The number one question that I get from kids that I coach when they find out I played in the big leagues is, “What was it like?”
As much as I would love to break into the Bull Durham monologue of “The ballparks are like cathedrals, you hit white balls for batting practice, you never carry your luggage and the women all have long legs and brains” (all true by the way), I prefer to tell the real story of my experience and my perception of what the big leagues was really like…
When I first got there, the holy shit factor was real, very real!
I’ll never forget looking around Jacobs Field in Cleveland when I got called up and it literally felt as if I was standing in the middle of the Roman Coliseum during the height of the gladiator days…
Yet after the initial novelty wore off, playing Major League Baseball wasn’t any different than playing baseball at Ford Field in Portola Valley during my Alpine Little League days…
Sure, the bases were further apart, the players were better and there were way more people in the stands, but the game between the lines was essentially the exact same…
That said, throughout my career I was called up and sent down 9 different times, traded twice and released (fired) 3 times… The fight for playing time was a constant battle that never ended and no matter what anybody told me, I always believed I was only as good as my next performance. I often took my at-bats home with me and my self-worth was way too dependent on external outside influences and bottom-line results that never told the entire story…
With experience came knowledge and with knowledge came wisdom, but it wasn’t until I was well finished with professional baseball when I was able to put these things into proper perspective…
So…
What was it like you ask?
It was a grind but it was a beautiful f*ing grind, and I wouldn’t trade a single damn day of it for any other experience in the world…
-EB
P.S. Have you hopped on a Team GoHard Foot Reflexology Board yet?
