Words I never thought I would write. I am, as I have said previously, Irish, baseball is not a thing in Ireland. It is definitely one for the North Americans. Though I have been to a baseball game. On a work trip to Baltimore many, many, years ago we were brought to see the Baltimore Orioles play. And I use that word loosely as it didn’t seem that much happened at all. It was a work do though so it was mostly an opportunity to drink beer in plastic cups during the day. We were given (and made to wear) baseball shirts; and they were made of polyester, I should mention that it was the summer. In Baltimore. They made us wear polyester. Melted doesn’t even describe it. The beer was needed just to hydrate!
Riveting stuff! Anyway, what am I going on about baseball for? Well, as the point of this blog was the random emails I get…this is an interesting one. I have done my best to redact the stuff that identifies the individual.
When I first glanced at it, I was thinking that this could be about the stereotypical ‘sports mom’; the one that is presented in media as pushing their child into competitive sports, and who wants their child to be first/best. And sure then I did a tiny bit of research (aka I googled some stuff!), as I have absolutely no knowledge of Baseball outside of ‘Field of Dreams‘, ‘Major League‘, and ‘ A League of their own‘. So, no baseball in the last oh almost 30 years (oh it hurt to do that calculation!).
Turns out Minor League AA and AAA baseball is an actual thing, it has it’s own acronym MiLB. It is not a school team or a local team. An actual professional team. Now, in my mind, someone who is playing professionally, getting paid to play, does not get their mail sent to their parent. The mail seems odd based on the fact that to be in MiBL you need to have been drafted. And again, from films, that means someone saw you play, and said, hey they are good. Lets bring them to a try out. But this mail is about evaluating…maybe there is more to it than the films? (really? films are not accurate portrayals of reality? ?).
The person who sent the email is an agent, agents don’t work with children (I am guessing, maybe the odd one, but lets just go on my assumptions here). So, again, why on earth is he emailing the mother? Another case of defaulting to the mother who is the parental unit who gets things done? It is probably this, and it does irk me. As does the mail in general. This is probably an age thing, I am from the generation who grew up without email (got my first email address in 1994!), and who were thought to write letters. Bane of my language learning years, all those letters to fictional pen-pals in Irish, French, German, and Spanish. Saying where you live, how many siblings you have, where you go to school, I think I can still reel them off, will refrain and get back on track, such as it is. My issue with the mail is that it has no salutation, too busy to say hello Mr. Agent?, too busy to close the mail, with a thanks/regards/etc? And no actual name on the mail, just the signature. It is probably just me, but I find all of this lazy, and rude. It costs nothing to say hello/goodbye or please/thank you. No one is charging by character in the mail, there isn’t a word limit. Take a bit of time with it.
Baseball Sarah has a son, who even though he was signed up, didn’t turn up for his evaluation, and didn’t tell his agent. Ok, there is a lot going on in the world, but if you wanted, really wanted, to play any sport professionally, you would be on that, at least in my world. Though, I have seen the marvelous Last Chance U , and was amazed by the self sabotage of some of the young players, and also saddened that they had managed to get themselves in such difficult situations. So, maybe there is a chance this Baseball Sarahson is struggling, and Baseball Sarah might be able to help him.
Will Baseball Sarah be one of the lucky ones, one of the ones whose offspring makes it, and is able to provide for his family, buying a house and a car for them? We will never know. It is unlikely that the next email I get from the Baseball Agent be a transfer of funds from earnings? I jest, I have told them I am the wrong Sarah. The only emails I get about money are ‘standard spam’.
Fingers crossed for SarahSon, maybe he will go down in history, with all the fortune and fame that goes with it. The good version of the future. As the song goes rooting for you.
IJustHaventDoneItYet 