Ten years ago today
by Cheryl, posted on February 9th, 2012 in Mama Kat's Writing Workshop
Ten years ago today, I was a newlywed; we’d gotten married on the beach in December, because when you’re a baseball writer with barely two months of offseason, you need to fit in the wedding when you can. Living in SoCal is also helpful in these circumstances.
I also was about to leave for Tempe, Arizona, and spring training, which meant six weeks of red clay in my shoes, endless hours of waiting to talk to players and the manager and the coaching staff and front office personel, and the unpleasant odor from the huge stainless steel bowl of tuna salad that sat on the spread table in the hallway (and yes, even today, when I think of spring training, I can still smell that tuna salad). We’d spend a lot of time in that hallway, when the clubhouse was closed or we were waiting to talk to the manager, whose office a few doors down.
No one knew that the six weeks (during which I maybe had two days off) would be followed by the longest regular-season in team history. The Angels would end up playing – and winning – Game 7 of the World Series. I would work weeks without a day off, including flying across the country and back, and to the midwest and back, and to San Francisco and back. It was thrilling and exhausting and stressful and amazing.
And I had no idea the next spring training would be my last, that the two pink lines I saw the day after I returned home would irrevocably change my life.
But 10 years ago today, all I knew was I was leaving my husband of almost two months to spend another two months with men who weren’t him.
And it sucked.
Tags: angels, Arizona, Major League Baseball, newlyweds, spring training
Cheryl Reply:
February 9th, 2012 at 5:57 pm
Who is it?
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