What is Baseball

"This is an old classic I wrote and have updated it for this blog. It's great when you're having writer's block! I wrote it in two parts and this is integrating the two parts including some updates for some players. I read it while editing it and it's still fantastic. "

Terry Francona

Baseball is eight months of hotels, arguments, fights, absolute frustration, plane trips and dirty laundry and when you win, it’s all great and when you lose your family seems like a hundred miles away. Sometimes I wonder why I do it, but then I look at alternatives. Nope, I’m where I should be. That’s baseball.

Dustin Pedroia.

You play this game to win. What job can give you that type of rush? You compete and you win and you stay healthy. That’s what it’s all about and that’s why I’m playing for the Red Sox. I go out there as if every game is my last game…and that’s not a bad way of thinking about it.

Mike Timlin.

You play this game since you were two and you play it hard and then you play it harder and then you make it. The ballpark seems like it’s an entire continent and the fans and the fame and you’re like – this is great. Then one day you wake up and that fastball can’t shut down a hitter and your body, your body gets old and you ask yourself – what do I do now? Everyone has to face that question that last day and it really scares me because it’s happened and I don’t know. I keep thinking comeback. What else can I do? I mean...I'm retired now, one year retired, and I still keep thinking to myself why am I not at the ballpark. I don't know...it hurts.

Julio Lugo

You sign a contract, they all get excited about you, and then you play hard and you work hard and you make a fool of yourself and no matter what you do, you feel stupid out there. It feels horrible inside and you know the fans look down on you. They don’t see all the work you do. They think you’re doing it on purpose. I mean, you do lousy at a job they fire you. You do lousy in baseball you don’t get fired…you get forgotten. I’m not sure what’s worse.

Kevin Youkillis

Nobody understands a baseball season. You can’t. Unless you’re there, you don’t get it. You don’t know how much you have to do to compete because one day you’re gonna wake up and find your name off the locker and the fans forget everything and you’re nothing to them. Sometimes you ask yourself – why? Why put up with it and then you realize that your entire life is in this game. You have nothing else. It’s scary. It’s really scary.

Jacobe Ellsbury.

Everybody on the team tells me, this is it. This is the best time of your life but I don’t know. When you can’t hit a baseball and when you get picked off stealing…it’s not fun. You’re up first in the batting order and everyone looks at you like you’re the most important guy on the team. I go up there and if I don’t get a hit…I just want to hit something. It’s so frustrating and fans…they don’t get it. They only see the strikeout. They don’t see how you feel inside and how you worry, really worry how about many strikeouts before a trade…if you’re lucky to get a trade at all.

Mike Lowell

You play no matter what the pain because you know. You know about that day. I play no matter what because I don’t know what tomorrow will bring. The next Mike Lowell is out there and he can hit better than me and he’s cheaper and he’ll steal bases and field better than me. I know that. It’s only a matter of time. Let me tell you…it pushes you. You don’t let a game go by without sweat. Over 162 games and then the playoffs. When I got home…I went under a doctor’s knife. You wonder if it’s all over every time you let them cut you and then you try to forget about baseball. Scary part is, someday baseball’s gonna forget about me. I'm OK now but what about next year.

Tim Wakefield.

I don’t make the biggest salary and I don’t always win all the games but not making the biggest salary means I’m not up at night worrying about living up to those numbers. I see those guys. They sign the big contracts and then the contract owns them. It’s not worth it. I sleep at night. Ya, I’m gonna be forgotten and ya I’m gone someday. I get that. I know the clock is ticking but for the most part, I’ve had the best experience of my life. Nobody can take that away from me. I’ll remember and my family will remember. That’s good enough for me.

Coco Crisp

With baseball, you swallow your pride and smile. You can’t…you just can’t tell them anything. You do and it comes right back at you. This year…it’s been tough. I don’t talk about it but it’s tough. You’re older, you’re the veteran and some kid comes up and man you’re done. That’s how it is. We all say to Jacobe…this is it. You’re having the best time of your life but he doesn’t get it because now he’s becoming the veteran. Next year…he’ll start the thinking. He will and then he’ll miss this year. Right now I'm OK with the Royals but it ain't the same. I miss the Sox. I really do.

David Ortiz

You just play until you can’t walk anymore. That’s baseball. You play while you can. I don’t know how long I’m gonna play. The injuries will crop up and then I’m done. I miss Manny but I don’t blame him. You do what you can to make a lot of money and stay important. That’s baseball but every year it gets harder. I'm old at 33. Is that crazy? This is the worst year of my life and I know it and everybody else knows it. I don't know. Baseball can destroy you. It really can. I get that now.

