Baseball player learns more about ‘team’ during crisis
Baseball. A team game. Nine players on a field, for a moment, become a single unit.
Together. A word that used to be nothing more than a buzzword has taken on a new meaning in my experience with baseball. My teammates have socially distanced. “Together” has become something I long for.
While scrolling through Twitter and watching past Major League Baseball highlights, I’ve had time to consider my relation to baseball and my relation to the concept of a team.
It’s easy to think of a team as a singular unit playing games. This has been challenged. I’ve been forced to ask myself what it means.
I haven’t seen my teammates so haven’t been part of a “team” for two weeks. But surely that isn’t true. Surely, the team still persists. But how does it exist, what part exists, and why? The concept of being on a team simply feels different now.
While social distancing, I have come to a conclusion. A team remains a team regardless of what tomorrow holds. Regardless of adversity, the shared experiences remain.
These experiences aren’t what’s in the newspaper. The newspaper is incapable of remembering how each player looks after a win, how each player bounces back after a loss. Yet as a member of a team, these moments stay with you and gain gravity when you no longer have the opportunity to make new ones.
My teammate Luke said, “Before we came together to compete for the win, now we’re just trying to come together and hope for another chance to play.” This shift in focus is in line with this idea of what it means to be on a team.
That’s not to say winning still isn’t the goal, as Luke explained, “We’re all still trying to hope for the same goal, which is to get back on the field and compete,” but winning has become a product of a greater process.
What I recall most vividly about recent games isn’t the stat line, but some of the moments. Often, the score may be linked to the moments, but it has become moments that have defined a sense of team.
My teammate McGwire Holbrook said, “what matters is how you come together with them to share moments and create memories that will last forever.” I feel that my definition of team has developed from this concept of moments, memories, and experiences.
Baseball provides the opportunity to be part of something bigger than yourself. Aidan Hempstead said, “Some of us seniors may never play baseball again.” In the end, we all know that at some point we will have to hang up our spikes. However, the shared experiences are greater than that. The team will outlast us and will live through our stories forever.
There is no way I can help you, the reader, witness the experiences unseen, the reps taken, or the feelings felt only by those who are part of our team. As our season hangs in flux, I’m left with a new outlook. And the binding force is hope. Every one of my teammates is full of hope.
Coach Tony Mehlich stated, “I hope each player embraces how precious our time was playing a game we love, and cheered by the people that loved us. These memories that we made shouldn’t be taken for granted.
“Baseball is a game full of adversity, and failure. This may be the biggest hurdle these players will ever deal with and I’m confident they will bounce back in life, in family, and in competition. It truly defines what a real baseball player is.”
Holbrook said, “The thing that makes this team special is the fact that we’re not giving up yet.” Despite whatever uncertainty may lie ahead, we remain committed to the path of success.
Every player has bought into this process because we know that being part of a team is something more than coming together to play under the lights. It is a commitment to one another. And this commitment will live on, even if these seniors have played their last game. The experiences and moments will live on and in that moment, a team truly becomes a team.