Whenever I Hear About St. Louis Cardinals vs. Yankees…
Yeah, that matchup, St. Louis Cardinals vs. Yankees. It gets people talking, doesn’t it? For most folks, it’s about the history, the rivalry, maybe some big game they remember. For me, though, hearing those two teams mentioned together just drudges up a totally different kind of memory. It reminds me of a specific time, a real turning point, actually, when I got a harsh lesson in priorities.
See, I was one of those guys, totally buried in my job. You know the drill – always trying to be the hardest worker in the room, thinking that’s how you get ahead. There was this one particular season, a huge series coming up: Cardinals playing the Yankees. Man, I was pumped. Had it circled on my calendar for ages. Actually thought I was going to get a weekend to myself, to just breathe and enjoy something.
Then bam! Reality check. It was a Friday, I’m almost out the door, dreaming of baseball, and my boss, he pulls me aside. The “flagship” project, the one everything was riding on, had apparently exploded. And guess who got the honor of putting out the flames? Yep. He laid it on thick with all that “critical mission,” “team effort,” “we’re counting on you” garbage. The kind of stuff they say right before they steal your soul for a few weeks.
So, my weekend of Cardinals vs. Yankees turned into me, a laptop, and a mountain of problems that weren’t even mine to begin with. The whole crisis was because some higher-up made a clueless call. But us grunts on the ground floor? We’re the clean-up crew. Always.
- I spent nights, man, just staring at a screen, trying to fix someone else’s mess.
- Sat through so many useless meetings, just talking in circles.
- And that constant weight, you know? Feeling like if I didn’t fix it, I was done.
I’d catch glimpses of the game scores later, and it just felt…empty. It wasn’t really about missing the baseball itself. It was the sharp, bitter taste of knowing that this job, this company I was killing myself for, they didn’t care one bit about me, my plans, or my time. We were just cogs in their machine. They’d talk a good game about “work-life balance” during company meetings, but the minute something hit the fan, your “life” part went straight out the window.
That whole ordeal, it really shook me. Made me step back and look at what I was doing. I started to ask myself, “Is this it? Is this what I want?” Started to realize I was trading way too much of myself for a paycheck and a pat on the head that rarely even came.
And the kicker? After I busted my hump, practically set up a cot in the office to sort out their disaster, what did I get? A quick “thanks” and then it was right back to the grind, onto the next urgent fire. That’s when it truly sank in. The Cardinals and Yankees finished their series, the world kept spinning, but I was stuck in their never-ending cycle of urgent demands.
It’s funny, it took missing that specific series, that Cardinals-Yankees clash, to really wake me up. Might sound odd, a baseball game being the thing that flips a switch. But sometimes, it’s the little things you’re forced to give up that shine a big, ugly light on the bigger things you’re putting up with. I got out of that place eventually. Found a company that actually sees its employees as people. And now? I make damn sure I carve out time for what I enjoy. Even if it’s just watching a game, no strings attached.
