California Dreamin’

It is the official start of the holiday season, and also the beginning of Looking Through the Mask, Season Three.  As I did last year, I will do some posts during the offseason, albeit less frequently than my in-season postings.

While only ten weeks old, my offseason has been exceedingly hectic compared to years past.  Who would have thought that my first offseason after finishing my MBA has me busier than ever?  A lot of the young offseason has been occupied by my travels (like we do not have enough during the season).  My most recent travels brought me home to New York for Thanksgiving.  It has been great to be home and see my family; this is the first time I have been home since last December.

The biggest travel was my recent move out to California with my girlfriend, Juliet.  My apartment lease in Tampa was finished at the end of October, and I was making plans to go to early Angels workouts in Tempe that in January.  Since I was heading out west anyway, it made sense for me to move to California and live with Juliet before we head to Arizona in January. 

This cross country task included the arduous task of packing up my apartment into storage that took nearly a week to complete.  Five years in one place causes you to amass many belongings, some things I did not even know I had.  After packing up, our five-day trip across the country included stops in: Mobile, AL, to visit friends Juliet went to school with; Bulverde, TX, to visit my teammate, Clay Fuller; Carlsbad, NM, to visit Carlsbad Caverns and White Sands National Monument; Lordsburg, NM, to spend the night after our long day of being tourists in New Mexico.  And I thought that driving 1,300 miles back and forth between Albany and Tampa was long.

Another offseason trip to Georgia and Alabama was mixed in before the cross-country move.  Juliet, a graduate of The University of Alabama, is a former intern of the Atlanta Thrashers, and knows the Athletic Trainer and Strength and Conditioning Coach.  We traveled up to Atlanta to take in a Thrashers game, before taking the train over to Tuscaloosa so I could attend my first big-time college football game (the University of South Florida cannot hold a candle to the SEC).  Juliet wanted to show me SEC football, and thought that the rival game against the University of Tennessee would be the perfect stage.  A blocked field goal in the closing seconds was one of the many highlights of a great weekend in the South.

While I have done a lot of travelling this offseason, the biggest distance I have travelled has been with myself.  As I progress through my mid-20s, I have had to make some big decisions about moving forward with my life.  While I have done good things in the past, I have made more than my fair share of mistakes.  However, I have learned that hiding from your past does nothing, because it makes you who you are in the present and who you will be in the future. 

These are mistakes that I have come to terms with and have made changes so that I will not make the same errors again.  I have gone through some tough growing pains, but they are things that I had to face in order to move on with my life.  The biggest supporter throughout all of this has been Juliet, and I cannot put into words the thanks, love, and admiration I have for her through everything.

My next travels have me headed back to California, before returning to New York for Christmas.  My travels and baseball preparations and will continue as I ready myself for the 2010 journey through baseball, but more importantly, life.

So, You Wanna Play Professional Baseball?

It is finally February 3 (for those of you just tuning into my blog, I have made past references to the industry’s acceptance of every day being Groundhog Day).  This will be the first day since the start of spring training that my mind will be clear of baseball.  While I try to escape it on off days, I never completely succeed.  To fill the void, I will address my travel plans back to Tampa and try to pin down some offseason jobs that I have spent the last two months investigating.  Since I have completed my MBA in May, this will be the first time in seven years that I will not be attending a college class.  While this is a relief, it is also a detriment in that I need to figure out what I will be doing with my life for the next six months.

This was a season that started with tragedy.  Nick Adenhart’s sudden and unexpected death sent a shock through baseball and the Los Angeles Angels organization.  While I did not know Adenhart personally, it still struck a painful nerve that he was no longer able to live out his dream or his life.  I was able to see his teammates past and present, an organization, and all of the Angels affiliates remember him.  We wore his number 28 on our jerseys in Rancho and his number 32 on the Salt Lake jerseys so we would never forget.  He will never be forgotten and will always be part of the Angels family.

My second full season in professional baseball seemed to go by faster than my first.  Some players feel the seasons get longer; I, however, oppose that notion. I have bussed across the Golden State, making stops in San Bernardino (Inland Empire), Lake Elsinore, Adelanto (High Desert), Lancaster, Bakersfield, Visalia, Modesto, Stockton, and San Jose.  I have flown to Salt Lake (via three cities) for a three-day stint with our Triple-A affiliate and back.  I also made a brief trip to the disabled list after injuring my left shoulder in early May.

