Be a villain

Hudson, Massachusetts. Circa 2014.

I was spending my first full winter break training in the greatest facility known to man. Cressey Sports Performance. I was training amongst Major Leaguers, Steve Cishek, Tim Collins (who was doing SSB walking lunges with 300+ pounds during my first-ever visit), Tyler Beede, and all of these savages who came from top tier collegiate programs.

I was just a D3 guy trying to keep up.

I befriended a couple of guys who was training there, especially Chad Rodgers, who was a lefty in the Atlanta Braves system. He was close friends with a guy whose sister was my classmate.

They were working on their own business, and they came out with t-shirts that spelled out:

“VILLAIN”

I wondered about that for some time, because they were insanely jacked and these shirts looked cool as hell. But then I realized, after being in the same proximity as them for quite some time in the weight room, I came away with some lessons.

In order to make our dreams come true, we have to take someone else’s dream away.

We are competing for a starting spot. One will be the starter, and one will be riding the pine. It’s your choice. Someone needs to be competitive and aggressive enough to take the starting spot and RUN WITH IT.

Are you going to be a nice guy, or do you need to be a villain?

We are going to be bad in someone’s story.

This thought came up after I hit the 3-run home run for a come-from-behind lead and for the win against a conference rival. The pitcher who hung the curveball and watched me trot around the bases…the image is seared in his mind forever, and it’s not a good image for him to think about. He thinks I’m that bad guy who embarrassed him in front of his parents, girlfriend, and teammates. But I am just chasing my own dreams, but sometimes we have to ‘dash’ someone else’s.

The life we want to live is up to us.

A dear friend of mine passed away unexpectedly, and this is a solemn reminder that we can only do so much with every single day that we are given.

We can spend our time accommodating others, or we can grab the reins and take full control of what we can do today to create a life we want to live, no matter what happens next.