Imagine you’ve been playing baseball since you were three years old. T-ball, Little League, select ball, high school ball, college ball, Minor league ball, lessons, endless BP, fielding, eating, sleeping, dreaming baseball all your young life. Smashing the ball in AAA and seeming to never get the call.
And then it comes. At last, you have arrived. Your manager puts you in the lineup on Memorial Day, in the Bronx, New York, New York, against the fabled Pinstripes, in the House That Ruth Built, on national television.
In your first at bat, with two men on, in a scoreless game, you see a fastball.