A HEAD'S UP: BELOW IS A REPEAT: THREE MESSAGES AT THE END OF THE LAST DOUBTLESS WAY-TOO-LONG THREAD. WHICH MAY HAVE PUT OFF LOTS OF POTENTIAL READERS.
SO I CUT TO A SHORTER VERSION. THE THREE MESSAGES BELOW ARE THE FINAL THREE FROM THE LONG THREAD AND I THINK THEY CAPTURED THE CENTER OF ALL THE TALK ABOUT AGING PLAYERS, STILL PLAYING OR DEPARTING.
IF YOU'VE READ THE LONG THREAD, THEN SKIP THIS. IF NOT, HOPE YOU FIND IT WORTH YOUR TIME.
-MIKE
FROM JOHN CORRIGAN:
Member
Status: Offline Posts: 5 Date: May 20 10:54 AM, 2025
Age old issues Mike and there's no perfect solution. From a league standpoint it would be an absolute nightmare to try and regulate minimum playing time and deal with player complaints so it seems like the current process of GM's entering a team is the most effective way to do it. Players can discuss their role and sign on where there is a mutual fit and then if they're not happy move on the following year. Some players are happy just being on the field and others want to play competitive ball and win and the current system allows that to happen and the unbalanced schedules limit the number of blowouts somewhat. I don't think there is a better solution
As for me I'm most likely done with baseball .... I broke my leg skiing, had surgery and then eight plus weeks with no weight on it and I can't run full speed any more and don't want to tear an ACL or something so I'm biking and then perfectly happy spending my weekends on Lake Champlain fishing for 30+ inch lake trout. biggrin Who knows maybe I'll venture out to a Capital Division game someday.
__________________ FROM RALPH CAPUTO
Senior Member
Status: Offline Posts: 190 Date: May 20 3:46 PM, 2025
John Thank you for being the adult in the room. I know in a year you will be back finding the gap and contributing to some team who will gratefully put you in their lineup,probably A/B..
Respectfully,Mike Frank, Throw away your calendars!
If you can play, you will play.
When the Cubbies went to Roy Hobbs and I was lucky enough to join them, I was jumping up and down with joy if I were A/B in the lineup. Its about the good of the team and where you fit in..
Work out, go to cages, do sprints, stay in shape.. Talking (and age) does not matter, at all..
Ralph
__________________ FROM MIKE HART
Guru
Status: Online Posts: 289 Date: May 21 5:00 AM, 2025
Hey John and Ralph: you both raise interesting ideas and questions. Thank you.
I'd imagine that readers here have heard quite enough for me for now. So, I really will try to be brief in my replies to each guy:
John: I'm glad you've made the transition out of baseball, even though yours was a painful exit, the time now seems better.
Our departures from the game are not easy for any of us. Especially for those of us (which easily includes you) who've invested a lot of time in the game. It's always hard to say goodbye to anyone or anything you love. So, while I'm not pleased to hear your broken leg was the transition agent, I am glad to read that you've recovered well enough to bike and fish, and to read here, that you seem upbeat about both.
One thought for you (and for anyone who's had injuries and surgeries), if your leg still bothers you, or seems iffy at times, let me suggest water jogging for you? I suspect you may have done some water exercises during your rehab.
In water jogging, you wear what's called an "aquajogger" vest (aquajogger.com). You strap it around your chest, and it lets you float, walk, run or swim in the water. The great thing about the jogging is that the exercise acts as both resistance and massage to your legs. All the Y's in the area have the vests so you don't have to buy one if you use the Ys; Or, you can get one online (aquajogger.com) for about $25. If you're at the lake fishing, imagine: after you pull in that 30+-inch trout, you throw yourself in the water to cool off and run, with your vest on.
I go on about the vest because 2002 to 2018, I had nine surgeries, eight of them baseball-related (both shoulders, both knees, right one twice, right elbow, hip, spine), and aqua jogging, as much as anything, brought me back. I still do it. If you've not done it, hope you do. Luck to you.
As for you my friend Ralph, thanks for your upbeat comments. I always enjoy talking with you. And I know you mean well (meaning well is how you are), but here, we part.
I would suggest that playing ball as I did at 76 and 77 is an indication that I have already thrown out the calendar, and I don't know anyone (especially among septuagenarians, but at any age) who can play this game without exercising.
So, yes, I exercise. I sprint, run, lift, bike, do nordic track, swim, go to a nearby field and hit and throw into my portable screen. So I do something, about five days a week and I often cool off (here I go again, John) water jogging.
But, and this takes us back to the beginning, we part ways Ralph in our attitudes toward A/B. I find it insulting. It's probably unintentional, but it's there, it hurts, which tells me it's wrong.
How does it insult? From one angle the manager is sending a public message that he doesn't think much of you or your skills, that he doesn't trust you to help the team when the pressure is on, even though in a sense the pressure had been on all season and during that time, you never once wore the public A/B cap. How can you feel like a true member of the team when the manager sends messages like that? It's essentially a "you're not good enough" message, one I've resisted all my life.
And A/B is senseless, too: since when did the manager's attitude about your hitting morph to fielding? It doesn't follow that because the manager thinks you're a poor hitter you can't also field.
You talk about taking on the notion that your A/B spot is "for the good of the team."
I'd say a more fitting notion would by way of the three musketeers: "One for all and all for one." Sure, each player owes something to the team ( and each gives it, in money, effort, and companionship), but the team also owes something to each player, and that something should not be an insult. A/B from my spot is an insult (see my last note above.)
What's not an insult is that the team - the PLAYING team - belongs to all of us and to each of us.
To get back to my old hobbyhorse: If you play everybody all the time, then A/B is not an issue.
I said I was going to write short and, from my angle, I did.
Again, John and Ralph, thank you for responding. I've played a fair number of games with each of you, and they were always, and easily, fine times.
-Mike
-- Edited by mikehart on Wednesday 21st of May 2025 04:10:48 PM
