At his retirement press conference in November, Buster Posey admitted he thought all the way back in spring training that the 2021 season would be his last.
“I think it really allowed me to, not that you don’t give it your all, but I really emptied the tank this year like I never have before,” Posey said.
That feeling resonated deeply with me.
Last spring, shortly after one of my greatest mentors, Henry Schulman, announced he was retiring following a Hall of Fame-worthy run covering the Giants, I made up my mind, too.
No, I’m not retiring at 27, but I have moved on from a job I dreamed about having as a child, a teenager and as a college student.
Some sportswriters spend their whole lives hoping to work in their hometown or cover the teams that made them fall in love with the game. As cameras panned to the press box, two of my childhood heroes, Kruk and Kuip, nicknamed me “Homeroom,” on live TV during a Giants game when I was just 22.
For this fifth-generation San Franciscan, I assumed life couldn’t get better.
In five seasons writing about the Giants, I covered a team that lost a franchise-record 98 games and a team that set another franchise record with 107 wins. In the weeks before he managed his last game, Bruce Bochy invited me to walk inside Fenway Park’s Green Monster with him. A day earlier, I interviewed a beaming Mike Yastrzemski after he caught the ceremonial first pitch from his Hall of Fame grandfather, Carl. I chatted up Tim Lincecum on the outfield grass at Oracle Park, walked the stadium corridors alongside Willie McCovey and sat in a booth in Scottsdale to talk ball with Willie Mays.
From Matt Cain and Madison Bumgarner to Connor Joe and Michael Reed, nothing beat the thrill of writing about Giants baseball and its characters, whether they were All-Stars or among the many who were simply overjoyed to have the chance to put on a major league uniform for a day.
Beat writers aren’t supposed to have “favorites,” but for me, it’s been Brandon Crawford for a while now. The hometown kid, playing for his childhood team, setting franchise records and defying expectations along the way? I bet 99.9% of players in baseball history would trade places with Crawford in an instant. Plus as a fellow Bay Area native, Crawford always knew how much this job meant to me, even if I felt compelled to write that his best days were behind him in 2019 (Oops!).
Last year, amid the greatest division race in MLB history, my coverage of the Giants expanded to include radio duties. I co-hosted KNBR’s pregame show from the visiting dugout at Wrigley Field, hosted a postgame show following Mike Tauchman’s home-run robbery at Dodger Stadium and took calls from fans inside the ballpark radio bunker after dozens of games in San Francisco.
At the end of the calendar year, I’d written more than 700 stories and hosted more than 100 radio shows almost entirely focused on one of the most memorable seasons for a franchise that first played ball in 1883.
And just like Posey, I knew throughout the season that 2021 would be my last.
Spending 120 nights per year on the road is an immense privilege, but it’s also an incredible challenge. The 6 a.m. flights to beautiful cities and state-of-the-art ballparks are a remarkable luxury, but each road trip takes a toll. One day, I’d like to have a family, raise kids and coach the T-ball team.
At some point over the last two years, those dreams began to supersede the ones I held as a child.
From my first days on the beat as a wide-eyed 22-year-old, I promised myself that as soon as my passion began to dissipate in the slightest of ways, it was time for someone else to have the chance to hold one of the best jobs in the world.
Shortly after the Giants’ NLDS Game 5 loss to the Dodgers, my editors approved my transition to a different role and agreed to hire a new beat reporter. Initially we had grand plans to embark on that role right away, but unfortunately, I’m still experiencing the fallout from a season in which I pushed myself to the brink.
Over the last few months, I’ve dealt with new medical issues that would have required me to move off the beat anyway. The good news: I’m on the road to recovery and feel better every day. I’m grateful to my employers who have worked with me through these unexpected challenges, but my diagnosis served as a reminder of how fortunate I was to hold the position for as long as I did.
Eventually, I hope to tell more stories about the Giants.
Whether it’s in the paper, on the air or in a different medium, I want to answer every question readers have about life on the beat, detail the stories that never made it to print and let you in on the secrets that make this profession such a joy.
For now, it’s someone else’s turn, and that person is Evan Webeck. Evan’s off to a fantastic start, and I’m excited to read all of the stories he produces in what promises to be a fascinating season. I wish him luck and good health, and I thank him for treating the beat with the respect and passion it deserves.
To everyone who made it this far: Thanks for reading. It’s been the pleasure of a lifetime to share stories with you.
Source: www.mercurynews.com