Cruel Lessons

 

The sports business is cruel.

It's a tough lesson to learn but it's quite real.

My world, traditionally, is the high school sports world, littered with some college and professional work. Of course, there are also youth sports sprinkled in there as well.

In that world, the worst I deal with are obnoxious parents and grumpy coaches, and some over-the-top media types. It's a strange land in and of itself but I'm used to it.

Of course, I'm spending my first full season (60 home games and one road game) in minor league baseball. I've seen two players that I have liked get traded and head to different horizons. Ezequiel Duran is in the same league as the Renegades but is with the Hickory Crawdads.

Josh Smith was in Hickory but has been moved up to the Frisco RoughRiders.

The game moves on.

But we were dealt another blow today with the announcement that Kyle MacDonald -- one of the most popular players on the team -- had been released from his contract.

That, if you don't know, means he's no longer with the Renegades. He's no longer with the Yankees. 

His number 28 is available. His locker has been cleaned out. He might be heading back to Canada if he can to be with his family or he'll go somewhere else.

But he's not here.

It wasn't like this in the New York-Penn League days. There was very little movement for 76 games. A player might arrive or depart.

I've changed the roster too many times to count (though I know someone has). I've changed it for players coming and going and for numbers changing and other things. I've changed it a few times in a day. 

I see things on Twitter and prepare myself. Nothing is official until I hear it from the Yankees (my God but that's cool to say).

I've had to outright remove players and put them on a tab I created called "REMOVED PLAYERS." That's where Oswald Peraza, Duran, Smith, Josh Breaux, and even Luis Severino all reside. My thinking was that they might come back and a simple cut and paste will do the job.

It's also where Isaiah Pasteur went when he was released.

Today, I added Kyle MacDonald.

Kyle just had that thing. He got it. He played hard and had a good sense of humor about it all. Plus he was incredibly approachable. When Talkin' Jake and Jomboy visited to shoot their video, Kyle volunteered to be a part of the Blitzball game. He was the perfect person for that day. 

He was easy to root for.

When we visited Brooklyn last month, we stepped down to the field to watch batting practice. Nobody had to pay any attention to us, but Kyle not only said hello but he thanked us for being there.

When he came on "Rob's Roundup" he knew the drill. He handled the questions from me and laughed when I referred to him as a pitcher (he pitched two-thirds of an inning in a blowout loss the night of the Smith/Duran trade).

He told me after we recorded that it was his grandmother's birthday and everyone would be watching back home near Toronto. That was all I needed to hear.

He got an RBI single after I talked about his family. 

Kyle was hitting .266 with four homers and 25 RBIs when he was released. Perhaps there were other numbers that didn't appeal to the Yankees. Honestly, I don't know.

I just know what I read in the email.

I texted Sean. He had come to view Kyle and Derek Craft as probably his two favorite players because he had the most interaction with them. Sean sees all of this through the eyes of them being people, as opposed to ballplayers.

Sadly, it's still a business. A cruel business.

What's next for Kyle? I don't remotely know. We follow each other on Twitter but I don't know if we'll ever speak again.

But, man, when I look back in this wild, wacky, wonderful first year of being the Renegades broadcaster, I'll remember Kyle MacDonald.

I'll remember that night he made everyone relax a little with his bat and his arm. I called him "Shohei MacDonald" on the air.

It's a business and, hopefully, he'll latch on somewhere else. Or he'll do something else and be great.

Either way, it's a business. 

That doesn't mean I have to like it.