Separate from Baseball

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Mike Lowell is the classiest of class acts. He knows very well where he stands, and that he's not even likely to have the chance to fight for a starting job. No, Mike Lowell is trade bait, and everybody knows it.

"I have to separate some things. I think there’s the baseball aspect of it and I think there’s (a) real life aspect of it and I’m very comfortable with where I am in my real life. You know what I mean? I feel I’m in a tremendously privileged situation. No one needs to feel sorry for me in life. Is my baseball situation not ideal? Yeah, it’s not ideal. I don’t want to diminish the baseball fact. But you never know what can happen." -Lowell, via Boston.com

Mikey has perspective that most players (I'm looking at you, Cinco-Ocho) can't imagine. Part of his ability to separate baseball from "real life" comes from his experience with a disease that has touched us all:


"'The worst case scenario,' he [the doctor] continued, 'is that you have surgery, they do the analysis, and it may be a progresses state of cancer.' Whoa, cancer?! 'Yes, cancer,' he added. 'You'll need radiation, chemotherapy, and the we'll see how far along it is. It might cost you a year or so before we think you're healthy.' And he wasn't even mentioning baseball." -Lowell, Deep Drive

After a conversation like that, how could the prospect of a trade (or a salary cut, or a reduced role) possibly make you quake? Mike Lowell doesn't want the fans to pity him, and so I won't feel sorry for his situation. All I have (all I have ever had) for Mike Lowell is admiration, pure and simple. I hope he gets to play this season, and I'll miss him if he ends up elsewhere, but he deserves every chance he gets.