Today Cy is taking over the blog to share what an average day looks like for him. Hope you enjoy!
A Day in the Life of a Minor Leaguer
As sunlight streams through the windows of my room early each morning, I continue to toss and turn on my mildly uncomfortable and very tiny bed. It has a single sheet that always seems to get bunched up, and a Tweety Bird blanket that I actually really like. The bed is only about an inch longer than I am and too narrow for anybody over the age of 7, but it works. I doze into a light sleep and wake up periodically for the next couple of hours before I finally get out of bed. I live with a host family and three other players from my team- one is an outfielder from the University of Kansas (we share a room), and the other two are from the Dominican Republic.
I send my fiancé a good morning text, throw on some shorts, brush my teeth, and start the day. Breakfast can vary day to day, anything from a small bowl of cereal and a doughnut to a full blown breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and bacon made by the host family. After eating, I head back to my room and check my email, turn on the next episode of House, M.D, and start looking at trucks, baseball stats, and hunting stuff online. I am currently searching for a truck to buy, but I am very particular so I rarely find anything worth much attention. If anybody would like to donate to the “New Truck for Cy Sneed Fund” please contact me immediately.
Around noon I go grab a sandwich and start getting ready to head to the field. I toss on a collared shirt and jeans (we are required to wear collared shirts for anything work related) and go hop into my roommates 2014 Chevy Silverado 1500 LT double cab, it’s brand new and it smells GREAT every day when I get in. We drive the 15 minutes to the field and then head into the clubhouse. We usually get there around 1:15 and I twiddle my thumbs until 2:45 when I have to go out and stretch with the rest of the pitchers, aka 2nd worst part of the day. After we stretch we go through our throwing program, which is basically just playing catch. I play catch with a guy named Brandon every day, he went to school at Mississippi State and is “just a good ole boy from Mississippi” (said in very southern drawl). After playing catch it’s time to condition- aka the worst part of the day. Conditioning isn’t awful, but running in general is just never ever fun or enjoyable. After conditioning I head back into the clubhouse and sit there for 30 minutes or more and wait for BP (Batting Practice) to start. During BP, pitchers get to pick up the balls that are hit out to us, called “shagging”. Shagging BP isn’t a low or a high point of the day, it just is what it is- usually full of shooting the breeze with the other pitchers and tossing in a few balls that are hit at the group I happen to be standing with on that day.
When BP is over it’s back to the clubhouse where there is a post BP spread which can be anything from grilled chicken breasts to PB&J’s. Everyone hangs out in the clubhouse for over an hour and reads, snacks, plays cards, drinks coffee and/or messes around in the training room until it’s time to head out to the game. This is arguably the most boring part of the day seeing as I am not much of a reader, I don’t know how to play many card games and the coffee doesn’t help me sit still. The position players leave to go stretch before the pitchers have to go out for the game, so that means that there is more time for doing nothing... which every minor league pitcher will tell you they have mastered. Before the game we usually have to go out and catch first pitches for kids who are good readers at their school or do some other great thing that gets celebrated by coming to the local professional baseball game. The community is pretty involved, which is cool.
As a pitcher I only throw in games about every 5 days, so most of the time I sit in the dugout and sometimes I go sit in the bullpen. I always said I would never enjoy hanging out in the pen but I have started to come around. The conversation down there consists of anything from how much we make an hour (we have figured out it’s somewhere around $2 an hour) to practical jokes people want to play at the local fast food drive through. Usually the conversation has nothing to do with baseball but on rare occasions we do spend hours discussing pitching, mechanics, and mentalities. We act like children in the bullpen; playing stupid games, throwing dirt clods at each other, and basically reverting back to the age of 7 where almost everything is funny.
After the game we head into the clubhouse, the coaches talk to us about the game and then we shower and eat. The food is usually pretty good, but quantity isn’t its greatest strength. When I finish eating I head out of the clubhouse and give Hannah a call. I haven’t talked to her since I got to the field earlier in the day because the Brewers have a no phones policy while you are at the field, so those 15 minutes of talking are much needed, even though she is usually sleepy since it is pretty late by then. When all the roommates are ready to go, we hop back in the truck and head home. When we get there I usually get on my laptop for a little while and unwind. Then its time for bed, I crawl back on my tiny mattress (which is part of a bunk bed, I forgot to mention that before). Then I open up my One Year Bible and read what it has marked out for that day. After I finish that, I say goodnight to Hannah and try to go to sleep. Before I drift off to sleep, I think about how today makes it one day closer to the ultimate goal of making it to the show and playing in the big leagues, and it also makes it one day closer to November 7th aka wedding day(!!!!).
That is pretty much an average day in the life- it’s full of waiting around and can sometimes feel like you’re getting almost nothing for your time. It's full of totally different people, all sorts of snack food, green grass, new gloves, low seamed baseballs, and little kids who think were heroes because we get to suit up and play ball every day. It’s not very glamorous, but it’s my life and I’m thankful for the opportunity to live my dream every day.
For more info on Cy's team," like" the Helena Brewers Baseball Club on Facebook :)
Until next time,
Hannah
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