This season was absent of the tornadoes, rainouts, and subsequent doubleheaders that are part of the norm in the Midwest League.  We did, however, endure frigid nights in Lancaster, and sweltering heat at Inland Empire (and pretty much every other city in this league), and a rain-shortened game at High Desert.

Time off will be greatly appreciated.  140 games in 152 days takes its toll on everyone and warrants serious decompression.  After a few weeks off, I will begin working out again in preparation for the 2010 season.  I made some improvements this season, but a lot of work still needs to be done to win a job during spring training next March.

I need to thank the numerous people who have supported me throughout this season and made this blog worth writing.  I must thank my family, as well as all of my friends from home, Rochester, Tampa, Tempe, Cedar Rapids, Rancho Cucamonga, Salt Lake City, and acquaintances I have met along the way for their continued interest and support in my career.  Juliet needs to be thanked for coming along and helping Romine and I outfit our apartment and provide some functionality to our initially barren setup.  I thank my adoptive family, the Young’s, as well as the Booster Club for their relentless efforts of keeping us fed throughout this long season.  I also thank Ryan Garrett and Ringor, for providing me with spikes and turfs this season.

I thank Gerry McKearney and the front office staff for providing the Quakes the opportunity to play in Rancho and the many great things they have done for us this season.  That grounds crew must be commended for maintaining one of the best fields to play on in the California League (and professional baseball).  Our bus driver, Jimmy, must be thanked for keeping us safe through our many bus excursions in the commuter-heavy league.

With regard to the blog, I must give many thanks to Lisa Winston, who found my blog this offseason and provided me with the opportunity to contribute to MLBlogs.com this season.  I must again thank Amy Gunnells, the former sports editor at one of my hometown papers, The Independent (which, unfortunately, had to be shut down a few months ago), who got me started on the idea of keeping a blog last season.  Stephen Smith with futureangels.com has also been key in the publicity of this blog, and I thank him for all of his help.  I also want to thank Anita Tsuchiya, who has aided in increasing my readership by writing about my blog in hers (which can be found here: The Sporkball Journals). 

While assembling this final post of the 2009 season, I have referred to my concluding remarks from last season and feel that they are still valid and worth mentioning.  With this in mind, I have simply reposted certain parts to conclude this final post.

Several people have questioned why I put myself through this lifestyle when it appears that I could take my Bachelor’s and Master’s of Business Administration Degrees and go get a lucrative job in corporate America (if the economy ever comes around).  I stick around because I love to play the game.  I love the challenge that every day presents and how you never know what the next baseball discovery you will uncover.  MI stay in the game to experience the moment I did when we defeated Lake Elsinore in the wild card series last week, and the 6-3 comeback we pulled off in the bottom of the ninth inning on Sunday night to force games four and five of the divisional finals.  The excitement that our team shared those nights with each other makes the long ride worth it. 

As I have said from the beginning, it is every little boy’s dream to play professional baseball.  Yes, baseball is a fun game to play, especially when you are growing up.  But, when that decision is made to seriously pursue that dream and do everything in your power to make it, the only thing that is going to stop you from playing is your body telling you you cannot continue, or all thirty professional baseball organizations telling you that you are not good enough and cannot continue to play.

Once someone has vested a certain amount of time and resources into something, it makes walking away impossible.  Last season, we were told that ‘Every day you spend not working on one aspect of this game, you slip one day farther away from making it to the top.’  While I only recently heard this, I realize that I have had this attitude ever since I made the commitment to chasing my dream of playing professional baseball.  This is not to say that you cannot take any off-days, but the biggest thing I could advise anyone is that I was able to become the player I am through hard work when no one was watching.  I was not blessed with much God-given ability like the players I have always been playing with.  I do not have the speed, arm strength, or power that some of the other players have.  However, I have a work ethic and the knowledge to work on only the things I can control, and get the most out of the ability I was blessed with.

This journey has always come down to making sacrifices and dedicating myself to becoming the best player possible.  I played with many players growing up who had more talent than I did, and everyone thought those would be the players that would be playing professionally one day. Of those teams I have been with, I am the only player still playing today in affiliated professional baseball.  So, it really comes down to making a commitment to yourself that you are going to put the effort into achieving whatever your goals are.  Some people realize along the way that it is not what they really want to do, and that is fine, but if you really want it, give it everything you have.  You have to put your energies into the things you can control.

