Nashville Dreams - Gary Armida's Blog

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Gary Armida's Blog

Nashville Dreams Stuck

Posted on December 5, 2012 at 05:15 PM.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. - One of the best things about the Major League Baseball Winter Meetings is the lobby. There is a feeling in the lobby that is difficult to describe. On one side you have a bunch of middle aged men and women carrying around notepads waiting for someone famous--well, at least baseball famous, to walk in. When Padres General Manager Josh Byrnes arrived at the Opryland Hotel he was swarmed by Japanese media. The subject was Daisuke Matsuzaka. You would have thought Brad Pitt walked in.

And, really all of that is exciting. Watching team personnel come walking in and just knowing that trades, signings, and all kinds of rumors are coming is exciting. You turn your head one minute and Trevor Hoffman is walking in. Hall of Famers start filing in. Ferguson Jenkins is walking towards you. You turn around, there�s Tommy Lasorda. The little known secret is that the supposed curmudgeon reporters aren�t really that at all. They are sitting there waiting to ask questions. They talk about the trades that happened in past Winter Meetings as if it happened to them. They like to play it off like they don�t get excited so they complain about the hotel, the food, the internet, basically anything. But, the conversations about the teams that they cover are passionate. It is a different passion from a fan, but it is a passion nonetheless. Everyone is excited about the possibility of something, of anything happening.

All of that is why I make it a point to be in the lobby as much as possible. It�s fun to watch the big boys of breaking news running at a slightly faster speed than everyone else. It�s fun to hear the conversations, sometimes even get caught up in the conversation. You might be standing alone one minute, but then find yourself talking to Peter Gammons. It�s very surreal.

But, this week I overheard different conversations. Maybe these conversations were going on the last time I was at the Winter Meetings, but this one I made a point to take the whole experience in, to just look around and not get caught up in the enormity of it all. So, I listened more and heard these conversations that I missed the first time around. It was the type of conversation that perfectly encapsulated what the Winter meetings are really about. While the meetings take place, Major League Baseball also holds its annual job fair. It�s a real organized type deal -- name tags, resumes, workshops, job postings, and on-site interviews. Literally, there are thousands of college kids in suits walking around the lobby with a binder full of resumes and handouts from the day�s workshops.

Walking through the lobby at night, you can just hear the conversations all around. Writers are talking baseball, even a little fantasy football. Baseball famous people are walking around. But, the real conversations are going on in between.

You see the young man on the phone talking with his Dad. Another young woman is talking to her family, telling them that she�s safe. Another young man tells his Mom that he loves her before he hangs up the phone. Another group of workshop attendees are star gazing. Some are talking about all of the information they were presented that day. They are all here, in the present, but hoping for the future.

�Dad, I am going to interview with the Chattanooga GM tomorrow.�

�Yeah, I think he liked me. It doesn�t pay anything, but it�s a foot in the door.�

�Can you imagine me announcing a game? That would be insane.�

�I don�t know, maybe there will be more tomorrow.�

�What should I do? Should I take it?�

That hope of landing a dream job really envelopes the entire room. But, why? Why are we so obsessed with a sport, that we�d fly accross the country just to be among it all and maybe defy the odds and land a job? It�s not like these jobs are lucrative or that many of the lucrative jobs are available. There is something else that draws people.

I don�t have any other answer than this: because it�s baseball.

Maybe that answer isn�t good enough, but I really think that�s what it is. There is something that pulls us to talk baseball, think about how we�d make trades, or how we would influence the game. Other sports don�t quite have that pull. Football is a game of strength. Basketball is a game where one athlete can dominate. Baseball is different. The season is long. At least 25 men have an influence on success. It can be analyzed; it can generate endless stories. We grew up with it. It has, despite attempts, remained relatively the same.

They are clinging to a dream with an enthusiasm that only a young person can have. Young people have just the right amount of arrogance to ignore the odds. They can get it if they work hard enough. The hiring director will hire them because they are better than the competition. They ignore the thousands of others. They could be the next Peter Brand.

And, that is just how it should be. Youth should have that optimism and they should want to have a job in baseball where they will work long hours. But, those long hours won�t even feel like anything at all. Dream jobs don�t feel like work. Work is what the rest of us do. The dream is waking up and being passionate. The dream is waking up at 5 AM because you want to and not mind staying late to finish. The dream is never saying, �Not this again�.

There is that passion in the Nashville lobby. It�s in the voices of each kid as they call home. It�s on their faces. It�s in their energy.

Life teaches us that sometimes the dream job isn�t in the cards. We sometimes get stuck doing something that we just aren�t passionate about. That�s when it is a job. But, these young people have a chance, even if it is really a scintilla of a chance. Good for them. Chase the dream. And, keep chasing it, even if you�re old and stuck in a job. Because when you stop chasing, there really isn�t any point. That chase may lead to nowhere, but the journey during the chase is well worth it.

The journey led me to Nashville and who knows where it will lead to next. Even if it all stopped here, at this moment, there is peace. You meet people, you realize you can do actually do these things, and then you learn not to get so caught up in the result. You learn that taking a swing, a good swing is enough because that is all that you can control. The rest is in the hands of others.

The young job seekers get that. They are probably caught up in the result because youth takes away the one thing age gives---perspective. Age may take away the willingness to take a shot, but youth loses the perspective. Keep swinging, though. Because one day, even if you�re swinging and missing a lot and get frustrated often, you�ll find peace.

Trust me.

I learned that in Nashville.