Ballplayer

It doesn’t matter, all the money and the hype and the fame. Baseball is about the game. It always has been.

That’s why the question took me by surprise:

“Why,” a friend asked me, “would Sandy Alomar Jr. keep hanging around the Minor Leagues for one last call up?”

The answer is simple:

There is nothing better than being a ballplayer and there is nothing worst than life after being a ballplayer. Some handle it better than others, but no one handles it well.

Alomar would rather handle the aches and pains of being a 41-year-old catcher than life after foul tips. He will play the same for the New York Mets as did for the New Orleans Zephyrs because the game is always the thing.

He will probably end up coaching and eventually managing in the Major Leagues, but that’s all for another time.

Today he’s still a ballplayer and there’s nothing better than that.