In closing, I thank everyone again for keeping up with this blog this season and everyone who has given me words of encouragement and support.  I will conclude with a quote I have had hanging in my room for as long as I can remember, and it is one that I feel everyone can grasp and apply to their lives: “For those who dream, there is no such word as impossible.”

Paychecks and Offdays

This is what we have left to play for.  We have already put in the 140 games required by the Minor League schedule, yet we are still playing.  We have moved into the bonus baseball portion of the season, where games have heightened meaning but stats do not count (at least not for career totals).  The more frequent our wins, the more off days we have and longer we receive paychecks.

My sarcasm intends to make light of the fact that when it appears that players wants the season to end, we secretly hope it continues, with the culmination on the final day of the playoffs with a championship.  After beginning the postseason with the worst playoff record in California League history, we made quick work of Lake Elsinore (San Diego Padres affiliate) in two games.  We now move on to face High Desert (Seattle Mariners) in the five-game Divisional Series for the Southern crown.

This was Rancho’s first playoff series victory since 1998 and marks the second time in two years I have been part of an affiliate ending a long drought.  Last season, Cedar Rapids won its first playoff series since 2000, making myself (and several other players) part of teams that have collectively ended 19 years of playoff deficiency. 

Motivation for winning comes in many forms: money, time off, redemption, prestige, champagne and rings.  While some may have different rankings of these prizes, everyone has a ring at the top of their list.  Competing on a playoff team is a special honor that few will ever get to experience.  Getting to the playoffs is the goal of every season, but winning in the playoffs is what makes it special.  We may have our share of bumps in the road on our 140-game journey and may have been counted out by other teams and the media.  A few days ago, I made note that the road to securing a playoff spot is irrelevant; the only thing that seems to be remembered is how a playoff season ends.

Win and You’re In

Well, it did not quite work out like that, but we succeeded regardless.  Despite dropping six of our last seven, we backed into post season play with some help from Lancaster (Houston Astros affiliate) on Saturday night.  This is the first time the Quakes have been to the post season in five years.  For a core group of us, this will be the third time in three professional seasons that we have made the playoffs.  That, in itself, is a feat. 

With our magic number at one entering the four-game Bakersfield (Texas Rangers) series, we needed one win, or one Inland Empire loss (Los Angeles Dodgers).  After dropping our first two to Bakersfield, coupled with two Inland Empire wins, the originally manageable situation become direr.  However, while we were losing on Saturday night, Lancaster maintained an advantage throughout giving us the hope of backing into the playoffs should we not pull it out against Bakersfield.  Lancaster ended up squandering a 6-2 in the top of the ninth, but would go on to a 7-6 walk-off win.  This clinched our playoff berth, despite our 4-1 loss.

The clinching was a dim light on our otherwise dismal road trip.  Our celebration, complete with champagne (which is a step up from collegiate celebratory occasions), seemed a bit tainted due to our play down the stretch.  Nonetheless, when more than half of minor league baseball will turn in their uniforms at the conclusion of the regular season, we will live to play another day.  To win a League Championship, all you need to do is have a chance.

Major League wild card teams have garnered a lot of attention due to their post season success in recent years.  Their success can be attributed to the fact that these teams tend to come into the playoffs the hottest and have been playing meaningful games up until the end of the season.

Despite our losing record, we begin the playoffs alongside everyone else with no wins and no losses.  While we never seemed to put things together for a stretch of more than four or five games this season, we had enough of these little spurts to put ourselves in a position to win a title.  To overcome the injuries, roster moves (we have no starting pitchers from our initial starting rotation, and only five arms from the opening day roster on the staff), and other adversity that grips a team and be playoff bound is a respectable fear.  What we make of this opportunity remains to be seen, although it is our intent to be one of the fourteen minor league teams that will end their playoff run with a win.  We begin our season anew with hope and excitement and will see if we can write a victorious ending for the 2009 Quakes.

Just a Business

All too often, you hear someone saying that this game is “just a business.”  This was all too apparent yesterday as our parent club was trying to bolster its starting rotation by making one last addition before the rosters freeze on September 1.  While the trading deadline passed on July 31, trades can still occur through September 1 if players clear waivers.

