Embrace The Change-Ups

“While it is only human to fear change and to fear the unknown, take a deep breath and welcome change.”
– Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Paul Quantrill and I would have been teammates at the University of Wisconsin my freshman year had he not left a year early to play pro ball.  He was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in the sixth round of the 1989 amateur draft.  And although not a household name, Paul spent 14 seasons in the majors, developing a reputation as a durable pitcher with impeccable control.  As it was, despite not actually being teammates, I got to work out with Paul a few times each of my first couple years at Madison whenever he came by during the winters to get himself in shape for spring training. I never knew Paul well, but we would chat on occasion whenever he was in town.

For anyone that’s seen the ESPN 30 for 30 film “Four Days In October”, you’ve actually caught a glimpse of Paul Quantrill.  He shows up briefly in the film.  Pitching for the Yankees at the time, Quantrill was the pitcher who surrendered the game winning home run to David Ortiz in Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS that kept the series alive for the Red Sox.

In late fall of 1992 when Paul was on campus taking a class or two to finish up his degree, I distinctly remember chatting with him (and Tom O’Neill, an upperclassman teammate of mine at Wisconsin) behind Bascom Hall in front of what was then the Commerce Building on the University of Wisconsin campus.  Paul had made his major league debut earlier that year on July 20, and ended up pitching in 27 games that season.  I remember asking him what it was like to pitch in the majors – somehow thinking it was tremendously different or perhaps somehow more difficult than everything he had previously experienced.

I suppose I had expected him to tell me about the adrenaline rushes he felt stepping out onto major league mounds.  Or about how it took a fair amount of time to get used to major league hitters.  What he actually said was that the experience wasn’t really all that different than what he had done up to that point.  While talking with him it became obvious that pitching in major league games was simply the natural progression and culmination of everything he had previously done.  He had played baseball as a kid and in high school, played D-I college ball, spent a few years in the minors, and was now pitching at the major league level.  Things had been changing for him at each new level of competition, but he was ready for it.  He was mentally and physically ready for each new level, each new season.

Whether we are a baseball player starting a new season at six years old or 36 years old, things are likely different in some way than the previous season.  Change is inevitable.  Ironically, change is said to be the only constant in life.  In baseball, teammates change, coaches change, rules change, field sizes change, our bodies change, and so on.  If things didn’t change, we’d not have an opportunity to better ourselves and grow.

The trick in baseball, as in life I suppose, is to embrace the change not fear it.  Don’t worry about it.  Go do what you do.  Have the confidence to play the game well, knowing that you have prepared yourself for each new level, each new season, each new change.