You work incredibly hard and would be willing to try anything legal to achieve your goals. But throughout this process something that I am beginning have to beef with is a vanilla flavored powder substance called...Protein. This farce promises great rewards in strength and stamina yet I never seem to reap any of the benefits. The less results you see the more you drink, giving your liver and heart all it can take! Sadly, most people believe in the lies and buy more and more bags of it. And, there are more brands and bags of protein out on the market than hairs on my head...wait, bad analogy...but you get the picture. Steroids result because of this kind of bad logic. Thus, I return to Spring Training looking back on my off season asking myself the question, "did all those nightly shakes do the wonders it promised...or did I just waste a bunch of strawberries and bananas?"