You've played the sport since you were 3 years old. Starting at teeball and slowly moving your way up to coach pitch, and then later you finally got to play kid pitch. Now, you play with people who are more than friends; they are family. You're up before the sun even rises on the weekend, to play in another tournament. Practices are held in the blazing heat, where you let your mind wander to help distract you of the impending sunburn. You would go to bed with dreams of your Major League debut, and silently replayed the memories of your first home run.
Even in the winter, you and your teammates practice for hours on end, hitting ball after ball and doing drill after drill indoors. You play on the high school team, and can never picture an end to the one thing that has been with you since the day you were born. You look towards your future, potential baseball schools that would love to have you, and even call up a few scouts yourself.
Every kid who has ever tossed a ball around can relate to everything that was just stated above. They can relate so much in fact, that they begin to take the sport for granted. Wishing for a weekend off so they could sleep in, hating going to the long practices and standing out in the sun. They know baseball will be with them forever, so what is one practice?
Unfortunately, your time in baseball will come to an end. Whether it's your senior year of high school, or the day you retire from the MLB, every player comes across the day when they tie their cleats for the last time. Most of us have no idea that day has come, even as we are living through it.
I was a player who took those practices for granted, who hated waking up at 6 a.m. every Saturday, and especially disliked the awful sunburns afterward. I was also a player who never thought my time on the diamond would come to an end. I learned the hard way that I should have appreciated my time on the dirt more than I had. I was a player who had their eye on college, and even professional ball. All up until an unexpected dislocation of my shoulder stopped my dreams in their tracks.
Life throws us all an unexpected curve ball. Whether it is an injury that sits you down, or the time has come for retirement, baseball will hold a special place in every single player's heart. I am here today to tell you, treasure those moments while they last, because the day will come where you would do anything to be on that field just one more time, and to stand there with the sun beating down on your neck.
