A good friend of mine who pitches at an ACC school called me the other day to inform me that 2 of his former college teammates, including a roommate, were playing at a minor league field about 45 minutes from where we live. They had left tickets for us at Will Call, so we went to the game.
The game itself was nothing special to me as I've been to several MiLB games in the past. What was interesting was the occurences afterwards. Both of the players texted my friend literally minutes after getting into the locker room and asked us to stick around to get some pizza. We obviously stayed, and waited for the players to come out.
We sat with them and ate for about a half hour, just shooting the breeze (I had known them prior to the game so we were just having a normal college guy talk). Every 5 minutes or so, however, both of them would thank us very much for coming and watching the game. They kept trying to remember the next time they'd be near us again and wanted us (specifically my friend, their old teammate) to come again. It became interesting to me that the were SO grateful for us to come.
After a few more minutes of talking about girls I thought about it. These young men, literally a month removed from college and proceeding to play 76 games in 79 days in short season A ball, were lonely. They were hours away from home, with nothing but each other, buses and hotel rooms. It was refreshing for them to have something they were so familiar with.
Towards the end of our post-game meal, I turned to one of them and said "So what's it REALLY like in the Minors?" And he simply said "It's real tough man." We spoke for a few minutes about the time commitment, the physical and mental roughness of the environment and the shock of the change. I hinted that I don't know if I could handle that year after year. They both looked at each other and turned, saying, "I wouldn't trade this for anything in the world as long as I live."
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One that son has yet to perfect, even with all the years of practice with college and summer ball travel. He is in the NY-Penn League and his team also uses host families. Son has 2 other players with him and the family has been great. I'm very grateful for all they do. But the days are long and playing 7 days a week can be a grind. But he loves it and couldn't imagine ever trading this job .... for work in a cubicle! 