Living My Dream (Just Not How I Thought)

What little kid doesn't dream of playing baseball professionally? I was no exception. As you guys have already seen, I was (am) a huge Derek Jeter fan and owned more Yankees paraphernalia than I did actual clothing. All joking aside, I wanted nothing else than to play baseball professionally. I had the tools, I just needed to be 3 inches taller, run faster, field better, hit harder, and throw further - I was that close! Otherwise you'd see me in the pros right now. 

Seriously though, throughout high school, I knew I wasn't going to go pro. I figured I could try to play ball in college. I applied all over the midwest looking at places where they could accept my respectable bat, aggressively average glove, and sputtering-jalopy speed. I settled on Hope College, but quickly into the second semester of my freshman year got the axe. My career was over, and so I thought was my personal relationship with baseball. Aside from being a fan, I had no connection to the game anymore.

Until now.

It took three years for me to make it happen, but now I am finally living my dream of college baseball - I just won't be playing. 

This year, I'll be the Boeve Stadium Manager for Hope College, a microcosm of what I want to do for the rest of my life. My long term goal is to be a Stadium Operations Manager for a professional team somewhere, and my educational endeavors of English and History aren't exactly what you expect to see in the sports world. 

I'm so pumped to start this. I'll finally get to be around baseball every day - not just reading my MLB At Bat app, or scouring over the box scores, or watching the highlights of the previous day. I'll actually get to walk on a field, be in the press box, and be a part of the game. I'm not as important as the closing pitcher or the umpires, but hey, I count! Without me, who would raise the American flag, and where would we look singing the National Anthem? See, it would be just be unadulterated chaos.

It was always my dream to continue my baseball career after high school. And now, I am - it just wasn't how I thought it was going to work out. In a way, I'm not continuing my career, I'm just starting a new phase or segment of it. I'll be transitioning from being the oh-crap-here's-a-groundball-to-Bill oh-yay-Bill-made-up-for-it-with-a-double to Mr. Getcshman with a job, a title, a purpose, and a direction. 

Here are a few pictures of the beautiful Boeve Stadium at the MIAA champs Hope College (when there are not three feet of snow on the ground): 

Go Hope!