"Everyone has their own path..."

 Chances are, none of you have any idea who Vidal Nuno is.

 Tonight's post is inspired by him, particularly a quote on Chad Jennings' excellent New York Yankees blog.

 Vidal Nuno is a young pitcher in the New York Yankees organization. He has yet to make it to the major leagues, but ask any serious Yankees fan and they will tell you that he's sure pitching like he belongs there very soon. In big league camp as a minor league player, the lefty has perhaps been the team's most consistent starting pitcher in camp. Of course, this is Spring Training, and a lot of your established veterans are on special schedules that they are comfortable with, but that's what leads to opportunities for minor league players like Nuno. Here's his take on his Spring Training performance so far.

 “Everyone has their own path,” he said. “It’s about them taking a chance on you. They gave me all the chances they could, and it’s about working hard every day. Just try to keep up what I’ve been doing, and see how it ends in the season.”

 Talk about hitting the nail on the head, wow how right is he? I not only agree with him, but as someone also working down their own path and working toward opportunities, I can empathize.

 Nuno is right in saying that we all have our own individual paths that we are on to get where we are going. I tell my players all the time, no two jump shots are the same. There are fundamental concepts we incorporate as shooters, but everyone has their own way. The same can be said for our paths. In Nuno's case, how many tens of thousands of guys have played major league baseball? The end result of getting there might be similar, but no two individual careers are the same.

 The next part of that quote talks about chances. I'm also waiting on someone to take a chance on me, professionally. I'm not alone. There are so many of us out there, primed and ready to take off when our number is called. Or are we? See that's crucial there, and this quote serves as a reminder, that when you get a chance from someone, you better be ready. Nuno tells us the key to that, working hard every day.

 And it's hard to "keep doing what [you're] doing." We are winners, and therefore we are impatient. We have success and we don't stop to celebrate, we go looking for more. But his message of patience is accurate, because you can't let your readiness or performance slip because you are frustrated, angry, or beleaguered. We are building strong mental toughness through these trials and tribulations. All you can do, is all you can do. If you can look yourself in the mirror and say you did just about everything you could, then you can trust that it just wasn't meant to be, and it wasn't up to you.

 Lastly, Nuno acknowledges the fact that at some point, it ends. No matter how well he pitches, one day this struggle will be over (at the end of Spring Training in this case). There's a more definite ending though, because one day he will throw his last pitch, just as I will coach my last game, or just as we all one day will take our last breath. One day we will not be able to do the things we love anymore, so why do we waste the opportunities we have to do them now?

 Whether or not Vidal Nuno pitches in a game for the Yankees this season, or ever at all for that fact, is to be determined. That decision is not up to him, he doesn't just show up to Yankee Stadium on Opening day and present himself. What is up to him is how hard he works, and how much preparation and effort he is willing to put in to make it happen. Until then, we live in our own realities, and stay focus on our own paths, the paths that God has set out for us to find and utilize.

 I have to say though, it's kind of hard not to root for Vidal Nuno.

-TP