Here we are less than a week away from the end of spring training and our great journey to the destination we will call home for a period of time. You would think we would know where that drive is going to take us by now, but we do not. Yes, you read that right, we still have no clue what team we are going to start the year with. It doesn’t shock me in the least bit, as we are very used to being told everything at the last minute when it comes to baseball. But it is quite frustrating when you are trying to find a place to live and people to live with! Currently Addison is playing spring training games with the AAA team, Scranton-Wilkes Barre Yankees (although this year they are nicknamed the Empire State Yankees because their home field is undergoing a complete renovation making the team practically homeless, left to bum off all the other teams in the North East). Just because he is on this roster now still does not give us any indication on which way the wind may blow us. He still has about a 50% chance of ending up with the AA team, the Trenton Thunder. All of this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the unknowns in this lifestyle. Most plans we make, if we can even make them, have to be made at the very last minute. Planning ahead is a phrase not found in a baseball family’s vocabulary. It does make it difficult, no doubt about that, but it is also extremely liberating. Not many people actually get the opportunity live a life so unsteady, unreliable, unexpected, and exciting. I consider us very fortunate. We get to let go of everything and just have faith in what the future may hold for us.
Journey through the Unknown
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. Anyways, back to my point! Staten Island Yankees probably play in the most beautiful minor league stadium ever, it sits right on the Hudson and your outfield view is the NYC skyline. It’s the kind of place that will give you chills. The first time I went to visit him I was in awe of this whole atmosphere! I had gone on this trip with his family, and his mom and I like to get to the games early…really early! We got there right when the gates opened up and we were basically the only ones there besides the people who worked there. All the guys were out in left field stretching in a circle, so we walked down that way to get a better view of our cutie. His mom had walked into the bathroom and I was just standing there above all of the seats when Addison waved at me. I was shocked that he did that because there is usually zero communication between us when he is on the field (it’s only been a rule since day one!!), so I got a little flustered but I waved back. All of a sudden every one of those baseball players standing in that circle waved at me!! Let me preface this next part of my story by telling you that I’m a pretty shy person who definitely tries to avoid attracting a lot of attention to myself, add that in with the fact that I was already a little bit surprised from the wave that my darling gave me and you get the following results…I ducked my head and ran away, into the bathroom to his mommy. It was there where I realize what I had just done. I was mortified!! Why couldn’t I have been a normal person and just kept on smiling and waving??! The whole game I beat myself up over this, because all I could think about was what a weird first impression all of his teammates would have of me. After the game was over we had a conversation about that fateful event…Addison thought it was “cute” (forever proving to me that he really does love me) and all of the guys just thought it was funny. So it wasn’t as bad as my brain over-thought it to be after all. Now I’m on the bandwagon and I’m happy to say that I can now laugh at myself over this one. As with a lot of things to do with the baseball life, my very first experience with pro ball was quite memorable, I’m just glad that I don’t have any more embarrassing memories (to do with baseball of course) to share with the world!