For now, we wait, Issue 37
One of the greatest in a long list of outstanding student-athletes at Mullen, Maverick Handley has his own version of dealing with the coronavirus (COVID-19). The former outstanding Stanford catcher, now with the Baltimore Orioles organization, had his professional baseball world shut down, too, but revisited a few special memories and lessons as a Mustang. He shares his thoughts and doings in the latest version of Mullen Today’s Unordinary Times.
I have now been home for the longest time since my senior year of high school.
It has also been the longest I have gone without playing baseball since I was 4 years old.
COVID-19 has hit the pause button on my life.
Less than a year ago, I was both in school and playing sports and now I am doing neither of those things, and I don’t know the next time I will be doing either. When the world started shutting down, I had been in Florida for more than a month at spring training. It was my first spring training, and I was fully energized, but also completely nervous. We were headed to a big-league game and only 5 minutes into the trip they turned us around and told us to go home.
Twenty-24 hours later, I was driving west and within 48 hours I was back home. While I might have been a little bummed that our season was cancelled, my mom was overjoyed.
Now, I find myself at home with plenty of time on my hands. I have started my list of books, discovered some delicious and not-so-delicious recipes, trained doing body-weight workouts and found a couple empty fields to go outside and hit.
But, in all reality, I’m just waiting. Waiting for Major League Baseball to tell us we are good to go and where we should go. There are rumors flying around constantly on social media about the “next big plan” or possible actions the MLB will take. Regardless, these are all still just ideas and I know nothing will start until June, all the shelter-in-place orders will need to be removed, and, ultimately, the safety of the players, coaches, staff and fans will be the driving force for plans to come.
But for now, we wait.
Since I have been home, I have been organizing my room and have come across some old memories of Mullen High School. The freshmen beanies, the senior bandanas, physics work from Mrs. Wakumoto and graduation pictures from when the baseball team missed the ceremony for a playoff game.
Not only were these fond memories, but they also left me with some lessons from Mullen. Be patient, time goes fast, stay resilient and baseball will always be played eventually,even in the middle of a graduation.
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