When it's over,what next?

After a dream that was frankly,one that I would never want to return to,I found a link from a Facebook friend to hit a topic that I found both interesting and something that I wanted to write about.

Tim Pahuta is a 30 year old journeyman in the game of minor league baseball.
Tim is a player that I saw for years here in Hagerstown as a Sun,in Frederick with the visiting Potomac Nationals and then for parts of three seasons in Harrisburg with the Senators.
Tim spent last season with the Sioux Falls Canaries in independent baseball on a team that also had former Suns Mitchell Clegg and J.P.Ramirez.

Sioux Falls is a step down in baseball from the minors and I hadn't thought about Pahuta much last season.
30 year old first basemen that never showed the ability to make consistent contact (.212,.260 and .226) in three years at the AA level generally end up finishing up their careers in towns like York,Camden or even Sioux Falls and that was generally Tim Pahuta.

Most guys like Pahuta are looked at by the rats of the game like me as good coaching material.
Why else would you keep what seems to be a non-prospect around other than maybe to be the "Crash Davis" to a bunch of "Nuke LaLooshes"?
Pahuta was a type of player that populate the Low A and High A levels-guys that are power hitters at those levels,keep a team competitive (the Suns could have used a guy like that in 2013),yet be used at a position where a "real" prospect doesn't get blocked from playing time,usually a fan favorite and as mentioned, be the older influence on a team filled with younger players.
I figured Pahuta to be a future coach on the circuit,Miles Durham with the Pirates followed the same path,plenty of time spent at AA or lower and then a coaching job at the bottom of the ladder,except Durham did see AAA for a little stretch,but at least for now,that has not happened for Pahuta.
Durham started his coaching travels last year with Low A West Virginia with the player/coach tag so Durham could play in case of injuries.

Let me write this-Tim Pahuta is not a friend of mine or anything.
I keep in contact with a few players that have passed through here,but Tim wasn't one of them.
Honestly,I thought he was pretty fan friendly at Hagerstown and less so in my dealings with him at Harrisburg,although I didn't deal with him often there.
AA baseball is the benchmark for the older player,you can see your limitations so much more clearly at double A against the higher level talent,the pressures increase and the end of the game is often able to be seen.
I don't begrudge that for the most part as the rats like me are generally an annoyance to some,a pain to some and at best, part of the game and the Tim Pahutas of the world generally only get asked to sign team set cards,some current,some older and occasionally the obscure.

When it's over,what do you do?
Tim Pahuta asks this question like this in his blog,which he started yesterday.
Actually he asked this "My name is Tim Pahuta. I played eight years of semi-successful baseball in the Washington Nationals minor league system. I am now an unemployed 30 year old with no job experience and an out-dated degree in, you guessed it, communication.
Somebody please tell me, what now?"

Don't cry too much for Pahuta,his degree might be "outdated",but in a economy that values a college degree,he'll be OK,although it may take a little time.
All things considered,I like Pahuta's chances better than the fellow that signed out of high school and is getting out of the game.
Pahuta likely won't have the rats running to him to sign cards much anymore or as the late Jim Valvano once said "when you work a real job,no one cheers and screams when you show up for work and there is no announcer calling your position as you trot to left desk",but by the time that you are ready to leave the game,much of the attention that seemed so cool at 20,is just a distraction as you age.

I never played professional baseball,although I would have loved to have done so,but Tim Pahuta is just starting to realize what all of us do at one time or another- life will take you through stages,some more successful than others and as we move through those corridors-the unknown ones down the hall can be scary.
The future always is,but having those memories that so few of us have-now that is really something.

I'm rooting for Tim Pahuta and hope he sticks with his blog,I bet it is going to be some pretty interesting reading if he continues to tap the keyboard....