We got to the stadium yesterday amidst rumors of the Angels and Tampa Bay Rays being close to a deal that would send starting pitcher Scott Kazmir to the Angels in exchange for some Minor League prospects.  What brought these trade talks closer to home was that one of the prospects on the trading block was teammate Matt Sweeney.  Sweeney had apparently heard about these rumors from teammates through an MLB.com article before he even got a call from his agent.  While we set out to begin our daily routines, Sweeney was off to get a physical.  After coming in from batting practice, ESPN was reporting the story that the Angels and Rays were close to completing this trade; all the while Sweeney is sitting in our clubhouse waiting to hear his fate.  Right after our game started that night against Stockton, Sweeney got word that the deal went through and he packed up his things and left.

The other big component of this deal was starting pitcher and former teammate, Alex Torres, who was in Double-A Arkansas.  What awaits to be seen for the ultimate conclusion of this deal is the “player to be named later,” which is the selection from a list of agreed upon names that the Rays will choose at a later date.

As I have discussed in the past, you never know when teammates are coming or going.  It is infrequent that a significant trade like this hits as far down the Minor League ladder that it did.  But, this is just another instance that supports the notion that in the end, baseball is not a game; rather, it is a business.  Free agents sign with teams that pay them the most money and give them the best shot at winning a World Series.  Teams out of contention deal away top players in the attempt to gain enough younger prospects to compete down the road.  Owners dismantle teams after winning a World Series to ensure their pockets stay lined with the fruits of their recent labor.  As long as baseball has been played, there have always been people in it more for money and prestige than wins and losses.  While there are arguments both for and against this ideal, it is one that will always be present as long as money drives the game.

And the Hits Just Keep on Coming

After a brief writing hiatus, I am reporting live from a vehicle heading due west that will not stop until it reaches the water.  A few teammates are taking advantage of our second to last off day of the young season by going to the beach.  This off day comes at the conclusion of a nine-game home stand that has us one game behind the divisional leader and in the thick of the playoff race.

The last week has brought a lot of activity to Quakesville.  Last week’s off day was spent at Angels Stadium for Quakes Day.  This publicity stunt had us signing autographs outside the stadium for about 40 minutes, getting announced on the field prior to game time, and watching the Angels beat the Tampa Bay Rays from a left field suite.  This was my first time to Angels Stadium and it was an interesting experience.

Joining the team during the home stand was Torii Hunter, the Angels centerfielder rehabbing an adductor strain prior to his return to the Big League club in Baltimore.  Hunter is very personable and could always be found talking to players, discussing the finer points of our craft.  He had a lot of enthusiasm and knowledge to offer the team and everyone benefited from his time with us.  After arriving on Wednesday, he played centerfield that night, was the designated hitter on Thursday, and player centerfield again on Saturday.

Hunter’s absence on Friday was attributed to discomfort felt from a stomach virus that has been plaguing several players (myself included), coaches, and rovers.  Four players, two coaches, and two rovers got sick Thursday night, with some others getting pulled down over the past few days.  In what was first thought to be food poisoning, this bug has left everyone extremely uncomfortable and made eating undesirable.  I was scratched from my start on Saturday after feeling lightheaded and dizzy, but was felt well enough to grit it out during Sunday’s finale against Lake Elsinore.

Apparently after my performance on Sunday, I might want to consider getting sick more often as it seems to boost my power numbers.  In what is a rare feat for me, I hit my first homerun in two years to give us a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the seventh inning.  This was my third professional homerun (which was erroneously reported by the Quakes as my first—I know the two I previously hit were two years ago in Orem, but they still count), and ironically, the second one I hit feeling under the weather.  During the game of my first homerun, our entire team was dealing with food poisoning from a tainted postgame meal the previous night.  Somehow, I got my first that day (on a hit and run, good thing I protected the runner). 

I know that it is said when you are sick you are not trying to do as much because you are not feeling up to it, and there may be some truth in that.  However, I would rather figure out how to do this when I am feeling healthy because only hitting homeruns when sick is a little absurd.  Regardless of my offensive output, the most important thing is that we pulled out a 5-2 victory and my work behind the plate aided the pitching staff overcome nine walks by scattering four hits and limiting the Storm to only one hit in 13 runners-in-scoring-position opportunities.  This was definitely not the best performance of the season, but it was a win nonetheless.  And this late in the season, you will take wins any way you can get them.

Men in Blue

Ball or strike.  Fair or foul.  Safe or out.  Umpires have the arduous task of making a fast game that black and white (yet they wear blue).  There is little room for subjectivity, except for maybe a balk call.  Of course, as players, it does not seem hard at all to make these calls and are the first to become irate when we feel we have been slighted.  “How could you miss that call?”  Granted, we are a little biased, and always feel that we are correct.

