"My Earliest Baseball Memory -- A Painful One at That"

It wasn't pain so much as it was an absolute loss of muscular ability. Muscles I had never previously been aware of had awoken in my body and spoken a message loud and clear: "YOU HAVE OVERSTEPPED."

This is my memory of the morning following my first workout as a young little league player. I was certainly not fated to become a great player or even perhaps a solid player, so it is with some infrequency that I return to my memories as a player. I grew up in a home where sports were relegated to wallpaper designs and sections of the newspaper used solely for shaving, so I had little to no understanding of the game. Signing up for little league allowed me to become familiar with the fundamentals of baseball: the at-bat, basic fielding instincts, etc. I only played two years, but it enabled me to connect with the game in a way that I never have -- and, I imagine, never will -- with any other sport.

This said, the memory I'm sharing today is a simple one: it is my memory of the morning after my first practice. I had never worked out in an organized way before, and this practice engaged us in a full array of athletic activities. We stretched, did push-ups, and ran the bases. We drilled on basic infield plays. We jogged from field to field at my local elementary school.

And it was fun!

Had the memory ended there, it would have read something like this: practice is fun! Baseball is fun! And it was, and it would be again as the actual games began shortly thereafter. However, I had neglected to consider the morning after.

I don't remember the night after my first practice. I Imagine that I dreamt of ground balls fielded cleanly to first or marathon jogs completed smoothly without a change in my breathing. Regardless, I awoke from whatever dreams I may have dreamt and stared -- eyes wide open -- as I attempted to sit up in bed. It was such a simple movement that I had never considered it in any real way before. However, I had time to consider it now as I struggled to sit up and, putting my pride aside, needed to call upon my mother to catalyze my upward momentum.

As the day went on, the pain subsided, and as the weeks and practices piled up, my first morning of pain was but a memory. Still, I have been left with a lifelong impression regarding worthwhile pursuits and initial pain. I've internalized the importance of resilience and the sense that what comes seemingly easily initially may ultimately have a price. In some ways, I'm still learning these lessons the hard way, but it was baseball that served as my initiation to these large lessons.