Ron Mahay is probably the least regarded of the pitchers that reside in the Minnesota Twins bullpen each night. He was sent to baseball extinction by being designated for assignment by the (ugh!) Kansas City Royals earlier this season. This is code for you're not needed anymore and please place your belongings in the provided cardboard box and leave the premises. Mahay must forever be indebted to the Twins for giving him a chance to unpack his box and receive resurrection back into the world of Major League pitching at the age of 38. As a Minnesota Twin his role is well defined. He's a situational lefty that will often only pitch to one or two batters with little margin for error. His scope of responsibility is squeezed into about 15-20 pitches per outing at most. What a lot of people don't realize is Ron Mahay is a lot like most of us. He must do one thing well and do it consistently. Slip ups of any measure will cause him to lose the last pitching job he'll likely ever have. The rest of us who don't throw a baseball for a living go to work each day knowing, especially in this economy, that our jobs can be gone as quickly as Mahay can again be designated for assignment. Stars have built up leverage against job loss, we haven't and neither has Mahay. Baseball has its stars as it always will, but there are more Ron Mahays in the majors than Derek Jeters or Josh Becketts. We all have more Ron Mahay in us than Joe Mauer. Everyday we do our job. Sometimes well, sometimes very well and sometimes not up to the standards our jobs require. In reality, all of our employment futures are uncertain. So next time you see Mahay pitch realize he's like the rest of us and give yourself...I mean him a cheer.
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