Spring Training Bound

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, but I figured my trip down to Florida for spring training seemed like the perfect time to get back in blog mode. I just finished my second offseason, and, therefore, will be attending my second spring training.
For as long as I can remember, my “offseason” for baseball was either two months of playing basketball or a mere two weeks Christmas vacation before we were back on the field. Now, the offseason is essentially a five month break from any practice or mandatory workouts. This was something I needed to get acclimated to, but I took it pretty well. Wait, you mean I don’t HAVE to be anywhere until February??? Obviously, there is still a lot of offseason preparation for the upcoming season, but it was nice to have a little freedom. This is only time players can travel and go on vacations. Unless, that is, you consider the 16-hour bus trip from Lakewood, New Jersey back down to Savannah “traveling.”
However, this is most importantly the time to get in the gym and really push yourself. There’s plenty of time to be sore because, like I said, you’re not playing for five months. For the last two years, I have worked out at Tim Soder Physical Therapy with a bunch of other major and minor leaguers, who were either high school teammates or opponents.
This offseason had another twist from my previous baseball “offseasons”. I was a teacher at my high school alma mater, Bishop Gorman. Last year, I would periodically be a substitute; maybe two days a week. This is the perfect compliment to my spending habits during the offseason 😳. However, this year, I replaced a teacher there who went on maternity leave. So, for six weeks, I was a Spanish teacher for both freshman and sophomore levels. It gave me a new outlook on the life of a teacher, and not to mention how much I misbehaved when I was a freshman and sophomore while I was in school. I certainly have a new respect for those dealing with hormonal-crazed teenagers. While it was a lot of work, it was nice to have a steady paycheck (much larger than my MiLB one), and couldn’t hurt on a résumé someday.
All in all, I would say it was a pretty good break from playing, but I am absolutely excited about heading back and getting back into the swing of practicing and playing everyday. Hopefully the hard work pays off with another good season, but either way we will make sure we have a good time doing it regardless.