J.D. Drew

It’s only here for a little while. It’s an afternoon and the sun doesn’t rise up the next day. I hate my body somedays. It’s so frustrating. I could be a superstar but my body won’t let me. No big contract is gonna fix that.

John Masterson

The pressure is incredible and there are times you wonder why you do it. I mean…the media…it’s incredible at first but then one day it’s like – they don’t talk to you anymore. They’ve moved on. You gotta cope with that. You gotta remind yourself you’ve made it and then you gotta remind yourself that one injury, one mistake and you’re done. It’s crazy. I mean it’s really crazy. I think, I’m in the playoffs fighting for my life out there. It’s no adrenaline rush. It’s a panic switch but you think – do your job – it’s just spring training with a lot more noise. That’s all you can do. Sometimes Texas sounds pretty good but you don’t get remembered in Texas and you play just as hard. You make your choices.

Jason Varitek

“It’s my whole life for 162 games. This is it. I love it so much. I mean nothing better than baseball. Nothing better. You got a guy that goes out, does his 7am – 8pm and comes home for an hour of down time. That would kill me. That would kill me. Nothing is more challenging or more exciting than baseball. I’ll play it as long as I can and no I don’t think about retirement. I’ll coach or manage or whatever it takes. Maybe I’ll be the next Johnny Pesky. Who knows.

Alex Cora.

“There are guys out there…so much better than me. Every time I step out on the field…man, it’s great. It’s something and ya, I’ll be done someday and I won’t see the hall of fame. I know that…but I know there are a lot of guys out there that never made it so I’m…I’m grateful just to be here but I miss Boston. In New York, the fans hate the team when they play bad. Not in Boston. I wish I was still there.

Curt Schilling

“It’s the best game in the world. You do anything and I mean anything to be in that game. Ballplayers, we don’t think last day. We don’t. We just convince ourselves that we can play just one more season. Just one more season. That’s what you do and when you become the spectator…it’s the lowest feeling in the world because you know it’s over. That’s baseball.

J.D. Drew

Imagine you’re just doing your job where you’re at your computer and fifty thousand people are looking over your shoulder. They boo you…they boo you when you make a mistake. The more money you make the louder the boos get. It’s a curse. You scratch your head – what did I do? After a job they question you for half an hour – for what? You get hurt they’re all over you. Media, fans, media fans. You go play at different ballparks and suddenly they boo you if you do something right? It’s nuts. Then the season ends and you’re so into the baseball day, you don’t know what to do with yourself. It’s boring and when the season starts…you’re like – why am I doing this. I mean how do you live like that? You think you’re great, you get humbled real quick in this game.

Josh Beckett

It’s what I tell everyone, shut up, play the game and you’ll be OK. You don’t think about last day because that’s not baseball. Baseball is now. I play in the now.

Mike Timlin

“There will never be a better time in your life and I know it now more than ever. I know I’m gonna spend the rest of my life trying to make a life that was as good as baseball and I’m gonna fail. That’s baseball.

Mile Lowell

If I didn’t have the fans, it would be hard. If I didn’t have the media, it wouldn’t be crazy and if I didn’t have this team and this manager…I don’t know what I’d do. Team gets you through a lot and when a player focuses on himself and sacrifices the team – that’s low. That’s just as low as you can get. Baseball is sometimes like that.

Kevin Youk.

We lost a big, big part of our team last year in Manny Ramirez. He made us look bad and he made baseball look bad. Those who know this game…you don’t make excuses you move on but when you play this hard and someone comes along and thinks he’s better than anyone else…you have no idea how lousy that feels inside.

Jason Varitek

One player can bring down a game and bring it right back up. You have a lot of power as a player and you know it. It’s a responsibility and it’s a life lesson. If everyone really understood baseball and followed its rules…better world. Maybe that’s baseball. Who knows.

Jason Bay

The difference between a team that wins and a team that loses is salary, motivation and how much you can take. This team takes it. You win, you pay a price…a big one. I’m sure they all wonder if its worth it. I don’t because I’ve lived my life on that team. I’m willing to pay that price. Maybe next year…maybe it won’t be so much fun. Guys who win a lot – it’s a relief. Guys who don’t – it’s a miracle. All perspective.

