I don't want to leave yet (Day 31)

I can’t believe I am into my last couple of weeks at Baseball America.

It’s disappointing a little bit, just because I have to leave. I have had such a great time and things have been going really well, in my opinion of course, and I wish I could stay longer.

The highlight of the day for me was probably receiving my second issue of the BA magazine that I had taken part in. Two of my articles are in the end-of-the-year edition and it is nice to see my name in it! Twice!

My stories are each on a minor league team that won the Bob Freitas Award. I think the teams will get to see them at Winter Meetings, because the magazine doesn’t come out until a couple weeks from now, so they can judge me then. I hope they like what I wrote about them. But they won awards, so what is there to not be happy about?

This morning I got to work with productivity on my mind. I still started my day with my usual emailing, but I wasn’t so distracted. Maybe I am feeling the grind of only having two weeks left and wanting to get as much done as possible before I leave. I am still working on making that great impression I have been talking about since I got here. I just hope that works out for me.

I got through the four Hall of Famers that I had set out to, learning lots along the way. Since I have moved onto the more awesome players, according to me and only me, it seems more fun now, although there is certainly a lot more information to sift through. But the popular players are better than the ones that have been dead for 100 years.

First I wrote about Jackie Robinson, who is just an inspiration to all of baseball. It was fun to research and write about him, and the impact his presence in the game has had on so many other lives.

Then I moved on to Babe Ruth. I wrote about the Curse of the Bambino, even though Boston broke through the supposed hex in 2004. I still find it interesting that they blamed decades of losing on a trade that happened in 1919. What do the Cubs have to take the fall for their suckitude?

From the Sultan of Swat I moved onto Cy Young and Nolan Ryan. Young has the most wins of any pitcher to ever take the mound, though he also has the highest number of losses. I didn’t include that last little tidbit in my writing. But a guy who has an award named after him surely has enough accomplishments to overshadow a little factoid like that one.

Ryan played forever it seems, and his seven no-hitters and 12 one-hitters could not have been an easy feat. Ryan is the oldest guy to throw a no-no, and he did it against the Blue Jays when he was 44. I didn’t include the team it was against. He took the record from Young, who had pitched a no-hitter at the age of 41. I think the only person who could give either of them a run for their money is Roy Halladay, because his work ethic and strength seem similar, but maybe that’s only wishful thinking.

Speaking of Halladay, I was super pumped to see a full page dedicated to him in the newest BA magazine that appeared on my desk this afternoon. I was almost as happy to see his congratulations from BA on being the Player of the Year, as I was to see my own articles. Joey Votto also had his own page, for being the MVP of the National League, and as a Canadian and being most recently from Toronto that makes me happy too. This issue is probably my favourite...of the two that I am in.

My work on the awesome Hall of Fame players was only interrupted by lunch. Editor 3 made the trip with me, Editor 1 and Editor 2 today, something that I don’t believe has ever happened before. I think it was because he had arrived home late yesterday from Thanksgiving festivities and didn’t have time or what he needed to make or bring his lunch today.

But it was a good time. We went back to the pizza place that they had taken me to on my very first day at BA and the food was just as good as it was then. I think I might miss Randy’s Pizza when I am gone.

I have wanted to try and set up some sort of meeting for this week, before anyone going to Winter Meetings leaves, and talk to the editors about any possibilities for work, and ask if they might have a job available now, or in the future. Lunch changed my mind.

During the meal they asked if I had exams when I get back home. I said no, we don’t have any. And they asked if I have another semester of school or anything. Again I said no, we’re done when the internships are done. Everything is finished at school, outside of graduation. They asked what my plans were for when I go back. I just said that I am hoping to find something that pays me money.

So they know what I am doing, and what I am looking for. I don’t know what I could say at any meeting that I didn’t already get across during that lunchtime discussion. Obviously they don’t have any openings, or anything that they think I might be good at, because I would like to think someone would have brought it up if they did. That hope has kind of been blown out the window now.

They know I have to be back in Canada by the 13^th of December, but I hope they also know that if they want me to work here, they could just apply for a little bitty work visa for me. I’m wishing now. If only I had a magic genie.  

I would love to work at BA. I have been having a great time, and I love being around baseball all day and every day. And if it’s too much for me, lunchtime is a great opportunity to get in on football, basketball and sometimes even hockey conversations. But I like writing, and I love seeing my articles in print.

Before I came here, I thought I wanted to get into PR, and I really enjoyed my time with the PR department at the Argonauts. But I have discovered how much I like writing. It’s fun. I enjoy interviewing people and talking to them about something and then writing about it, even though sometimes it makes me nervous. I even like transcribing interviews, all the while trying to find some tidbit from the person I was talking to that might be the most important thing they said, or even just something that could help me in writing my story.

And I like writing about baseball more than I like writing about anything else. I guess the internship I applied to for next summer would be perfect for everything I am talking about. I would get to work with a beat reporter for a baseball team and write about the team every day. That would be equally as satisfying as writing for BA I’m sure. But I won’t hear about that potential opportunity until the end of January, and there’s always the chance that I will not get it.

I guess I just have to keep in mind that as sad as I am to leave, I have had a great opportunity here and a great time.

It’s been an awesome month, BA, and hopefully an excellent two more weeks.