FanNation - The Republic of Sport

There???s an interesting article in the NY Times written by Doug Glanville, former outfielder for the Cubs, Phillies, Rangers, Cubs (again) and Phillies (again). Titled ???The Endless (Off-) Season,??? Doug writes from the perspective of the active player. He talks about the boredom of the October (or November if your team played a post-season) through Valentine???s Day time period; about how players search for their off-season ???thing??? all off-season, whether that means buying multiple vehicles or investing in an alpaca farm or taking up ballroom dancing. It didn???t used to be that way. Remember Richie Hebner? When he was playing in the 1970s, just before free agency, he???d spend the winter months digging graves with his father. He told me a great story about what other guys and, especially, Willie Mays thought about this line of work. I interviewed him last summer and you can hear him talk about those days at my website, Jimmy Scott???s High & Tight (www.jimmyscottshighandtight.com). Mike Marshall, the 1974 Cy Young Award winning relief pitcher who now goes by the name Dr. Mike Marshall, went to school in his off-seasons. That???s how he was able to get that capital D r period listed before his name. Mike talked to me recently, and you can hear about how those days changed his life at my website, too. But what if the off-season goes on and on and on, like 7th period algebra, when the clock didn???t seem to move for those 49 minutes, turning it into what seemed like 1,000 minutes? What about the guys who, right now as we suck in fumes from the hot stove, don???t have a ???season??? that will be ???on??? again? What about the guys who are done? Who are retired? Who won???t get that call for even a minor league invite to spring training? How are they feeling? I???ve been thinking about this a lot lately because I know it???s coming for me. When I spoke with Bill Lee, formerly called ???The Spaceman??? while playing for the Red Sox and Expos in the ???70s & ???80s, he said guys today don???t need to worry about when their careers are done. These guys are set. They don???t have to do anything. Financially, probably not. Although there are guys - Jim Leyritz, for example - who don???t have the money anymore that they earned in their careers. Craig Swan, who won the NL ERA title back in 1978, told me recently that he had $2 million after his career that had ballooned up to $8 million. The stock market crash of 1987 wiped out the entire amount. Craig???s reaction? ???Everybody should lose $2 million sometime in their lives.??? He was speaking metaphorically. Because if you lose everything, you get to look inside and see what you really want to and need to do to get yourself back. That???s what happens when the off-season lasts forever. For a baseball player, whether you???re a DH for Seattle, a mop-up guy for San Diego, or a 3rd baseman for the Mets, when that end of 7th period bell rings at the end of your career, you, in effect, have lost everything. You think batting with two on and two out and two strikes in the 7th game of the NLCS, your team down by 2, is pressure? How about the pressure of knowing you???re 34 years old and you don???t have one damn clue what you???re going to do for the next 50 to 60 years. Money is one thing. If you???re set financially, then lovely. You don???t have to worry about bringing home the bacon (which is just going to make you fat, which is just going to make people laugh at you come next Old Timer???s Day when your stomach makes you look, not like a 40-year-old former base stealing threat, but a pregnant 40-year-old former base stealing threat) anymore. But you do have to worry about the clock. 24 hours in a day. Take out 8 for sleep. That leaves 16 hours. Take out 1 for dinner. 1 for lunch and breakfast (combined). You???re down to 14 hours. An hour nap is nice. Well, make it two. 12 hours. SportsCenter? Nope. You don???t want to see guys excelling at something you no longer can excel at. Text message a former teammate? Nope. He just makes fun of you for your misspellings because your thumb is too big and you can???t figure out how to spell a word where one key has almost all of the letters you need for that one word. And then you find you???re still at 12 hours. See what I mean? Multiply that by seven days and you???re in for a world of boredom. What should guys do? If there???s one thing I???ve learned by talking to so many retired players, it???s plan before you???re done. Just like you plan financially for the days when the paychecks no longer flow in, you need to plan for the days when the crowds cheer for your replacement. Because if you???re a player, you???re going to go through that one off-season that never ends. And there???s nothing you can do about it. Jimmy Scott is probably the greatest pitcher you???ve never heard of. To read more from Jimmy, just click on his website, Jimmy Scott???s High & Tight, which you can find at www.jimmyscottshighandtight.com. There you???ll hear interviews with MLB players, wives & agents and find new perspectives on this great game some of us call Baseball.