By Roger Grossman
News Now Warsaw
I was watching the Cubs hold off the White Sox on Sunday to win another series and, at that point, to stay even with the Brewers in the National League Central.
At the same time, I was on the social media account formerly known as Twitter, checking my sources to see if any trades involving the Cubs were making news.
Trades were happening, but not with the Cubs — at least not at that point.\
The MLB trade deadline is Thursday.
In the middle of the Cubs TV broadcast on Marquee Sports Network, former Cub Mike Tauchman came up to bat.
It was asked if Tauchman might want to go to a team in contention for the remainder of the season, or if he’d prefer to stay in Chicago. Tauchman grew up in the suburbs, so it’s an interesting subject to consider.
It reminded me that this time of year is a very difficult time of year for athletes.
For baseball players, dozens of them are finding out that their future lies in a different place than the one they live in currently.
For good players on teams that clearly aren’t going to make the playoffs, their outlook on their season has taken a turn for the better. They are being traded to a team that is optimistic about its chances of making the playoffs, improving their playoff position or making a long run in the playoffs by adding him and maybe others.
Those players are packing up what they immediately need and traveling to where their new team will be so they can start helping their new team as soon as possible.
The new team has people who will help the players find temporary living quarters.
Of course, the player in question might be married and might also have children. The player and his family have to consider whether everyone is going to the new city or just the player.
We also have to consider that most of the players traded at the baseball deadline are made available because their contract will expire at the end of the season, and their old teams are trading them to get younger players in return for someone they won’t be negotiating a new contract with.
They probably aren’t going to buy a house or make too many permanent moves, knowing that they might be moving to yet another town during the winter.
Then we have to think about the younger players going back the other way in these trades.
They are a step away from becoming a major league player on a team in the hunt for a championship. They might even have played for a short time for the big club, replacing an injured player and experiencing the thrill of playing on a good team that’s in contention.
Now they are headed to a team that’s not as good, and there is no guarantee that they will be with the big club at any point that season or in the future.
And their families, who are already struggling under the weight of living on a minor league baseball salary, have to contemplate their next steps.
Football players are also living in limbo in the late summer months.
Professional football players are currently in the first full week of pre-season training camp. Pick your favorite football team, and that team currently has 90 players available to them.
Over the next month, that number will be trimmed to 53.
37 players on each team will be cut — that’s 1,184 players who will not be on an opening week roster and will not be attached to any team.
There is no guarantee they will ever make one.
Sure, maybe they will make the practice squad, which is better than nothing. But it’s not a very stable way of living.
Younger NBA players just spent the better part of a month trying to impress GMs and their scouting staffs at the summer league in Las Vegas.
Some of those players are guaranteed spots on league rosters, while others are desperate for a chance to get into a summer game and do something that will catch the eye of the franchise they are there with or someone else who has a need for what they can offer on the court.
For some people in all these sports, this will be their last chance at living their dream out.
The realities of families that need to be provided for, bills that need to be paid, and lives that need living will be knocking on their door, and they will have to answer, and leave their dreams behind.
It’s the very non-glamourous underbelly of professional sports.
It would be wise for us who are not connected to one of these athletes to remember that as the next month unfolds.
Yes, they are athletes, but they are people too.
