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I know you guys find it hard to believe that a player would ever move on past playing baseball. But if you are 29 years old and playing in independent baseball... you have to have another source to make a living. When the big 3-0 is looming and you have not been able to crack into a major league organization, many players are thinking about moving on with life. Don't assume that every single player will play until he hits 40. Most of these young men have college educations, they have career considerations... they may get a job with a company which finds it impossible to let them have 4 and 1/2 months off to play baseball in the summer. They may have a wife and often children by age 29..... who expect them to be a bread-winner and not to get on a team bus to ride around the central USA playing ball for what is, at BEST, a modest salary... much of which will be eaten up just living, for 15 days of every 30, in a city that is not your regular home. In today's economy, it is probably not a good idea to go into the boss' office and tell him that you need to "take a leave of absence" so you can go to El Paso and play baseball for the next five months.

My point, of course, is that we should not assume that the team has made some kind of "curious" decision to release a player. It is a much safer assumption, and more common occurrence, that the player made a decision to move on with life.

JPD