As a catcher, the next most important thing to handling a pitching staff is being about to build a positive rapport with umpires that will hopefully benefit us when there is a close call.  One way to do this is by making sure he does not get hit with balls in the dirt.  Blocking balls, even with no one on, can give the umpire more confidence that he is not going to get hit, and may help him track a pitch the split-second longer you need for it to be called a strike.  Another way to go about developing this relationship is through conversation.  Baseball games take a long time to complete, and things can get pretty lonely as an umpire, with two teams battling each other and at the same time, hating the men in blue.  This need for some friendly conversation is what enables a catcher to connect with the home plate umpire for the few hours he is back there.

What exactly is talked about?  Pretty much everything.  A popular topic is usually “where have you come from (with respect to what city you were just in) and where are you going?”  That lends itself to the tangents of stadiums, accommodations, game issues, etc.  Talking about the weather is always good for an inning or two: complaining about how hot or cold it has been is very popular (although last night, I was talking to a base umpire in between innings when I was down in the bullpen and marveling about how pleasant the weather was in San Jose this past weekend).

Whatever the topic of conversation, part of our job description as a catcher is to get the umpire on our side.  This can become difficult when you feel he has just punched you out on strikes on what you thought was a ball, or if he just blew a call at the plate that you cannot believe actually happened.  However, we must try to let it go or diffuse the situation in the attempt to get him back on “our” side.

For example, in San Jose on Sunday, we had a runner called out at the plate on what looked to be a pretty easy safe call to make.  Our manager argued very adamantly about this call and was probably very close to an ejection.  The call ended the inning, so I was faced with the peril of going back there while that blow up was still lingering.  What was my go-to?  “So, where are you guys [umpires] going next?”  That led to a discussion about them staying in San Jose for the next series, that they were staying in the Wyndham downtown, and where they had just come from. 

Did this abate any of the animosity that was stirred up by the questioning of the call in the previous inning?  I will never know for sure.  However, I know that it could not have hurt.  Umpires (and officials in any sport) have the thankless job of interpreting and applying the rules of the game.  Despite their imperfections, some tend to be good guys just trying to chase their dreams and make a living.  Others can be arrogant and make it seem that everyone is there to see them when they go on power trips.

We are not perfect, and neither are they.  Unfortunately for them, they are expected to get every call right and cannot just have an error chalked up on the scoreboard if they mess something up.  The struggle between players and perceived correctness will continue as long as the game is played.  But, the relationships made on the field are enduring.  You get to know some of the umpires pretty well, and these are the ones you look forward to working your games.  For it is these men in blue that can make the painful sight of a bad call a little more bearable.

“If You’re Goin’ to San Francisco…”

Well not quite that far north.  We just wrapped up a three-game set in San Jose against the San Francisco Giants’ affiliate and are set to head home.  A trip that started at 6:00am Friday morning will end around the same time three days later.  Fortunately, we have our second off-day of the second half tomorrow, an off-day nearly three weeks since our last.

We had a tough series with the first-half Northern Division Champions and current second-half leaders, dropping the first two games 3-1 and 2-0.  However, we were able to salvage game three, winning an extended affair 5-3 in 11 innings (extra innings always seem to be a feature of getaway days).

This was only our second overnight road trip of the season, since most of the season is played within our division and all of those games are commuters.  Some players like the lack of overnighters that are common in most of the other minor leagues; I, on the other hand, do not like this format.  I see commuters as a lot of time wasted on buses, and I find the changes in scenery from overnight trips to be good from time to time.

You can learn about your teammates during road trips.  You find out who has the least patience while waiting 15 minutes for your dinner check when the server has to split it into eleven separate tabs.  You find out who insists on eating toast with grape jelly, and being appalled when the only choices are strawberry and blackberry jam, and orange marmalade.  But, aside from these nuances, you also find out who has your back and who will pick you up when you are down.

As players, we spend half the year away from our friends and family (for those that still reside around their families) to pursue our profession and chase a dream.  When we take the field every night, we are a family and we are all each other has that given night.  When we battle the other team, the umpires, and the fans, we can only turn to each other for guidance and support.  This long season is starting to near its homestretch, and we are banding together to grind our way through the completion of another season.

