My Arizona Adventures: Play Ball !!!

With baseball season now in full swing, thought I'd go back in time a little bit, you know, all the way back to early March, and ramble on about a baseball related adventure...

So what in the world is a Southern California born and raised lifelong Angels fan doing sitting in a baseball stadium wearing Kansas City Royals gear AND actually rooting for the Royals??? And, at the same time, rooting against the Padres, another SoCal team...really??

Long story short, my brother and his wife live in North Carolina. (And, um, what does that have to do with rooting for Kansas City?) They live in an area that has multiple minor league baseball teams within reasonable driving distance. They started going to games, and enjoyed it so much, they became boosters for the Burlington Royals. (OK, now we're starting to see a connection here..) As boosters, over the years they have developed relationships with some of the players, one of which is a young catcher named Xavier Fernandez.

OK...so what does that have to do with my Arizona Adventures?? Hey, guess where spring training cactus league games are played? Exactly!! So, fast forward a bit, and you'll find that this year, Xavier was invited to play with the Royals in Surprise, AZ. Keith and Karen decided that it was a great time to jump on a plane to visit AZ, watch their favorite player, and, oh yeah, spend time with me...

Since I only have Angels shirts and hats, they loaned me a Royals shirt, and bought me a hat so I would at least look like a fan. I had never been to a spring training game, and I have to tell you it was a lot of fun.

So, again, what is the adventure, you ask? Actually, it was watching the adventure of someone else. Someone working on living their dream. Working their ass off and seeing the dream getting closer. To get a taste of what's coming. And it was exciting to watch.

In spring training, you have the veteran players getting back into the swing of the game and the routine, and you have the young "up and comers" ready and eager for a chance to play and to show what they can do. In the later innings of the game, the well known players are taken out of the game, and the "unknown for now" players get some experience.

What surprised me is how many of the fans started to leave the stadium when their favorite players were no longer on the field. In my opinion, all those who left early missed the best part of the game. Sure the kids are still learning and no, you don't quite know their names yet, but this is the future people!! Some of these kids ARE the next stars and well known players. Were mistakes made? Of course! But, they are eager and willing to work hard and travel all over the country just for the opportunity to play ball.

THAT'S the adventure. How willing are we to work on our dreams? Not just to have a dream, but to actively work on it? To give it our all and see what happens? To take whatever steps are necessary, big, small, and in between?

Xavier is working daily on his....and setting an example for the rest of us. No guarantees, but man, what a ride. Sometimes we can learn a lot from someone else's adventure.