Shaun Casey

Fan mail, love letters, media, lots of money to be made if you can do it, injuries, bench time, rules…crazy rules…crazy umpires and lots of leather and wood. I miss it but what a great ride it was retiring with the Red Sox. That was a great year. That’s baseball…now can someone explain it to me!

Jon Lester

You want that moment in the sun so badly. You’d do anything. I got so much attention and it’s great. I mean it’s really exciting but it’s weird. I mean…who am I? I’m just a pitcher for the Red Sox and then I think about that and say – ya, I get it now. Now I get it.

Clay Buchhotz

“You look in the mirror and see everything ahead of you. You see a career and promises and say, I made it. Then you blink and it’s like it’s over and you wonder what happened? You look back and count your mistakes and you can’t count that high. I hate it. I just want to make it. That’s baseball. That’s all baseball is.

Kevin Cash

Every fifth day I thought about Doug Mirabelli. Ya, I’m there now but when am I going to be the next Doug? I’m just a backup catcher. I’ll never have the talent to make it no matter how hard I try. Do you have any idea how that feels and don’t tell me you do…because you don’t. You got a guy who has all the talent in the world and he walks around like you’re nothing to him. I hate him for that because if I had that talent and that ability…jee…don’t you get it? Half the team wants what you have and you treat us like crap. Ya, I'm talking about Manny Ramirez. I just don’t get it. Nobody understands how precious this time is – nobody because now the Yankees just sent me down to the minors. It was great while it lasted.

Kason Gabbard

“Every time I get back to Boston, Terry is there to say hello. The guys amazing. I mean…when I was traded…I thought the world was over. I worked so hard to make it and I put up with a lot of injuries and now I’m in Texas but look again and now I'm in Boston. It’s been lousy. It’s been really lousy. I can’t compete and I know I may not make it. I hate baseball right now and I love it. I just want to make it you know. I just want to make it.

Jerry Remy

The hardest thing is to give it up. You spend you entire retirement…and you’ve got to have a job you know…and you try to get that back in your life and you can’t. I still, I still want to play on that field. I still and that’s baseball.

Bill Lee

Maybe that’s what heaven is about. God sets up the ultimate baseball team and you’re on it. Hell is the same thing…but you can’t throw a strike no matter how hard you tried.

Johnny Pesky

I”ll always be part of the Red Sox. I’ll die in a Red Sox uniform. That’s just my life. Maybe that’s baseball. I don’t know. I played in a different time and a different age. Back then you didn’t retire on baseball, you retired from baseball and worried about getting a job.

Dice-K (translated)

Can I tell you something? Can I say it without the world knowing it. When you have the talent, it’s not enough. It’s just the start and you’ve never good enough. Once you feel you have…they wonder why you can’t continue to do it. What’s wrong with you they say? That’s baseball.

Terry Francona

I have the pleasure of watching all these guys and forming a lot of close connections and let me tell you. They’re my family. They really are and like all families…you really want to call a time out on some of them but that’s baseball.

Carlton Fisk

I tell everyone I meet that when you’re in baseball, you’re going to have three things that are going to happen– You made it, you get hurt, and then you’re forgotten…but if you’re that handful, at least you know when you’ve retired…you’re still remembered and let me tell you…being retired and not forgotten…it’s better…but it’s still retirement. Retirement…bad word. That’s baseball.

Doug Mirabelli

When I look out there and see the lights and see the ball come at me and the pitcher wanting the next pitch – depending on me to make that decision for him…I love it…but I promised myself that I wouldn’t let it ruin me when my time came. I feel I’ve done that and that makes those times special to me but I tell you…I still want it back. That should answer your question because baseball is that incredible. That’s baseball.

Carlton Fisk

It’s all about moments. I hit that home run…game 6…that was an incredible moment. Game 7 and Yaz flying out. That was hard. There was no game 8. Guys who got that ring – one moment I’ll never know.

Fred Lynn

Rookie of the year and MVP. I’m not in the hall of fame. I never will be. Oh well…you move on. All you can do but ya, you miss it. Who wouldn’t? That’s baseball.

Louis Tiant. (rewritten a bit from actual comments -> Bill Lee documentary, and the book MoneyBall)

I think Bill Lee will be playing baseball till he’s 90 and good for him. For me, my family is everything. Baseball is just a game and it’s your family that makes life worthwhile. Baseball gave me my family. That’s baseball.