Parents Weekend

It has been an exciting weekend and start of the last week of spring training. I got to meet Rickey Henderson who is a coach with the A's, dressed for another major league spring training game with Ubaldo Jiminez as the opposing team's starting pitcher, and my parents were visiting for a long weekend. I will post another time about Rickey because he is quite the character and a legend. He is still in great shape; I think he could still be a successful base stealer in the major leagues. And getting to dress for another major league game was exciting again, probably more for my parents who got to see me on the field with all of the big league guys. I should have some good pictures from my mom's camera. Our game was at the Rockies spring training home, who share a brand new complex with the Diamondbacks. It is perfectly groomed and could be a major league stadium if they added seating. I dressed on Sunday and it was a sellout of over 12 thousand fans.

Picture that I took looking down the walkway
 to the field from the clubhouse

 Compared with the exciting nights of hanging out in a hotel room and watching tv, I had a blast tonight getting dinner with my parents and some former JMU baseball alums who are also in Arizona for spring training. Matt Browning, who I have mentioned before, was drafted last year by the Mariners and had a great first pro season; his spring training is in Peoria. Kevin Munson, who I've also talked about before, is a pitcher who was drafted by the Diamondbacks last year and has closer-type stuff. The Diamondbacks spring training is also in Scottsdale, fairly close to where I'm staying. And Steven Caseres is a first basemen who was drafted by the Dodgers in 2008, his spring training home is in Glendale. Caseres' parents are also visiting AZ and are good friends with my parents so we were all able to meet for dinner tonight. All of the guys were trading spring training stories and talking about how difficult the lifestyle can be at times. Tonight was special because we rarely get time to see each other and talk about each others experiences because we are all going through similar things. This came out pretty blurry, but this picture was taken of all the guys outside the restaurant we ate at tonight.

We all love what we are doing, but it is more stressful and draining than most people think. My dad tried to explain to a coworker what spring training is like in business terms. He said it would be like a company sending a group of salesmen to a business training event that lasted 3-4 weeks. You aren't being paid during that time, but you would be constantly graded and evaluated on your performance. Based on your past performances and how you are developing will determine how good your job will be and how much money you will make for the next season. If the company didn't like your progress they could fire you at any time. And in a few months, the company will be bringing in all new recruited employees who could also take your job at any time. So, as you can see it can be a little stressful sometimes trying to predict where you will be playing the next season and what the organization thinks of you. But, like I've said many times before I still love getting to play baseball everyday and compete at this level, I thank God everyday that I have been given this opportunity. The real key is to try to block out all of the stresses that can come with all of the things I talked about and remember to have fun. Having my parents in town for the last few days was exactly what the doctor ordered for me. Spring training is a mental and physical grind, but there is no where that I would rather be!