“The collegiate baseball season lasts almost three months. During this three month span, the athlete’s mind, body, and soul are all highly taxed, balancing the demands of Division I baseball along with the strain of a prestigious university. The season is a marathon in which we, the players, are ground, pushed, pulled, and stretched to the limit by the physical and emotional demands of being everything that we are: sons, brothers, friends, boyfriends, students, and athletes. As with any marathon, this marathon needs preparation and for the collegiate baseball player, winter break, emphasis on the word break, is chief among this training.”

“Now at reading this previous statement our head coach Tony Vittorio, hereafter referred to as Coach V, will most probably mutter something at me under his breath. He would like me to tell you that our chief preparation for the season comes in the form of our strength and conditioning program or our small group skill work with position coaches in the off-season. Although these things are integral to our success, I believe that our winter break, where we as a team each have a chance to spend some time alone at home, is more important because it gives us some time to prepare ourselves individually for the vast amount of work that is to come during the season. In order to back up my claim against the head coach’s (if you’re going to disagree with the big chief you better have a reason and sometimes a really big tomahawk) the rest of this installment will be an answer to every sixth grade teachers favorite post holiday essay question, “What did you do on your Christmas vacation and why?”

“Winter break gives the student athlete many things but greatest among these is time. For the first time since late August and most definitely the last time before June, it is possible to truly have some time with nothing to do. This time gives each of us a chance to do those things that we normally do not get to do while at school, namely sleep. During the season it is not uncommon to count your hours of sleep on one hand while during break I have been an all conference sleeper averaging approximately 9 to 11 hours a night. The pleasure of sleeping with the clock off acts like a salve allowing me to come back to school refreshed and renewed and with a ridiculously bad case of bed head reminiscent of a Dr. J fro mixed with a nasty punk Mohawk.”

“This extra time is even more important for the opportunities it gives us to spend quality time with our friends and family. Once the season starts it is impossible to go home. Consequently, break serves as a type of three week going away party for me here at home. Break gives me the time to spend evenings at home eating dinner with the family, watching movies, wrestling with my siblings and I will admit sheepishly getting treated like a kid again as I forget and am reminded over and over to bring my clothes from the laundry room. Being in the family atmosphere is like a resort for me. Meals are paid for and prepared by somebody else. My laundry is done more than once every three weeks and I don’t have to go the grocery store. Even more exciting is the fact that there is no funny looking stuff growing on the sides of the shower. All kidding aside, there is something about being at home that rejuvenates me. Being around my family reminds me of some of the reasons that I work and reminds me that there are things bigger than a conference double header. The love and support that they give me puts all the things that I “think” are important in perspective.”

“With this extra time that we have during break it is also possible to spend some extra time with those friends who live near me that I never seem to get to see enough once the season starts. My friends, apart from the team, are invaluable. These friends typically are the ones that I can go to vent about baseball without worrying about what I say when I am frustrated with the progress of the season. They give me support by encouraging me when it seems like the last time I got a hit was sometime in the first Bush’s presidency and they tell me to move on when I’m feeling sorry for myself. Secondly these are the people I go to when I am sick of being around baseball. I love to go to these people to talk about politics, religion, or just to hear what they think is the greatest Super Bowl commercial of all time instead of hearing once again what I should be looking first pitch against Richmond’s Stauffer. The support they give me in and out of season is something that is integral for my success on the field and in life in general.”

“Yet it takes a certain type of person to be a baseball player’s friend. We have this uncanny ability of disappearing for what seems like weeks on end once the season starts. The team will go on the road for 3 or 4 days out of the week and when we are actually at home we are trying to catch up with our schoolwork not to mention the games or practices that we have. Consequently it is possible to go a week or two without even having time to really talk to a close friend. This takes a tremendous amount of understanding from the person not playing ball and for that I am extremely appreciative of my friends both at home and on campus.”

“With this in mind during the break, I spend as much time as I can with my friends that live around me here in Cincitucky (that’s the Kentucky part of Cincinnati where I live). During break I have been a social butterfly doing everything from sitting around watching football with the guys to traveling to Chicago for New Year’s. All the while I have had a great time spending most of the time I haven’t been sleeping over break laughing. While having all this fun I have tried to show my friends how much I really appreciate them with the currency of my time that I cannot give them during the season. The times I have had with them over break have energized and readied me to get back to work for the season that is ahead.”

“Rogers Hornsby, the great Hall of Famer, once was quoted as saying, “People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.” Baseball has changed a great deal since Mr. Hornsby’s time. I can’t afford to just sit and wait for the season to come back because I know Xavier, George Washington, and Richmond are not just sitting and waiting. Over this break we have worked out on our own but nonetheless we have had an abundance of time to spend as we like. This time serves an invaluable purpose recharging and focusing us for the season up ahead. It allows us the great feeling of sitting down and peeking out of that window for just a couple of days to get us ready for our show that starts in about 50 days.”