Other

Joe Maddon is not new to this game.

 

When you consider experience, Maddon is someone who has seen the game through a variety of lenses. Outside of his minor league career as a player, he scouted, coached, was a roving hitting instructor and bench coach. His first managerial job with Tampa was after three decades in the game.

 

The fever pitch around free agent signings this time of year will reach its peak once some of the top flight free agents sign this off-season. Bryce Harper leads the pack, but Manny Machado is not far behind on the prestige scale.  Some team will pay a pretty penny, usually a team flush with cash, or a team that is recognizing that their window is now.

 

After years of being on the road of pro baseball, I knew that a late night call from my mom was not going to bring good news.

 

In the offseason after my first full season with the Phillies, this phone call was the entry point of what would become a spiral of bad news about the health of my father. A major stroke had sent him into a tailspin.

 

The Chicago Cubs are quickly approaching an era where the young core of talented players is about to hit paydirt. It is the nature of the business that you play in the minor leagues to get seasoned, to make your game more complete before you earn your way to the top.

 

In​ the​ 2002 offseason, two​ things​ happened: My​ father died,​ and​ I​ entered​ free agency​ for​ the first​ time.

 

It is one thing to be traded, it is another thing to adjust to life on the other side with a new organization.

 

The offseason after I was traded from the Cubs to the Phillies, my professional life shifted from the familiar with the Cubs, to learning a new team with the Phillies. Once the media interest slowed, one of the first questions I had to answer that offseason was what number I wanted.

 

The offseason is a time for a player to enjoy a break from the grind of a professional season. Although players love the game, they also know that being so focused is taxing. You are away from family, you miss major events in their lives and you barely have time for everyday life. It is a sacrifice worth making for that goal of building a major league legacy but it comes at a price.

 

A few weeks after we (the Cubs) were eliminated from the 2003 playoffs, I got a phone call from my college professor. Since it was officially the offseason, I was in the early stages of a break from following a pocket schedule to tell me where to be every day for nearly eight months.