Gearing up and Having Fun!

When I was a kid, about ten, my dad saw an ad in the paper for the Manteca Stealers, a youth travel team, that was holding tryouts. While I had been playing locally for a while, this sounded like a new opportunity to up the competition. I thought it sounded like fun. When we arrived at the ballpark though, there were more kids than I had ever seen at a tryout and I started to get really nervous. I looked at my dad and wondered aloud ‘what if I am not good enough?’ My dad reminded me that it was ok to just go and have fun and to try. You can’t know if you are good enough if you don’t give it a shot. I went out, joined the other kids on the field, and made the team. I even ended up playing on that squad for four more years.

One doesn’t know where trying will take you.

Years later, when I had my first invite to spring training, I walked in that clubhouse and for the first time really felt like a Yankee. There was Alex Rodriguez and Brett Gardner in the place with so much history. I once again had that feeling that this was bigger than anything I had experienced before. This is what it really felt like to be a Yankee. It didn’t occur to me that I would be sent back to the minor league side in two weeks, no matter what I did on the field. Those two weeks gave me a taste for what I was working for.

As I gear up for the 2022 season, my approach has to be the same. I can’t control the pandemic, or even the lock-out, all I can control is how I get ready for the season, and it doesn’t matter when that comes. I can control the work I put in and my attitude when I step into the clubhouse and onto the field.

At the end of a season, I set up my work-out calendar for the winter. I review everything that went well and not so well, and I determine what I need to do to feel ready so I can be confident when I step into that clubhouse in the spring. These workouts are tough, but having them set for the winter pushes me to make sure I complete my reps every single day. This mirrors my in-season life by setting up “game-time” where I can focus on my work, just like everyone else. I don’t know what the 2022 season has in-store. All I know is that I will be showing up with my teammates, ready to chase that ring.

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