Next to every great man is an even greater woman…didn’t you know?

[slideshow]It’s about time that I share with all my amazing readers a little perspective about the lives of baseball players’ wives.    Behind the scenes in baseball, there is strong group of women who stand tall beside the men they support, all while enduring a very illusive lifestyle.   I say illusive because, as with most fame driven careers, people feel they own the rights to you and they somehow think they know everything about the lifestyle you lead, when in fact- they have no idea.
What is most amazing about this life is the butterfly effect.   While the only person who is really “famous” (I use that word lightly but I actually find it repulsive) is the man on the field, his entire family feels the effects.    Whether it is the wife who waits at home for her husband to return from a very long road trip, or the children who can easily say that Daddy missed many important milestones, the entire family lives in a subsequent parallel universe.
The day that David and I got married, my father-in-law gave an amazing toast.   He expressed how elated he was to know that David had found a strong woman to accompany him along this journey.  He acknowledged the fact that this life is extremely difficult and that very few women would be able to “last” beside an athlete.    Being the wise man that my father-in-law is, he knew exactly what it meant for David and I to make a commitment to one another with baseball being such a huge part of our lives.    The truth is, being married to a baseball player is a challenge, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.
As I am writing this post, my husband has already been at the field for several hours prepping for a 7PM game and I have been doing laundry in order to make sure that he has enough clean clothes for the next 7 days that he is on the road.   Typically, David spends 11-12 hours at the field every day and our schedules are required to do a 180 every 6 months.  We spend more time apart than we do together but I know that is a small price to pay for him to realize his childhood dreams.
As we delve deep into August, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t ready for the off-season.    While the end is usually bittersweet, it has been a longggggg 5 months and the last month and a half of the season appears retrograde.   I am a little nervous, but a lot excited about what lies ahead as we near September.  This is the time when the wives have to prepare themselves for major decisions about how to move back home or even where to move.    My brain has been running a mile a minute trying to figure out what city we want to live in, whether to lease an apartment or a house, and how the heck we are going to fit everything back in our two cars for the 18 hour drive back to Florida.  Mind you, all these plans can be made and then like a pizza in your face, (inside joke) everything can change….
There are so many details that go into the day-to-day operations of a baseball player’s life and the only real thing the fans “see” is the time they spend on the field, in the batting cages and signing autographs.   All the while, there is a strong woman running the real show, making sure that their lives don’t crumble at the seams.  I’m not saying the guys would lose their heads without us, but I would be interested to see how long they last before they decide they need a personal assistant.     In my days as a realtor, working with many athletes, it is amazing how many of them, do in fact, have PAs…but that is beside the point.   This lifestyle leaves you counting your blessings at night, but it also requires a great amount of glue to hold it together.  Us women, well, you can consider us the glue.  😉
**If you don’t believe me, watch episode 3 of season 2 of Showtime’s “The Franchise.” In this episode, Ozzie Guillen said the smartest thing he ever did was marry his wife, and 30 years later they are still going strong.   Some people may look at all the single guys living it up and think they have it made, but the really smart ones married a woman who takes care of them through the ups and the downs – am I biased? -To each his own. 🙂