Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 11 No. 6 | June 2019

10 Inside Hokie Sports MFPs I Document Management I Managed Print Services I Production Print Roanoke • New River Valley • Lynchburg • Charlottesville Richmond • Hampton Roads • Shenandoah Valley VAbusinesssystems.com • 540-362-3300 Our Fast Forward Document Solutions are a Home Run! Providing Teamwork and Fast Forward Document Technology to Virginia Tech Athletics ... and your company! I’m about to turn 40. Now, don’t worry. I’m not going to do what you all think I’m going to do … and freak out! But seriously, I’m not. My wife told me the other day that she’d never seen me so hung up on a number before, which, I believe, means I’ve been talking about it too much. So, I figured writing a column was the best way to prove to her that I wasn’t fixated on it. And checkmate! I think, in a lot of cases, we find ourselves saddened by the numbers that pass us by in life because we failed to get to the places in our lives where we thought we would be, or where we had hoped to be. We look around and compare our reality to our dreams, and we get melancholy when they fail to match up. Earlier in my own life, I used to set numeric goals for achievement. I wanted to be in professional baseball when I turned 23. I wanted to be in the big leagues —at the latest —by the time I turned 35. Being married at 30 seemed like a logical —and round—number. In hindsight, how misguided was that? I invented arbitrary numbers that took into account … well, nothing really. I look back at myself at 30. I knew all the answers. I really did. You simply just needed to ask me. I had just moved to Richmond and stood ready launch a new and exciting baseball franchise. Finally, after eight years of moving from one very small minor league outpost to another, I had arrived in a relatively major city. Sure, I had made sacrifices in my personal life and as it pertained to my health, but I considered those temporary. The plan unfolded perfectly. Soon, I expected my life to feature charter planes and catered meals, while bouncing from one major league metropolis to another. If only there had been someone around to tell me “you know nothing, Jon Snow … err Laaser.” At 18, though, I really knew all the answers. So long snowdrifts and subzero temperatures. Hello sun and fun in Tempe, Arizona! I really didn’t see the difficulty of any of this life business. I possessed a ticket to paradise and planned on leaving that night. What an idiot. Okay, okay seriously. At 11, I actually figured it all out. I created my life plan. My hero, Ryne Sandberg, was in his prime, but I expected that to last only for another decade at most. Probably not that long, actually. My training was coming along swimmingly, so presumably, I would be ready to take over his role as second-sacker for the Chicago Cubs. If only I had seen those curveballs coming along when I turned 13. No literally, curveballs. Pitchers started to use spin on their pitches. I lacked an ability to see it —and thus, I lacked an ability to hit it. Sandberg’s position remained safe for the time being. I switched to golf. Look out Jack Nicklaus’ records! The curveballs kept coming, although they morphed into the metaphoric kind. Balancing school and work in Arizona proved a little difficult, certainly not like I imagined. I rebounded. In fact, I got into professional baseball at 23— in the broadcast booth rather than the batter’s box. In Yakima, Washington. I was on my way … to Altoona, Pennsylvania. And Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. And Charleston, South Carolina. And Montgomery, Alabama. And then to Richmond. Along the way, I picked up some bad habits. I kept going. Years ticked by, and one day … boom! I found myself staring at a number —30. I freaked out a bit. Again, I thought I knew all the answers, but I didn’t have that wife I was planning on. I wasn’t happy when I turned 30. The reality failed to match up with the vision. I took inventory. I had left home at 18. I certainly had been some places and had seen some things. I had gained a ton of experience, but I had squandered some opportunities, and more importantly, time. A steady upward trajectory in my career seemed to plateau a bit. The supposedly short-term sacrifices I had made were taking a with Jon Laaser This is 40