In baseball, everything is connected.
A roster evolves until it finds its shape or runs out of time. Players are shuffled in and out, sometimes more frequently than others, and spaces are filled by guys without long-term deals just looking for enough exposure to keep their jobs. But nobody thinks about that when they’re 22, at the start of their baseball journey.
Such sprawling, realistic thoughts were likely not on the mind of 22-year-old Wes Helms when he stepped in to face Mets reliever John Franco in 1998. As a rookie September call-up in his first at-bat for the Braves, he was probably thinking something more along the lines of "Oh god don’t **** this up Wes," or "I hope you're watching, coaches who said I'd never make it," or "I can't believe Bobby Cox is secretly just a pose-able wax statue.