However,I was struck by reading a blog post ( I do read other peoples work too!) by Rob Kaminsky and I wanted to write a few words on Kaminsky's thoughts.
I didn't get to see Kaminsky pitch in Frederick,so I missed seeing the Sandy Koufax fan (always a plus with me) play.
I don't know Kaminsky,although he signed a few cards for me the other night,but I was struck by how business-like he was about accepting his trade from the Cardinals to the Indians.
I told him how much I enjoyed his blog and he responded with thanks along with stating that he plans on doing more with it.
Kaminsky understands that it is a game based business and sometimes we forget that as fans that these are real people.
Sitting behind the keyboard and offering criticism is pretty easy when it doesn't affect you,but imagine the consistent uproar in a life that can spin on a heartbeat via trade,promotion or a demotion.
Players cannot worry about fans or writers think,if they do,then it will rarely be a positive for their career.
I doubt we are nearly as important as we think we are to players and more often than not to many of the men that play this game,we are a necessary evil-without us the dream and dollars are not there,but critic is usually not the one that was in the arena as Theodore Roosevelt once opined.
Moving around affects more than just you as Kaminsky writes,although players in the lower minors usually have concerns more aligned with parents and friends more than wives and children.
Kaminsky writes about the instant changes in team alliances among other things and how players are just cogs in the machine-just like the rest of us.
In many ways baseball is like every other job-a business that uses you to their liking and then tosses you aside when the business is finished with you.
However,there is a difference or two-the clearest being that in the real world,Target doesn't tell you to report to Wal-Mart the next day because they needed a new cart corral.
You can have a new employer and it's out of your control,but there is one advantage to the way of sports-when you are traded,it's always because your new employer wanted you or they wouldn't have shipped an asset out to bring you in.
It's not a perfect system,but in the normal work environment,rarely do you have an excited new employer that is thrilled to have you and to do so immediately.
Rob Kaminsky is a top prospect on the mound,but he looks to be putting together an honest blog on the inside of the minor leagues.
It'll be interesting to see how long he sticks with it as he rises through the minors and attracts more attention.
I hope he does...
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