Better Days

I told my wife I was going to cut back dramatically on baseball in 2016. I still love it but I’m getting older and at my age it’s so easy to get injured…but so hard to heal up. More importantly, it would give me more time to spend with my wife on the weekends, which I know she appreciates.

I truly meant what I said to my wife. However, last week while we were having a romantic dinner at Nick’s Restaurant the subject of baseball came up and I casually mentioned that some of my buddies were leaving in a few days to go to the annual Pro Ball Baseball Camp in Phoenix. She was quiet for a moment and then looked me straight in the eye and said, “I want you to go too”. It caught me by surprise because I hadn’t even considered it. But my wife knows me better than I know myself and obviously loves me deeply, so before dinner was over my plans (our plans) now included a four-day trip to Phoenix.

My wife went with me because we can’t stand to be apart. In fact, over the past 22 years we have only been slept apart three nights total. While I practiced baseball with my friends and dozens of pro baseball studs like Alan Trammel, Jeremy Barfield and Lee Tinsley, my wife wandered around the Hotel alone waiting for me to return each evening. Her willingness to make sacrifices so that I can have fun will never cease to amaze me…and inspire me.

Speaking of inspiration, this camp is held at the Padres Spring Training Facility in Phoenix. This is where “real” pro baseball players practice each spring and we actually we get to use their locker room, eat meals cooked by their regular chef, and have access to their amazingly gifted trainers. The locker room itself reeks of baseball tradition and memories and I have to admit, just putting on a uniform in that room gave me goosebumps. The other thing that you can’t help notice throughout the locker room is the proliferation of inspirational messages. It reminded me that this locker room will soon be filled with eager young men, busting their butts to achieve a goal that less than 1% of people ever achieve.

The one sign that caught my eye and stuck in my mind was this one. “What are you going to do today, to be better than you were yesterday?” I thought about that message and how it doesn’t just apply to baseball players, it applies to anyone who is striving to achieve a goal. It also occurred to me that if I pondered that question each morning and applied it to my life every single day, I could probably accomplish any goal I set for myself.

On the long drive home I kept thinking about the sacrifices my wife constantly makes for me and decided to set a new goal for myself, to become a better husband. That evening I did all the laundry for her, cooked her dinner for a change, and rubbed her feet for several hours while she watched the Golden Globe Awards on TV. I’m never going to be “Husband of the Year” material, but at least for one day… I found a way to be better than I was the day before!