4.21.2006 - Triathlon and Baseball

wow... I just got back from a 1 mile ocean swim with the tri club. I feel really good. I am already to go for the race on Sunday. I am heading out to Mesa, AZ super early tomorrow morning.

ok... baseball. I was watching the San Diego Padres game last night and Jake Peavy pitched his butt off only to have the Padres blow the lead in late innings yet again. It really made me realize why I like triathlon so much.

I played baseball for 15 years of my life (ages 5-20). I started in little league, played in high school, and then got a partial scholarship to play in college. I have always approached everything I have done with an all or nothing attitude which I believe I developed my Junior year of High School. I was always a good baseball player. I always made the allstar teams, never in my life (even in my freshman year in college) sat on the bench, and always impressed my coaches. It all came natural to me.

I grew up playing in southern California and then moved to Virgina when i was 13 and continued to play and excel. They opened up a new High School at the start of my Junior year and I lived in the new district. This is when things changed. I met my new coach, a hardass, and probably one of the most infuential people in my life today. From that point on baseball became my life (as if it wasn't already). From ages 16-20 I did not take more that one week off of playing baseball. I played on my high school team, fall league teams, american legion, summer league, and then was also selected to play on a traveling team. I worked hard. Even at 16 I was coming to school at 6am to take batting practice in the indoor batting cage, hit off the tee, and use the gym. I would stay after practice and take extra groudballs. During the Fall of my senior year I also ran indoor track for the sole purpose of getting faster for baseball. Nobody else on my team was doing this. Individual success and accolades followed.

In my junior year I was selected to the all-district team and then in my senior year i was the team MVP and was selected to the all-district, all-region, and all-state teams. I even won the coaches award (hardest worker) from the track coach for my dedication and attitude during indoor track. I worked my butt off, but none my teams ever won a significnt championship (except for track... we had some really fast guys, not me). In baseball it doesn't matter how good you are, you are not always gonig to come to the plate with the game on the line. It got to be kind of frustrating. I wanted to win, as a team, but they didn't have the dedication I had. We were only in high school and I was probably kind of over the top. I couldn't have expected them to work as hard as I did.

After my second year of college I was kind over the college thing and joined the Coast Guard, but that's another story all together.

So how does my baseball background relate to my current triathlon training? I think it's kind of obvious. Triathlon is an individual sport. You will reap the benefits of that hard work you put into training come race day... and I love that. I am very dedicated and I can control how fast I become and work on my weaknesses. It's a good feeling to know that your hard work WILL pay off.

I still love baseball... I would go as far as to say I am a fanatic. I come home everynight from long day of training and work, sit on my couch, and watch baseball. I check all the scores and stats every morning, and don't go to sleep these days until I watch Baseball Tonight... Everynight.

I love the Padres but let's face it. They have a few good players but are not a good team. Amazing individual performances like Jake Peavy's last night don't really mean anything when the team blows the lead in the 8th.