Foul Ball Distribution

It can be a swift, random toss, or a premeditated handoff.  When foul balls are hit down the lines, the pitchers and catcher in the bullpen are responsible for who gets these balls.  “Can I have a ball?” is the most commonly posed question from kids hanging over the rails in the ballparks where fans have direct access to the players in the bullpens.  It is so incessant that we are immune to them, with our responses of, “We get fined if we give them out” or, “We’ll give you a foul ball when it comes” being spoken robotically in reply.  This usually buys us a few moments of silence before the next wave of kids comes to the rail.

When the foul ball finally does come, a decision must be made: do you casually flip the ball into the crowd of kids so one at the bottom of the scrum can come up with it, or do you hand it to someone you have preselected?  Provided I have had ample prep time, I tend to follow the latter practice.  This prevents the kids from tackling each other trying to get the ball and the risk of anyone crying as a result.  Who do I look to give the ball to when I get one?  I usually look for the smallest and quietest kid I can find.  These are the kids that poke their heads over the rails amidst the older and bigger kids (who are generally the ones repetitively asking for a ball), not really thinking they even have a chance among the trees to their sides.

The reaction of these little ones upon the ball offering is typically one of shock, as if to say “Are you serious?  That ball is for me?”  After some reassurance they will take the ball, face beaming as they trot back to show their friends or parents.  This is just another public service we provide the fans in an effort to make their experience at the ballpark more enjoyable.

Men Amongst the Shadows

We enter another weekend in this long season where you can be at least guaranteed one thing: the home Sunday game with a 5:00 p.m. start.  During the first-half of the season, the Quakes home games on Sundays are at 2:00 (as are most teams’).  Once the All-Star break is reached, these game times shift to 5:00.  This change is said to be of the player’s benefit, so that we do not have to play during the hottest part of the day during the summer months.

While this is a good thought in theory, there are more drawbacks for the players of playing at 5:00 than 2:00, and it seems to me that this is being primarily done to keep the fans out of the heat.  For a 2:00 game, pitchers and catchers do the bullpens and drills around noon, and batting practice does not usually consist of anything more than hitting in the cage.  Assuming a three-hour game, that puts us outside for five hours, from noon to 5:00.  For a 5:00 game, bullpens will usually be around 3:00, with pre-game hitting, again, being done in the cages (Sundays are generally considered “fundays”: pitchers do not have their daily running, and position players do not go through early work and batting practice).  Again, assuming a three-hour game, we are outside for five hours, from 3:00 to 8:00.

So, it seems that we are outside during the “cooler” part of the day.  For those of you who have frequented Southern California, you know that the summer temperature at 5:00 is not much different than the temperature at 2:00.  The sun does not leave the field until close to 7:00 anyway; if this is the case, then maybe the last hour of the 5:00 game starts to cool down a bit.

The sun setting poses, perhaps, the most aggravating thing about playing an early evening game: shadows.  Squaring up a round ball with a round bat is already the toughest sport in the world, having to hit a ball that “flashes” from light to dark (and sometimes back to light depending on the stadium), or hit a dark ball off a bright batter’s eye only makes things more challenging.  These ill-lighting effects make it very difficult to pick up rotation, and makes not only hitting more difficult, but catching as well.  The worst situation is when the pitcher is in the sun and home plate is in the shadows, with the next bad situation occurring when the field and batter’s eye is bright, with the pitcher and home plate in the shadows.

For the usual 7:00 start, shadows have covered the mound and home plate, eliminating the worst shadows, with the sun getting off the field by 8:00, at the latest.  During the 5:00 games, the shadows start creeping onto the field a little after 6:00 (but cover a good portion of the fans in the stands from the start, hence why I feel that saying the later start time is a benefit to the players is a copout).

Another drawback of the later Sunday games is the loss of the “mini-off days” that the early Sunday games provide.  Finishing a Sunday game by 5:00 gives us the entire evening to ourselves, giving us the chance to catch a blow, especially during long streaks of consecutive games.  The Sunday games that end closer to 8:00 do not give us much more time off than regular 7:00 games that end at 10:00 do.

These later start times were not done on Sundays in the Midwest League, and the humidity there during the summer can make it feel just as hot as anywhere in Southern California.  I find it rare that things are ever done for the players’ best interests.  While there are those that will say we have no right to complain because we are playing a game for a profession, there are plenty of injustices that go on to highlight the importance of some small positives we achieve along the way.  But, the professional athlete’s livelihood ultimately lies with the support of fans.  For this reason, we must be willing to make sacrifices to cater to their wishes, for without their attendance, there are no professional sports.