It started just like any other; breakfast at the hotel, crossword puzzle during breakfast, and a nice ten minute drive to the facilities. The only thing that seemed different today was that I had a sore throat! When I got to the field our lineup had been posted on the board and to my surprise I was hitting third and playing center. It's always nice to play for a manager and coaches who have a great deal of confidence in you. I was a little nervous about playing center, it had been a couple years since I had been out there but I worked hard this off season and got in great shape which helped calm my nerves a little.
The best part of the day came for me during our morning stretch. Like I talked about in my last entry, I'm in a group of older guys who have been around for awhile so I've been hanging around with Brandon Tripp (one of my teammates from last year) and we've kind of been keeping to ourselves. I don't want to be "that" guy who oversteps his boundaries. Today, however, I realized that the older guys love to talk about their careers and are extremely passionate about the game just like I am.
One of the other outfielders in our group, Jason Lane, was drafted in '99 and has over 4 years of big league service. He also was standing in right field when Albert Pujols hit that monsterous homerun off of Brad Lidge in game five of the NLCS in '05. I also realized today that you can ask him anything about his career or baseball and he absolutely lights up. Within the span of 45 minutes he probably told Brandon and I 5 or 6 stories about his career in the big leagues alongside the likes of Jeff Bagwell and Roger Clemens. We also were able to tap into his wealth of knowledge about the game. The one thing that he talked about that hut home with me was how surreal it was for him to play in the big leagues. He explained how he would go to the field at like noon when they were on the road and just sit in the dugout and take in all of his surroundings. He said it was one of the most unbelievable feelings to just sit in the dugout knowing that at that point in time he had the entire stadium to himself, almost as if he was a kid who was the first out to the playground during or recess. I do that at our minor league games! It was just so refreshing to hear him tell his stories and to realize that he knew how fortunate he's been to have played for as long as he has. At any rate, he's passionate about what he does and with anything you do in life it becomes much more enjoyable if it's something that you are passionate about.
So it was a great day. I'm starting to get a great tan, I'm connecting and becoming friends with a whole new group of people, and I was able to do something I love!
I was also 2-4 at the plate, but I feel like if I wouldve been 0-4 it still would've been just as enjoyable to me.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
4 comments:
It's great to hear that you are enjoying the little parts of your day as much as anything else. You know it's a good day when the fact that you were 2-4 is just a blip at the bottom of your blog...Keep working hard and loving what you do...the results will take care of themselves.
Jordan
you had one spelling error...but other than that it was a good blog, brotha! love youuuuuu!
Keep up the good work!!!
Hittin third and in center, verrrryyy nyyyce ( borat voice )
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