Dream Come True

Sitting on the bench in Philadelphia during a rainy April night might not seem like a lot of fun to the average fan. All bench players do is sit on the edge of their seats and wait for maybe that one pitch that will be thrown to only one of them that night. However, for me, this is a dream come true. Any reason to play a game and get paid deserves some major credit. From the day I slapped my first baseball off our town's cheap plastic tee and ran the bases without fear of getting out, I knew that this game had captured my future. I knew that my future aspirations needed to be played on a bright green diamond in front of thousands of people. I never thought of myself as a particularly great player even in Little League. I would watch the Little League World Series on ESPN and think, "Those kids are so much better than I am." I hadn't realized yet that it was possible to fly under the radar throughout your baseball career. I hadn't realized that many baseball players are drafted from community college or junior college. You didn't need to go to a baseball powerhouse like you needed to go to a basketball powerhouse to be considered in the draft. I didn't learn this until I indeed had become one of the players who needed to fly under the radar. The fact that many baseball players had flown under the radar in the past became my hope for the future. I knew that if I wanted to make a run as a baseball player, I would need to embrace my role and thrive in it because giving up would have obviously not worked. Nevertheless, it took more than hard work to get me through my tough years and into my dream.
Photo by szlea