From Sandlots to Stadiums: How Baseball Became My Lifelong Passion. My favorite hobby or pastime would have to be baseball. Baseball has been the ultimate metaphor for life. Every aspect of the game relates to me. The more I study it, the more enthralled I am with the nuances, the variables, the probabilities, and the possibilities.
“It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again.”
Field of Dreams
My Career as a Player
I played baseball most of my youth and became one of the better players in my area. I thought I was going to have a big baseball career, but after two years in college, one year as a second-team all conference player, my dreams came to a crashing halt on the gymnasium floor, when I dove after my friend during a game of pickle who was taunting me. He landed on the ball and my hand a week before the season would start. I could no longer swing all the way through and suffered through an abysmal season. I was extremely discourages, but thankfully had a lot of great mentors who always preached the importance of school. I moved to San Diego, worked as waiter and finished my history degree.
Yogi Berra
“Little League baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets.”
I started playing adult league baseball during this time and had a blast doing so for two seasons. My roommate who I played college ball with played on the team as well and we looked forward to our Sunday games. I stopped playing when I moved to Mammoth Lakes, CA, where I pursued some of my other interests, namely fishing, golf, skiing, and snowboarding.
I started playing again about seven years ago for a team named after one of the Negro League teams, “The Los Angeles Grays”. We had some good seasons, but I got more into softball around that time as baseball became a large time vampire. I didn’t play during the pandemic, but when a friend asked if I wanted to a join his team “The Eastside Dodgers”, I was hungry to play again. I picked the right time to do this as we went an astonishing 20-0, including two playoff wins and a league championship.
“Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday’s success or put its failures behind and start over again. That’s the way life is, with a new game every day, and that’s the way baseball is.”
“Bullet” Bob Feller
I have also coached baseball at all three high school levels, coached my own kids, and enjoy a good game of MLB the Show on my Xbox X. My dad and girlfriend are big Dodger fans, as are most of my friends, so it has been something has really carried me through in life.
I have met many awesome people through playing. Whether it has been people on my time, in my program, or just people I play against in Sunday League. I feel fortunate to have this connection with our National Pastime and look forward to having baseball occupy a large part of my life in the future.
Conclusion: From Sandlots to Stadiums: How Baseball Became My Lifelong Passion
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