SMALLS TALK: Last Day at Work

My last day at the office has finally come. After six months of 6 AM wake-ups, shirts and ties, staff meetings, spreadsheets, phone calls and paper jams, the time has come for me to leave this place and head to greener pastures- it's time to start my other 'job.'

My last day here will be just another day at the office- no party, not one balloon, not even a card. My colleagues offered to get me a cake but I politely declined- who needs those empty calories?

I'm actually relieved that nothing big is going on today- it will give me time to complete all the work I've been putting off for the past six months. Projects to finish, emails to follow up on, phone calls to put in- I've got a long day ahead of me.

But at the end of the day, I'll move on, and baseball will once again be my main focus.

The truth is, I liked my job here at the office, and I was lucky to have it. Finding a full-time job for half a year with zero work experience is not the easiest thing to do, but somehow I got it. I worked with some great people, finally got a non-baseball item for my resumé, and got a chance to make some actual money: an ideal off-season gig, really.

MiLB LIFE: A Taste of the Minor League Off-Season

What other job requires you to work every day for seven months and then gives you a five month vacation? It's wild. The season is a grind, it wears on you, it beats you down, it's repetitive, it's monotonous, it appears endless- and then, well, it ends. And you go home. You have five months to do whatever you want. One hundred and fifty days to yourself. No baseball requirements. No bus rides. Nothing but an empty calendar. So what do you do?

The off-season is a time for bonus babies to relax on beaches for a while before eventually focusing all their time on baseball training and their Big League aspirations. It is also a time for lower draft picks to find a real job and use this reprieve from baseball as a chance to actually make some money so that they can afford to keep chasing their dream. I fall into the second category.

I'm working a desk job this off-season so that when the day comes that I get released- or whenever I retire after my Hall of Fame career- I will have more than my petite signing bonus in the bank and more than baseball statistics on my resumé.